Admissions

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To apply for our two-year Graduate-level Certificate Programs, please complete The New Centre's Application Form. If we need additional documentation, we will ask for it afterwards, but we have streamlined the initial application process to take less than ten minutes to complete. →

Art & Curatorial Practice

The New Centre’s Art & Curatorial Practice Program is one of only a few international curricula to invite creative practitioners to think on their feet. The Program starts with the recognition that the Students enrolled are artists, curators, publishers, editors and writers who have skin in the game of art. It thus fosters an emancipatory turn, in the context of global digitisation and climate chaos, from overall lament to a particular investigation of the possibilities for art in the long-run. Conceptual rigor, in the context of this program of Art & Curatorial practice, means investigating the relations between concept, percept and affect specific to creative practices, so as to ground the dialogue with other forms of practice and knowledge, notably those coming from the natural and human sciences. The program addresses the paradigm shifts brought on by new media technologies and the engineering of art but also cultivates historical analysis, given that documented pasts are alive to us both in the normative assumptions of art's institutions and in its speculations for the future. As part of its practicum, the program will include the publication of research and student-curated events and exhibitions. The Art & Curatorial Practice Program introduces Students to methodologies that are yet to be incorporated into the art curricula of accredited universities and colleges. Through their course of study, Students will meet and become part of a network of professional artists, critics, curators, and thinkers who are currently involved in the fields of art and curation. By studying in the Art & Curatorial Practice Program, Students and Researchers will be able to account for the technological transformation of the meaning and practice of art in the 21st century and play a key role in the new possibilities provided by these changes.

REQUIREMENTS: All certificate students will complete ten credits of seminars with The New Centre, with a minimum of four having to be taught by the Programmer of their Certificate of choice. The two remaining credits will consist of a consultancy with our Organizer, Mohammad Salemy, and the proposal, production, and publication of at least one full-length essay in a reputable online or print periodical venue or a substantial artistic or curatorial project with a reputable institution. The Programmer will supervise this project in two meetings which must be scheduled after completing the Seminar credits requirements. The certificate Programmer will closely assist all Certificate Students in achieving these requirements and liaising with potential publications, project execution, and internship venues.


To apply, complete The New Centre's Application Form.

BECOME A MEMBER & HELP CREATE A PARALLEL ACADEMIA

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Critical Philosophy

BECOME A MEMBER & HELP CREATE A PARALLEL ACADEMIA

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The New Centre’s Critical Philosophy Program is devoted to developing philosophy adequate to the problems and questions posed by the 21st century, mainly the necessary transformation of the concepts of reason, thought, and intelligence as they pertain to the development of artificial intelligence and automation. In addition, the rise of the Anthropocene, which threatens global catastrophe, developments in physics, neurology, and biology, transformations in global capitalism and the way in which the military, media, and economic systems are now intertwined and exceed the boundaries of nation-states have all generated new conceptual challenges for philosophy. These transformations have posed a set of questions about the nature of reality, knowledge, politics, and ethics that cannot fully be addressed by the resources of traditional philosophy alone and require new philosophical concepts. Students in the Critical Philosophy Program will attend seminars in critical contemporary philosophy seldom taught in university graduate programs. In addition, students will take seminars devoted to the history of philosophy and how that history might be appropriated in terms of the present and future conditions. Above all, students are encouraged to develop research projects of their own devoted to rethinking intelligence in terms of ontology, epistemology, and ethics within the frame of the contemporary.
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Transdisciplinary Studies

The New Centre’s Transdisciplinary Studies Program aims to explore the vast interfaces of thought, atmosphere, movement, materiality, and creative imagination. Visionary figures of avant-garde worlds already recognized the powerful possibilities arising from this traversal and distortion of dimensional boundaries. Thus, the Transdisciplinary Studies Program explores this unique collusion between literature, anthropology, psychoanalysis, cultural studies, media theory, the arts, sciences, design, and vernacular knowledge by engaging with strategies that capture complexity, cultivate new ecologies of knowledge, and affect individual and collective transformations. This program offers theoretical and practical support to enhance and realize issue-based transdisciplinary projects unrestricted by the constraints of any one discipline. It provides a new vocabulary and grammar adequate for making sense of the future-oriented practices of our complex contemporary world. The program provides support and access to resources and community, offering seminars that cannot fit into a discipline-specific schedule, but are at once between, across, and beyond all disciplines. This program is ideal for those interested in research across specializations and professions; including graduate students designing theses and dissertations and undergraduates seeking to enhance their skills in research methods, qualitative research, interdisciplinary / multidisciplinary / transdisciplinary approaches from a range of perspectives, and arts-based or community-based researchers. The program is also ideal for those who are professionally involved in sciences, including computer science, helping them develop the language to link their practical concerns and professional practice to larger philosophical, cultural, and political questions.
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History, Design & Worldmaking

The New Centre's History, Design & Worldmaking Program recognizes the historical roots of design and architecture and how various philosophies and theories shape these disciplines. Under pressure to respond to the Anthropocene and Artificial Intelligence—and the fact that our world is itself increasingly artefactual and artificial—those within these disciplines need to attend to how belief systems used in modeling and constructing new worlds are historical in themselves shaped by tradition and happenstance. This awareness enables us to envision, design, and build alternative futures, addressing the planetary-scale impacts and risks humanity faces today through productive collusion between Design, Architecture, and Philosophy.

To be historical is to recognize the significance of history, particularly in understanding how events and circumstances of the past, present and possible futures shape the orientation of what to come next. In simple terms, past, present, and future are interdependent, and thus, changes in our understanding or trajectory of one will impact those of others. History is a realm characterized by contingency, providing us with an opportunity for us to us our own capacities for agency and improvement. In this sense, historical understanding is about orienting ourselves within the world as a precursor to all attempts at "artifaction" specifically through architecture and design.

Attending to these issues allows us to see how the genealogies of our beliefs, realities, and plans influence them. In one guise, this can reveal the inadequacy of our attitudes and policies by illuminating how they depend upon extra-rational factors, such as quirks of class or upbringing, which affect people in the sense that, should they not have shaped their pasts, they wouldn't presently assent to some such attitude or policy.

The History, Design & Worldmaking Program's mandate is to:

• Analyze Historical Influence by examining and addressing distortions caused by historical elements in architecture and design


• Explore the origins of the theories of modeling and building


• Investigate the development of architectural and design theories


• Recognize and thus take advantage of the contingent nature of the fields of architecture and design and use this toward innovation.
  Adopt a multidisciplinary lens to understand how historical influence extends to material legacies and their interaction with various systems


• Address global challenges by tackling existential threats like climate change and Artificial Intelligence by analyzing the role of historical designs and technologies and considering their impacts on both human and nonhuman life.
  Understand contingencies in design, especially in the Anthropocene era, by encouraging exploration and adaptability


• Promote the open-ended study of alternate paths in practices and designs


• Foster adaptability and forward-thinking in Certificate Students and Researchers.

By adopting these mandates, the program trains and educates architects and designers who are critically engaged, innovative, and aware of the historical and material context of their work.

REQUIREMENTS: All certificate students will complete ten credits of seminars with The New Centre, with a minimum of four having to be taught by the Programmer of their Certificate of choice. The two remaining credits will consist of a consultancy with our Organizer, Mohammad Salemy, and the proposal, production, and publication of at least one full-length essay in a reputable online or print periodical venue or a substantial artistic or curatorial project with a reputable institution. The Programmer will supervise this project in two meetings which must be scheduled after completing the Seminar credits requirements. The certificate Programmer will closely assist all Certificate Students in achieving these requirements and liaising with potential publications, project execution, and internship venues.

To apply, complete The New Centre's Application Form.

Consultations

Since September 2017, The New Centre offers one-on-one Consultations sessions with its Programmers for the purpose of tutoring and academic advice. Our Researchers and Members can book these tutoring sessions in order to discuss questions and topics of interest that relate to their area of research. In addition, our Organizers and faculty are also available to provide academic advice, helping our Researchers and Members in articulating or achieving their career goals. These tutoring and academic advice Consultations can be booked for 160 USD per hour. Our Certificate Students receive 1.5 hours of free Consultation as part of their requirements and a special rate of 145 USD / hour for extra booking.

For more information please contact the Student Services.