“No darkness lasts forever. And even there, there are stars.” - Ursula K. Le Guin

Resolution is a two-year master programme committed to the future of the moving image. It is the sequel to finished Temporary Programme Shadow Channel (2017-2019).

In a period of two years, students will meet a multitude of artists, academics and activists, working at the intersection of film, music, art, video games and direct action. Previous tutors of Shadow Channel have been amongst others artists Rana Hamadeh and Mark Leckey, writers Maryam Monalisa Gharavi and Flavia Dzodan, designers Michael Oswell and Sam Rolfes, and musicians Gaika and Chino Amobi.

Building on its predecessor Shadow Channel, the Resolution programme takes place both at the Sandberg Instituut, and in collaboration with partner organisations around Amsterdam. This not only provides participants with an opportunity to get to know the city better while they are here, it will also help you gradually build a network of collaborators, a community of peers and an audience for your work outside of the institution.

When studying at Resolution, students work on three projects: their individual moving image work, their thesis, and a collective end-of-year presentation. The curriculum has been created to help students develop their conceptual and technical ability through practical workshops and tutorials, their critical thinking through seminars focussing on research and writing, and their sense of solidarity through collaboration and communal activities.

Resolution is for students who want to develop new forms of moving images, whether they make films, or design video games, make music, write stories or create art online. The programme does not expect students to already be professionals cinematographers, to know everything about exhibiting multiscreen installations, or have a game available on Steam or in the PlayStation Store. “What matters is not to know the world,” as Frantz Fanon quoted Karl Marx, “but to change it.”

Resolution especially welcomed applicants who are underrepresented in education, at work and on screen. In addition to new developments in moving image, our programme will focus on radical imagination, solidarity and collective joy. When we say radical, we speak with Barbara Smith, co-founder of the Combahee River Collective: we don't mean in your face, lobbing verbal grenades—radical means having a deep understanding of structural oppression and being willing to eradicate that.

Resolution is an MA that combines fantasy with vigour, and that projects revolution in high definition. We firmly believe art is necessary to understand and change our world. But art is also necessary to catch our breath and take care of ourselves and each other, to feel free, even if it is only for the duration of a film.

Another world is possible. No darkness lasts forever.