A jewel on the map

Master’s students on the Jewellery and Corpus programme at Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm are encouraged to stretch international and artistic boundaries. Under the tutelage of Professor Ruudt Peters they could be handed a ticket to an exhibition on the other side of the world or even find themselves inter-railing around Europe.

“It’s important for students to find out what’s going on in the world of jewellery art because it’s quite a small field,” Peters says. “It’s part of the course and we have huge global interaction between students, teachers and high level artists.”

According to Peters there are very few master’s courses in the world that measure up. “We have the only programme that concentrates on art without the design element,” he says.

Professor Ruudt Peters. Photo: Tobias Alm

Peters – an internationally renowned jewellery artist from Holland – has spent the past two years building up this special programme. “I think we have the best course of its kind available in Europe,” he says. “We are on the map.”

Adam Grinovich, 25, from Boston, US, is one of the 16 select students on the course. “This is a unique bridge between being in school and living life as an artist,” he says.

Adam Grinovich. Photo: Christine Demsteader

“It’s the place for me to get the tools I need, work to stand behind and exposure to galleries – all these arenas are supported here.”

Coming out of the dark

If there’s one place you can really learn about the importance of light, it’s in a country with a good deal of darkness. That was Orlando Marques’ reasoning when he applied for the Master’s in Architectural Lighting Design at KTH (The Royal Institute of Technology).

“I felt that Sweden would deal with the subject in a novel and interesting way,” says the 36-year-old architect from São Paulo, Brazil.

Marques was keen to improve his knowledge in this innovative field. “Lighting design is a fairly new profession,” he adds. “And the course is very experimental and open to new ideas.”

Studying and measuring light at KTH. Photo: Agneta Ejhed

It is proving popular too, according to programme coordinator Agneta Ejhed. “There is a growing global interest in using light as a tool within architecture,” she says.  Indeed, of the 40 students on the course, 30 are international graduates from a total of 21 countries.

“But there are very few similar courses around the world taught in English,” she adds. This one-year course encourages a hands-on approach to learning, with a 50-50 balance of practice and theory.

“You can’t learn about light from a book,” Ejhed says. “You have to do it, test it and see the results.” The programme focuses on the visual effects of light and includes other aspects related to health, energy and the environment.

According to Ejhed, Sweden is one of the leading nations in the lighting design field. “We have a lot of expertise and many of our students go on to work successfully at an international level.”

Photo: Agneta Ejhed

Where science meets art

The C:Art:Media programme at the IT University of Göteborg merges the subjects of art and technology, taking them into a new arena.

It also offers students a qualification to match their career ambitions; an attribute which really sets this programme apart, says coordinator Arne Kjell Vikhagen.

“Student’s can graduate with either a Master’s of Fine Arts or a Master’s of Science, depending on their line of work,” he says. “And I don’t know of any other course that offers this opportunity.”

The two-year programme is built for artists wanting to use new technology in their work as well as technologists wanting to pursue creative ambitions.

Sweden has a solid tradition in both fields, Vikhagen adds. “We have a long history in both progressive and quality art schools as well as IT research and development.”

C:Art:Media welcomes a real fusion of backgrounds, both culturally and educationally. This adds to the appeal for master’s student Nadine Kachonnamsong, 26, from Thailand.

“We have graphic designers, animators, a mathematician, a video artist and computer scientists,” she says. “You really learn a lot by seeing things from someone else’s completely different perspective.”

Having worked in the field of interaction design, she was looking for a wider scope to continue her studies. C:Art:Media fitted the bill. “This course appealed to me because it is a multi-disciplinary mix,” she says. “I can produce an art piece or a technological experiment.”

“It’s about exploring creativity in new directions,” Kachonnamsong adds. “We develop ourselves along the way and it’s our own choice which path we take.”