The School of Missing Studies takes its title from an ongoing project initiated by Bik Van der Pol in 2003, in collaboration with artists, thinkers, and architects. Since its initiation, The School of Missing Studies (SMS) has functioned as a nomadic, collaborative platform for experimental study and research of the public environment (public space, public time, public good) marked by, or currently undergoing, abrupt transition. In 2013, SMS will also operate as a one-time only, two-year Master’s program at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam. Following the observation that singular disciplines sometimes fail to discern or capture significant knowledge about uncommon or unprecedented situations, SMS brings together practitioners with diverse educational or professional backgrounds, who share a common ideal to make ‘the missing’ their mission and are interested in (artistic) practice as a modus operandi for imagination and productive speculation. Both art project and Master course, SMS proposes to find common and uncommon grounds for research and practice, from where acute political, social, educational and urban challenges can be articulated and further debated. The School of Missing Studies will run from September 2013 to July 2015.
SMS tutors and guests include Ayreen Anastas, Samira Ben Laloua, Bik Van der Pol, Maria Boletsi, Rene Gabri, Ernst van den Hemel, Maria Lind, Sarah Pierce, Praneet Soi, Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas, and others to be announced.