Call for applications: MA in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA)

The School of Arts, Design and Architecture at Aalto University - situated in the Greater Helsinki area of Finland - welcomes applications for its two-year Master’s Programme: Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art (ViCCA). ViCCA’s goal is to optimise the working across disciplines, fields of research, and various occupations that is becoming a hallmark of our times. The programme considers visual culture, curating and contemporary art an agora in which conversations, negotiations, and articulations between theory, science, technology, ecology, urbanism, popular culture, economies and thinking around societal impact can be emboldened. 

Art, visual culture and the forms of organisation that go into making them public cannot be described as a mirror of society but rather they are and always have been an active agent in worldmaking. ViCCA takes up this perspective and works with students to diversify and develop their knowledge base while overseeing the synthesis of each student’s multiple interests into an approach or way of doing things. The programme explores emerging knowledges and practices and offers concrete opportunities to develop research abilities, methodologies and a sense for artistic and critical thinking. Learning from each other’s different professional backgrounds also plays an important role in the programme. ViCCA offers a frame of reference for the broadening of one’s professional identity and the tools to forge new ways of working. 

The programme’s faculty represent a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds from artistic research on human and non-human ecologies to curatorial studies and philosophy, and from art practice and contemporary aesthetics to urban studies. ViCCA also provides opportunities to encounter guest lectures by a diverse array of thinkers and to tap into the resources on offer in a multidisciplinary university. Located in Otaniemi, an 11 minute metro ride from Helsinki city centre, we share a campus with the Schools of Science, Business, Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. This enables students to experiment with different paradigms of knowledge by extending their studies to include a broad variety of courses inspired by Aalto University’s disciplinary scope. The university encourages cross-pollination of disciplines and provides students with opportunities to take advantage of the wider university framework.

How to Apply to ViCCA

Admission Services
P.O.Box 11110
FI-00076 AALTO
Finland

admissions [​at​] aalto.fi / T +358 2944 29290

Final date for applications: January 11, 2019, 15:00 (3pm Helsinki Time - GMT +2:00)