Methodology and teaching approaches stem from the current description of the study program at the bachelor's degree level in Photography and New Media at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design. The students at the Studio of Photography and Critical Practice will actively collaborate in creating the program for their own bachelor's semestral works, and actively participate in studio discussions and lectures. Public presentations of the Studio Photography and Critical Practice in Slovakia and abroad, such as pop-up exhibitions, discussions, and engagement in public life, constitute an important part of the Studio's teaching methodology.
Each semester will introduce a new platform with a distinct theme or content. These themes will originate from the basic concept of the Studio and discussions with students. Third-year and fourth-year students in the bachelor's degree programs will be guided to grasp the meaning of artistic research and their projects in the context of contemporary photography and in relation to critical practice.
To progress in their artistic work during individual semesters, students in the bachelor's degree programs will be encouraged to actively present their ideas and conduct research in a creative form that suits them best at that particular moment, with a primary focus on creativity. Throughout their studies, students in the Studio Photography and Critical Practice will learn how to think and apply several levels of photography across the current technological scale of the photographic medium, including its aesthetic/non-aesthetic aspects, ethical considerations, and representational elements.
Fourth-year students will continuously work on their bachelor's thesis during their last year. In the summer semester, they will present the content of the themes they are interested in, along with the plan they intend to follow to complete their bachelor's photographic project, covering content, technology, and final form, including installation.
Each semester of the bachelor´s degree programs will cover the following methodological features:
- lectures
- individual consultations
- discussions with invited guests
- mutual consultations
- discussions and consultations with students of the bachelor´s degree programs
- presentation of photographic semestral works for the students of the Studio and for invited guests
- visits to institutions (archives, museums, science centres, galleries, festival of the contemporary art and photography)
