The School / birth to a manifesto
The A5
The School is a post-academic and ongoing multidisciplinary festival, residence and happy city experiment.
TheSchoolHasselt.eu
what makes a school? what forms design? what moves a city?
3 The School wants to make people collaborate.
4 The School wants to question the basics.
2 The School wants to reform the city into a movement.
1 The School wants to challenge the model of (creative) education.
Generosity, small scale and crossover collaborations The School builds on resources, collaborations and partnerships with governments and organisations, businesses, brands and schools, and last but not least: people. Every partnership and collaboration is a twoway act of giving. The school is a non-profit entity, traditionally speaking. The School is however also a profitable entity, meaning all artists and people involved are ment to grow and gain knowledge and experience richness, and contribute to the goal of a concept of urban happiness. The School is not a school. The School is a shop. The School is a publisher. The School is a slow cooking festival. The School is a permaculture of creative growth.
The School The School is a creative residence programme of 6 months where international talents are provided with the right tools to take on a common challenge. We call them designers. Located on the edge of a micro-city-center and across central station, in an emerging area, The School’s first habitat is a postacademici’s dream environment. The School researches how we can shape a different, better and happier city, along with its community. All creatives will think, react and create as an individual and collaborator, part of a multidisciplinary and effective (compact) team. The School conducts a system of creative disturbance and permaculture education, and forms a think and do organisation for human and urban growth. The difference is made in the practical and effectiveness of the multidisciplinary idea. The teams have completeness in their (un) balanced composition: philosopher, illustrator, social designer, music composer, information designer, textile designer, mobility designer, poet, dancer, product designer, architect, sociologist, interactive designer, dialogue starter, graphic designer, ... The School makes the difference and creates effectiveness in multidisciplinary collaboration.
The city has lost it. Nothing new, when looking back at the distant past, things were possibly a hundred times worse. still. Air and visual pollution have become a standard. The city’s infrastructure is in a state of decay. the city is serving the car first. Poverty is not being solved yet transported. Aggression towards women is being denied. Fear from the unknown is ever present. moments of human happiness are limited to events. All this is nothing new. Still. Something needs to change. Something needs to be done differently. A new punk is due. Born from car’s carbon, smart control and apathic consumerism. A new punk is due, using debate and urban poetry, carrying a green heart and feeling restless with a neverending manifest at hand, of collaborative engagements and creative entrepreneurship. A researcher and polymath, asking questions, daring to disturb the system, looking sideways with eyes on a better future. A new punk is due. All this to reform the city we live in. All this to change the way we walk. All this to create urban happiness. A city more pedestrain friendly, safe, open and stimulating to rethink that same city people inhabit. A city that beats the rhythm of a heart instead of an engine. A city set to the tone and pace of a walk and a talk.
The city has lost it.
a creative collaboration by Liesbeth Huybrechts, Kim Vandeloo, Heleen Van Loon and Pablo Hannon
The A5 is new international publishing house. This edition is a collaborative production by Arctic Papers, Chapo and The School, limited to 25pcs.
The School / a one year manifesto
TheSchoolHasselt.eu