A group of students from the Royal Institute of Art (under the supervision of Professor Peter Lange) and Konstfack (under the supervision of lecturers Magnus Erisson and Anna Tomaszewski) will examine the meaning of Open Form to education today and discuss its applications for the future. They will begin with a presentation of original materials from the architect and his collaborators (including devices used to teach the basics of composition and to exercise perception) and the documentary film open-air exercises from the 1970s.
Hansen’s methodology, as well as proposals resulting from the student’s work will be tested and documented within Index’s educational program for children and youth. The project will culminate with an international conference of experts, practitioners, and students, during which outcomes of the workshops will be presented and discussed. The conference will take place in November 2015.
Formulated in 1959, the theory of Open Form established a strong conceptual basis for Oskar Hansen’s work, enriching art education in issues related to processuality, the release of individual subjectivity, and the relationship between the artist and the viewer.
Hansen called for opening architecture to the activities of its users and transforming it into a “perceptive background” for the events of everyday life, as well as a something that was easily adaptable to the changing needs of users. Hansen’s theory has become an important point of reference for visual artists who treat their practice as a form of social experimentation.