After the summer break, the VU welcomed us with a really fascinating attempt to combine general education endeavors with peopleflow management and health care: they now challenge our logical reasoning already on the way to our classrooms or offices, forcing us to find out which elevator we are supposed to take  (some higher mathematics included, such as the ‘evenness’ of the 15th floor) while also offering the alternative of doing without it by simply using the stairs (and burning calories as a side effect). While I suppose that most people might burn even more calories by mulling over this braintwister (see foto below) than by taking the stairs, they might still reach their goal faster by chosing the latter option. They’d however miss out on the art and poetry displayed in these elevators.

Another highlight of the first days back at the VU were our new first year MKDA students presenting their prospective teachers. While of course the idea was to present in person and we had many excellent ‘live presentations’, one group couldn’t make it and instead sent a ppt to ‘their object of study’ – Tim Verlaan, prompting him to present himself in a kind of ppt Karaoke. As they had included a link to a youtube clip Tim had recorded some time ago to present the UvA’s PC Hoofdhuis, Tim actually ended up commenting on a powerpoint by his (absent) students at the VU, showcasing a videotaped presentation of himself about the UvA (his former workplace) – a perfect example of the complex processes of image and content circulation and (re)mediation which are a key topic of the MKDA program itself. Furthermore, as Tim starts that video with praising the fact that you can easily get lost in the PC Hoofdhuis, we can now be ensured that he certainly feels at home at his new workplace … (see above).

While we’ll keep the overview of several events to be expected in the coming academic year for a separate blog entry, it is still worth mentioning here that this week also saw the distribution of the first MKDA merchandising article, the bags whose design resulted from a competition amongst the students themselves.

This said we shouldn’t forget that, of course, we didn’t only welcome the new BA students, but also the various groups of new MA students within our programs of CAMS, Design Cultures, Art History, Architectural History, Heritage Studies, Museumconservator, and – last but not least – our new VAMA/Research Master students. (KK)