Field Studies 2025: A Choral Method

Field Studies is a transdisciplinary summer school exploring new approaches to creative practice and collaboration in contemporary art, performance and music. Led by an international group of artists and practitioners, the programme creates a radically open and dynamic environment for artists to meet and work alongside other creatives, experiment with new ideas, and push the boundaries of their practice.

Field Studies is organised by experimental choral collective Musarc in collaboration with LUCA School of Arts, Ghent. The programme alternates between open workshops, talks by artists and visiting lecturers, satellite events in the city, and collective practice in smaller studios where students and tutors create new work that is shared on the last day of the programme.

A Choral Method

What distinguishes Field Studies is its convivial atmosphere, its radically open pedagogy, and its commitment to doing things with theory. The biographies of the tutors and artists, their respective interests and diverse fields of practice form a starting point. The city, space for shared activities, including eating together, provide infrastructure. The final outcome is unknown at the beginning, and constructed from the individual histories and intentions of students and artists, the ideas and skills they bring, and the material and social interactions that emerge in between.

Field Studies is part of the creative universe and research output of experimental choral ensemble Musarc and its extensive network of artists, composers and singers. Questions around movement, embodiment and technique; the collective voice of the choir and its political and aesthetic dimension; rhythm, repetition and practice; and the idea of knowledge set in motion through performance and a common choreography fundamentally underlie Field Studies as a methodology.