PD Arts + Creative Symposium: The resonance of PD research

PD Arts + Creative Annual Symposium | Friday 20 Juni 2025, 13:00 – 17:30 | LocHal, Tilburg (NL)

Join us for the annual symposium of the Professional Doctorate Arts + Creative – The Professional Doctorate program in the Arts + Creative is a space for third-cycle applied research that pushes boundaries of disciplines and practices. In this annual symposium, its artistic and creative research community opens this space for the program’s wider network, to reflect on relevant developments, work, progress and insights.

This year’s symposium will highlight the programme’s multidisciplinary character by zooming in on the diverse fields of practice that its researchers operate in, connect to, and impact. It asks where, how, and with whom does the PD-research resonate? And what is the contribution of artistic and creative research to societal challenges?

Programme

After the opening remarks, the new cohort of PD-candidates will reveal their research ambitions.

We will then break out in four workgroup sessions, organized around the current research themes of the PD Arts + Creative domain: Ecological Responsibility, Community & Commoning Practices, Embodied Knowledge, and Techno-critical Realities.

We conclude the day with a reflection by Ingrid van Engelshoven, followed by drinks and an informal gathering to exchange insights from the break-out groups.

When selecting your tickets, select the general entrance and one of the break out rooms - the break out sessions happen at the same time so you can only attend ONE.

Preliminary programme (times might be subject to change)

13:15 Introduction by Linda Duits

13:20-14:15 Interviews with new candidates, moderated by 13:15 Introduction by Linda Duits

14:15-14:30 Coffee/tea break

14:30-16:15 Break out rooms focused on PD Arts + Creative themes (in which candidates present their work and how it resonates with the workfield) - All break out rooms are parallel

16:15-16:30 Reflection by Ingrid van Engelshoven

16:30 – 17:30 Drinks

Registration closes on Friday 13 June 2025. After this date, we will confirm your participation and share the final event information with you by email.

Guiding Themes

The workgroup sessions during the symposium are organized around the current guiding themes through which PD researchers position their artistic research. These guiding themes reflect the complex and interconnected urgencies of our time. Each session invites participants into an open dialogue on how artistic and design research resonates with societal and professional contexts.

• Ecological Response-ability: This theme speaks to the role of art and design in addressing ecological urgencies. Researchers working within this lens engage with planetary kinships, climate breakdown, and material entanglements. Their practices explore how artistic processes can foster more sustainable and conscious ways of relating to the world. The researchers in this break out room will be: Risk Hazekamp and Stefan Shäfer.

• Community & Commoning Practices: Focusing on practices of collaboration, co-creation, and situated engagement, this theme highlights how artistic researchers work with, for, and from specific communities. It centres shared authorship, care, and collective knowledge-making as vital components of research in and with the field. The researchers in this break out room will be: Nadja van der Weide, Taka Taka and reinaart vanhoe.

• Embodied Knowledge: This theme positions the body not as an object of study, but as a knowledgeable entity. Research under this lens explores how sensory, performative, and embodied experiences generate insights, disrupt conventions, and shape new methodologies in artistic practice. The researchers in this break out room will be: Phillippine Hoegen and Sophia Bardoutsou.

• Mediatized Encounters: In a world shaped by digital infrastructures and algorithmic systems, this theme explores how art and design can critically engage with technology. Researchers investigate digitally mediated environments and seek alternative narratives beyond dominant logics of efficiency and control. The researchers in this break out room will be: Tara Karpinski, Jonas Pastoors, Raymond Vermeulen and Agustín Martínez Caram.

Each theme-based session will host a small group of participants, including PD candidates, to foster exchange and deepen resonance between research and the field.

Practical Info

Location & Getting There
The symposium takes place at Seats2meet in LocHal, Tilburg – a public space for culture, learning and exchange: more about LocHal

Seats2meet | LocHal
Burgemeester Brokxlaan 1000
5041 SG Tilburg, The Netherlands

Getting There

LocHal is located directly next to Tilburg Central Station. Therefore, LocHal is just a two-minute walk from Tilburg Central Station and easily accessible by train. Coming by car? Parking is available in the Spoorzone parking garage, a few minutes from the venue: Accessibility & Directions.

Accessibility
LocHal is fully wheelchair accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please let us know during registration or contact us in advance so we can support your participation.

Language
The symposium will be held in English.

Contact

For any questions about the symposium, accessibility, or your registration, feel free to contact us at:
pd-arts-creative@avans.nl