PIE Annual Meeting 2023
Timișoara, Romania
The Internationalisation Journey: Tell your story

Rachelle Knowles, Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, with Sian-Kate Mooney, Keith Roberts and James Green, The British University, Egypt
In 2022, The British University in Egypt and Manchester Metropolitan University launched four dual award programmes in arts and design. Two further programmes in Illustration Animation, and Games Design will launch in 2023. In this presentation, Rachelle Viader Knowles from Manchester Metropolitan University, and Sian-Kate Mooney from The British University in Egypt will co-present the journey travelled thus far. They will describe the ways in which the internationalised culture of the partnership enables a change in the learning environment for students, encouraging independent thought and ideation to assist creatives with producing the innovative and exciting initiatives of the future. Knowles and Mooney will also explore insights from the teaching and learning experience and discuss the challenges and rewards of transnational education in art and design.

Herman Van Eyken, Griffith Film School, Griffith University, Australia
Film Schools Without Borders was born out of the crossroads of the Asia Pacific Screen Lab and CAPA. CAPA is the Asia Pacific part of CILECT, the world association of Film Schools. CAPA has around 35 member schools in the Asia Pacific that are the top film schools from each region. Two Virtual Round Tables were organised where CAPA school representatives observed and listened to the needs of each of the representatives of the countries without film schools. A multi-layered strategy has been developed and within this presentation, Herman Van Eyken who has been the Chair of the CILECT Asia Pacific Association for 8 years, will talk about the why, how, and the outcome of this strategy.

Andrea Weippert, Dresden University of Fine Arts, Germany
In this interactive presentation, Weippert will discuss the changes and issues with regards to internationalisation at the HfBK Dresden over the past 30 years and to what extent the developments have been influenced by the specific local conditions, by history and by those who conduct internationalisation. After the political turnaround in 1989/90, the HfBK Dresden dropped nearly all of its cooperation with the East that had been cultivated for decades, and there was hardly any cooperation with Western partners. The complete conversion of the old study systems to the West German model absorbed all its resources. Starting from this particular initial situation, Weippert will describe the developmental stages of internationalisation, explain challenges and disparities, highlight the successes and failures and reflect on her own career and learning processes.

UAx Platform
Join us for a session on the UAx Platform, a pilot project launched by ELIA in November 2022. The project aims to support art students in war-affected Ukraine and promote sustainable international cooperation through the Sister School network. The UAx Platform serves as a viable model for internationalization in a country facing the challenges of war. By partnering Ukrainian art academies and universities with art institutions across Europe, the Platform provides direct support to Ukrainian art students through reciprocal mentoring, knowledge exchange, and capacity building of their institutions. This session will offer insights into the experiences of Ukrainian students whose lives have been disrupted by the war. It will explore the importance of the UAx Platform in enabling students to continue their degree studies in Ukraine and develop their artistic practice with the support of the international arts network. You will also find out why PIE is so important for UAx and how your institution can get involved in UAx!

Artists at risk in European art schools — A solidarity dynamic as an institutional change driver
Alice Brunot, ANdEA, France
For the past three years, ANdEA has been involved in welcoming artists whose trajectories have been disrupted by crises, wars and persecution. A European network is now being initiated with PUZLP - Artists at Risk in European Art Schools, a laboratory that brings together ANdÉA, the Artists in Exile Agency and two Belgian art schools, the Ecole de Recherche Graphique and the ESA Saint-Luc Brussels to reinforce the capacities of their teams. In this presentation, Brunot will share the experiences of artists at risk and create an open discussion on hospitality practices in our schools, and how this could contribute to significant institutional change.

Tricycle in Kosovska Mitrovica
Nevena Popovic, Ester Milentijevic & Suzana Vuckovic, University of Priština in Kosovska Mitrovica, Faculty of Arts, Kosovo
Specific socio-political relations in Kosovska Mitrovica affect everyday life, work, freedom of movement, safety, studying, organisation of classes, and the procurement of necessary means for teaching. Residents have become accustomed to uncertain living and working conditions. When partners of the Faculty of Arts and the University participate in mutual regional and international cooperation projects, they are often not sufficiently familiar with all these details, and there is a fear of a potential escalation of conflicts, so they avoid visiting our institution. The desire is to bring the institution closer to related institutions from Serbia, the region and abroad and to encourage inter-institutional cooperation. The Faculty of Arts of University of Pristina has designed the multidisciplinary festival "Tricycle" which gathers students and professors from various art faculties. Through artistic and pedagogical cooperation, students and teachers participate in creative processes, discovering and developing knowledge. Together, they create an artistic event as outcome, which is important for all sides in this process, but also for the local community.

Internationalising curriculum in an international alliance – UNITA. Case study of an ongoing process
Andreea Lazea, The West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Arts and Design, Romania
UNITA is an alliance of six comprehensive universities from five countries, that brings together more than 160 000 students and 13 000 staff members. The proposed intervention will focus on some UNITA projects aimed at creating a common space for teaching, research and innovation. Developing online elective courses for all UNITA students, organising Blended Intensive Programs (which are multidisciplinary), or investigating the possibility of creating joint degree programmes are the kinds of projects that will be presented in the first part of the intervention. The second partwill be an interactive session where each participant is encouraged to reflect on the obstacles in internationalising curriculum of art education institutions and will look for solutions to overcome them together.

Cooperative aesthetics and the internationalisation of concepts
Maria Mandea, I.L.Caragiale University of Theatre and Film, Bucharest, Romania
Internationalisation can lead to the development of common concepts thus advancing the artistic field. In her doctoral research on the design of games, Maria Mandea went to the University of Arts and Design in Linz, where Professor Gerhard Funk and his students were developing the concept of Cooperative Aesthetics. She then created Divided, an immersive game-installation in Ars Electronica Center that uses a line dividing two colours to place participants in a situation of simultaneous conflict and collaboration. Back in Bucharest, she continued to work with this concept, creating relational contexts through large-scale game installations. Working interdisciplinary with local researchers, the next installations questioned issues like private property or urban environment through the lens of cooperative aesthetics. In this session, she will share about her experience with Divided and how she planned on working for the next installations by taking into accounts the questions and issues that arise during the creation of the next installation.

EuroFabrique, a giant European workshop bringing together the sensibilities and imaginations of Europe's enthusiastic creative youth
Stéphane Sauzedde, ANdEA – HEAR, France
At the beginning of February 2022, 400 students gathered in Paris from all over Europe for a week of collective workshops on the future of Europe. For a few days, together, they materialized the forms, imaginations, and desires capable of re-enchanting the idea of Europe in a sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful way. Today, to continue and extend its action, this network intends to institute a European biennial of art and design higher schools that would continuously work on the question of the future holds, from the bubbling crucible of the ANdEA's school community. In this session, they will share their Euro Fabrique experience and vision and create an open discussion on collaborative practices and practiced-based pedagogy mobilized in mobility projects.

Creative changemakers – recognising and rewarding the agency, power and impact of students
Natalie Brown, Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom
Creative Changemakers is a Nottingham Trent School of Art & Design competition that aims to celebrate work that generates an equitable creative community. The awards aim to inspire students to celebrate their heritage, explore diverse perspectives and encourage others to view the world through their lens. The competition encourages creative outcomes derived from the students’ experiences and global perspectives, fostering a culture that celebrates diversity in the school. In this presentation, Brown will be sharing thoughts and ideas from the development of the project and how to create more diversity and equitable community from the competition by inviting students’ and staffs’ perspectives and experiences to the discussion.

Academy as a contact zone. Internationalisation process at the New Media Arts Faculty, Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology
Jakub Karpoluk, Polish -Japanese Academy of Information Technology, Faculty of New Media Arts, Poland
In this audio-visual presentation, the topic of diversity and internationalisation will be discussed. In the study on cultural mobility by Stephen Greenblatt, the term "contact-zones" arises, meaning ‘where cultural goods are exchanged’. Even though different societies constitute these zones differently, the PJAIT NEMA English-language path has become a "contact zone" for Eastern Europe and Asian students who started their studies looking for global educational and artistic perspectives over the years. The curriculum focuses on diverse forms of creative expression and various means of communication. The approach that they have applied while constructing the curriculum might be called "visual relativism". Karpoluk will present the PJAIT educational program's internationalisation process based on the "contact zone" concept.

Images on transit: the story of a film
Andreea Palade,The West University of Timisoara, Faculty of Arts and Design
Presenting the story of a collaborative film made 10 years ago by a group of 6 authors in 5 countries from 3 different continents. In Burkina Faso, China, France, Mali and Romania, women workers from the textile industry were filmed and interviewed by an artist from their country. The film invites you to reflect on global issues of life, work and education, which this documentary lets you dive into, as well as on how can and why would a heterogeneous group of artists do a common project.

Fast-forward to an internationalised future - a backwards journey towards a collaborative development plan

Barbara Margarethe Eggert, Merz Akademie - University of Applied Arts, Design and Media, Stuttgart, Germany
By conducting a creative approach workshop, Eggert will talk about the internationalisation processes in the long run. The workshop "Planet Merz 2028” is about the future and how to create the basis for the collaborative formulation of a development plan for the next five years by focusing on communication development in universities. In addition to the fictitious journey through time to the year 2028, the setting of the workshop also includes the projection of figures from the founding phase of the institution. This creative approach will be put up for discussion and its suitability for developing joint internationalisation processes will be critically reflected upon.

Reimagining the International Student Otherwise - a case of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama

Riadh Ghemmour, The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, UK
In this interactive workshop, Ghemmour will share Central’s ongoing institutional journey in understanding, defining and embodying ‘internationalisation’. An aspect of this conceptualisation and application will be based on sharing the shift in language, beliefs and practices regarding the understanding of international students within a UK context. The workshop will be dialogic and reflexive in nature using different facilitation approaches including online interactive platforms, reflective questions and group discussion. This enables us to hear as many voices and perspectives as possible and shape our collective understanding of internationalisation and international students otherwise.

Norwegian Theatre Academy and the paradoxes of internationalism, nationalism, locality and progressive art education

Saul Garcia Lopez, University College of Østfold, Norwegian Theatre Academy, Norway
This presentation is a performative collective reflection on the radical pedagogy and hospitality of La Pocha Nostra and the transformative journey that NTA faced during the pandemic era, the post-pandemic epoch, and the upcoming implementation of international fees to students outside of Europe. This has questioned and reshaped our international identity, mainly because our students are comprised of 40% of students from outside of Europe. This performative intervention will include a collective discussion inspired by a Zapatista model to promote collective reflections on the topics addressed. With the objective of sharing stories, knowledge, speculating and envisioning new futures, the main question to be discussed is “What does internationalism mean for us when we cannot offer a place to artists from underprivileged backgrounds (national, class, gender, ethnicity and artistic)?”