DAIcumentary

Dear all @DAI,

The new year has only just begun and with that DAI immediately faces a rather big test. 2019, will be the year of the ritual of, first, self-evaluation, then evaluation by an independent visitation committee and finally (hopefully) accreditation by the NVAO, the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organization. This process is commissioned by the Dutch Government – a recurring mandatory operation for each and every accredited educational program in the Netherlands; a sort of seven-year itch. Once the renewal of this formal accreditation is secured, the government is supposed to continue funding us (via ArtEZ).

One could compare this process to the extensive applications that any cultural organization has to write in order to receive money from private or public sponsors. As a government funded program we will have to make a case for our mission and method, in a freewheeling style, but not entirely….. We are asked to measure ourselves against a set of standards (similar for all Dutch universities). The standards are given, but the members of the one committee that will jointly judge the specific programs for “art and design” of the Graduate School of ArtEZ together with the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam, have been for the largest part proposed, selected and invited by the programs under scrutiny. This implies that we will present ourselves to some highly interesting (and profoundly interested) people, among them for example Amsterdam based Prof. dr. Wayne Modest. The other names are not yet fully confirmed, but we are equally optimistic about their relevance.

The task is now upon us to inform this committee on DAI’s intricate and rich curriculum, embedded in our experimental roaming modus operandi, in order to receive a fair accreditation. Generously supported by a special budget from ArtEZ generated for the sake of the accreditation, we have decided to do this by making a short documentary, a DAIcumentary if you will, during the upcoming DAI week in Cagliari. This documentary will be offered to the committee and be published on the DAI’s website where it can serve to provide information in a less text based way.

We are inevitably a bit nervous for the accreditation process because no matter how you turn it; this is a moment that DAI in its educational role will be formally assessed. But alongside this, is our feeling of trust towards this committee, and even more importantly, our trust in DAI, both as a programme and as amazing community. We want to stress that the aim of this film is to provide the accreditation committee a glimpse into a DAI week and give them a fair idea of what this thing we call DAI is. And although we understand that the idea of being filmed also brings with it an idea of exposure and performance, we want to stress that we are not setting you up to perform and hope you feel you can trust us. If you have any objections that you are being filmed, we are of course willing to listen and adjust.

The documentary we intend to make will combine interviews with few invited students, alumni and tutors (on hosting and guesting, on integrating your own research in DAI’s critical environment, on feminist flow within the curriculum, on what it means to study with a community and on life after DAI), with vital footage of daily DAI week activities.

So, if you see Silvia, Ricardo and Krista walking around during DAI week in Cagliari, we hope you can understand we are sweating profusely not so much because of the weight of the equipment but more so because of the weight of the task we have been given and that we will work hard to do you justice.

All best,

on behalf of the DAIcumentary team,

Gabriëlle and Krista