Personal Reflection

Personal Reflection

My interest in analytic writing exists since high school and I missed this in my time at AMFI. That is why, next to small projects within the labs, I wrote this thesis during period in which I watched, interrogated and investigated the art scene. The gathered information, my passion for philosophy, literature, society and my interest in politics, sociology and culture made me choose a thesis as one of my deliverables. Stepping away from visual content is a convenient part for me, as I can imagine to be working in the journalism or research segment. I learned about my own and a general approach and observation of art in this study. Visiting and acknowledging museums and cultural offers is now different to before.

My interest in the “Value of Art” started in January 2019, when I visited a theater and was guided through the Stadtstheater Koblenz. Being informed about the huge amount of money, theatres and other public institutions receive from the state, made me question why and which interest the government has, when supporting cultural events. An application for a scholarship in February 2020 influenced me to prepare a discussion for “Value of Art in Democracies”. I read documents by the state and analyzed expenses of democracies to create a cultural offer. My writings and ideas for this pitch came along by

a book recommendation of my Coach from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute: The book “About Looking” by John Berger improved my knowledge and funded my theory that art is an essential element of society and stable democracy, peace and social interactions alive. My research for the pitch started to reach an extend in which I chose to work more on this topic: I quickly made it an Experiment for my AMFI 1 st year Assessment and started to formally write my thesis.

In addition to “About Looking”, I read “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin and dived deeper into the historical and contemporary impact of art and culture. Analyzing the books was a very fun and also insightful activity I did after schoolwork of the second semester. The professional perspective of both art critics enlarged my horizon of thinking and brought me further in my thesis, such as various Podcasts 1 about art did. In this project, my interest in politics, sociology and art were united and I discovered impactful findings for how I will be able to work in, perceive and judge the art segment in the future. To become a writer for a magazine or a museum is a job I can imagine for after my studies!

1 https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/wdr5/wdr5-dasphilosophische-radio/index.html#