Temporary department

F for Fact

At a moment in time when facts are framed as fantasy and feelings equal truth, F for Fact investigates different forms of knowledge through an artistic lens.

But what counts as knowledge? What’s the difference between truth and meaning? How are narratives shaped and by whom? What defines authenticity and what do claims of authorship and copyright mean today for the arts?

F for Fact is a two-year course where participants work on individual and collective projects in which the factual, philosophical, or tangible world is the point of departure.

The programme revolves around the interaction between knowledge and imagination and how to discover new forms of documentary storytelling.
We look at the difference between fiction and truth, fact and belief systems, and fake news and honest fantasies by working with a number of different sources. In short: we critically revisit the past and speculate about possible futures.

F for Fact has a strong relation to the outside world.
At this school of second thoughts we playfully explore the nature of personal, factual, embodied, digital, and spiritual information. We actively connect with other domains through official and unofficial institutions related to the sciences, performing arts, architecture, and society itself.
Being an interdisciplinary master’s programme, the research around a subject and the form in which it is shared are closely related.

Reading, creative writing, and open discussions about hopes, fears, and dilemmas of any nature are a part of F for Fact from the beginning of the first year. The thesis prepared in the second year will be a natural follow-up to this.

A strong collective consists of a diversity of individuals who each bring their own particular qualities and identity, and see individual authorship as a matter of taking responsibility rather than a naturally expected position.

Are you permanently distracted due to a curious nature? Do you have a critical eye and an open mind? Are you an unconventional thinker and maker with a proactive nature? You’re warmly invited to apply!

Truth has always been stranger than fiction. It still is.

Please also see https://www.fforfact.net

The Norton Lectures 1968 This Craft of Verse - Jorge Luis Borges

New York Unexpurgated An amoral guide for the jaded, tired, evil, non-conforming, corrupt, condemned, and the curious, humans and otherwise, to under underground Manhattan - Petronius

Proportio Exhibition at Palazzo Fortuny, Venice - the Axel & May Vervoordt Foundation and Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia

The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn: Colour Photographs from a Lost Age - David Okuefuna

Mundaneum - 76 rue de Nimy 7000 Mons Belgium

FBI Identification Division, Finger Print Archive Washington

Tous les Savoirs du Monde - Bibliothèque Nationale de France

Iraq’s Modern Art Collection, Waiting to Re-emerge (New York Times) - Steven Lee Myers

Guide de Paris Mysterieux - JR Masson & collectif

Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library - YALE New Haven, CT 06511 USA

Team

Archive

Past participants

Fedlev building & Benthem Crouwel building
Fred. Roeskestraat 96
1076 ED Amsterdam
Netherlands