Longing for the past: A research paper on how the lens-based depiction of the 1980s music industry shaped the collective memory of that decade
(2025)
author(s): Magali Sarah Roxane Speicher
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Photography
Longing for the past
A research paper on how the lens-based depiction of the 1980s music industry shaped the collective memory of that decade
By analysing how the camera captured the Western music industry of the 1980s, the research paper Longing for the past examines how that decade is collectively perceived nowadays. The goal is to understand what aspects of the ‘80s we remember and how these depictions are translated and read decades later. Along the way, this paper seeks to determine why the ‘80s are having a comeback in contemporary pop culture; therefore, it also inquires into trend cycles, the romanticisation of the past and how correctly it can be recreated.
Through historical research, especially on the music industry and photography of the ‘60s and the ‘70s, the musicians’ urgency and its visualisation in the 1980s are first put into context. Further, technological innovations, such as the rise of MTV (Music Television) and the music video, as well as the power of cover art and, ultimately, its fall, are dissected. By subsequently looking at political and sociocultural motivations of ‘80s music, this research paper investigates how far these can be translated accurately as this very art is brought back to the mainstream decades later. The findings within this research conclude that the modern image of the 1980s is a massive scam on our memory and, therewith, on contemporary mainstream culture.
What made a comeback is not the ‘80s style per se, but an illusion, initially genuinely crafted by nostalgic artists and, ultimately, cleverly tailored by companies to serve their products to the masses with an ‘old but desirable’-stamp. This retro-marketing, paired with the phenomenon of Retrieval- induced forgetting and social dilemmas, provides a lucrative platform for escapism and results in the meaning behind 1980s music being deducted. People tend to forget that the lens-based depiction of the ‘80s music industry was never meant to serve as pure documentation.
Like, So Totally (Arche)Typical : A Look Into Malaysia’s (Unfair)ytales
(2025)
author(s): Isabelle Nair-Lacheta
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Interactive Media Design
This paper examines the question: What impact have archetypes in Malaysian folklore had on the idealisation of women and their socio-cultural expectations of gender and sexuality? To answer this question, I conducted a systematic review of common Malaysian folktales, folk comics, folk epics and mythology, examining their use of female characters and language to ascertain what common archetypes emerge from these forms of storytelling. From this systematic review, it is clear that archetypes in Malaysian folklore attempt to subjugate, stigmatise and objectify Malaysian women. While it is impossible to quantify the exact effect this has had on Malaysian society; I submit that there is a causal sequence in place in which we see the same lessons being propagated by the archetypes in Malaysian folklore being mirrored at every level of Malaysian society, ranging from the beauty industry to the political sphere.
La Domenica
(2025)
author(s): Giovanni Pilato
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2023
BA Fine Arts
This Graduation Research Project is a script for a catholic Mass. It consists of two
main parts: La Domenica and La Predica (translated from Italian: The Sunday and
The Sermon).
The text and design of La Domenica are based on the handout people receive at the
start of the catholic Sunday Mass in Italy. In La Domenica you can find the scriptures
of the day, the prayers to recite, some general information and relevant quotes for
the day. In this first part I assembled some biblical and non-biblical texts together
with pre-existing prayers and self-written prayers. The texts vary in topic such as the
story of the creation, the passion of Christ, but also Notes on Camp. The content of
those texts is then reflected upon in La Predica. It is therefore advisable to read La
Domenica first, up until The Sermon, and continue with La Predica. After La Predica
the reader can get back to La Domenica to finish the Mass.
La Predica is the script for the sermon: A personal essay on the relationship between
the Catholic traditions and Camp aesthetics. La Predica is a contemporary reflection
on the scriptures which starts with the creation. This story then leads to art creation,
matters of taste and homosexuality in Art. Homosexuality and erotica are then
related to the scene of the passion of Christ, specifically to suffering and death of
Christ as scenes for arousal. The theatricality of Catholic visual tradition is then
analyzed through Susan Sontag’s Note’s on Camp. What follows is a comparison
between queer visual culture, thus Camp, and Christian tradition.
It’s a Pussy Power Kind of Story : Dedicated to Liberating Female Pleasure
(2025)
author(s): Emma Grima
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Photography
This is an academic opinionated feminist exploration, written from the point of view of a visual artist. I have investigated what has affected our female rights to pleasure, to then be able to conclude on how we can liberate female bodies and allow women to freely have power over their desires and pleasure, by understanding what their individual autonomies are.
This exploration is written to shake off society's constructs and stigmas that have conditioned us by going into detail about the effects of such constructs and then to look forward to a positive future. Let us be free, let us be agent, let us question and discover ourselves for who we are as individuals.
Institutional Fallacy
(2025)
author(s): Yannis Androulakis
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Fine Arts
Through this paper and while focusing both on the heritage and institutional attitudes of documenta, I attempted to underline the linkage of the institution to modernism and its neoliberal mode of being. I pursued the latter by highlighting the initial nationalistic and supranational format of documenta. Then and while using a comparative methodological attitude towards documenta and Greece’s “historico-political” context, the text addressed the institution’s inability to escape the power structures of its foundation, and thus its imposition to the Greek state. The former analysis was formed while deploying certain key-informations in regards to the diptych power/knowledge by Michel Foucault and philosophy of hospitality developed by Jacques Derrida.
Therefore, the conducted research will take the form of a flexible archival format, as is usually the case within my artistic practice.
In the air we exist : on using play to survive
(2025)
author(s): Gaetan Langlois-Meurinne
published in: Royal Academy of Art, The Hague
Thesis of the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, 2022
BA Interactive Media Design
In The Air We Exist is an exploration that questions if play can help us to survive better in the world we live in. Playing is often associated being being childish and a waste of time for adults, right? Entering adulthood, don’t we have no other choice than to stop playing? In any case, responsibilities and routines take away the last bit of free time we had. This thesis researches the universal phenomenon of play. More specifically on an activity that everyone has experienced as a child and that usually disappears in adulthood and which refers to an activity that is free, uncertain, without specific goal and leaves space for imaginaLon. I wonder if play can have a positive influence no matter the age of the person, as it comes along with essential benefits to the personal development. Instead of restricting it to a limited group of young people, I strongly believe in the positive impact it could have if we allowed it to expand to adults. Whichever age group, it can have a beneficial impact, maintaining human relationships and fuelling hope, as well as helping us when we face difficult and
often complex situations. I honestly wonder about the reason for its absence and neglect in western society, as I believe it could partly be a solution for some contemporary problems. The thesis addresses the complex world, we live in. Being constantly confronted with productivity, progress and the desire to seek for control there is not much space for play. Further I research the origin, values and the psychological and sociological impact play can have on a person. The importance of play in childhood alongside its benefits and influence on a person growing older is being presented. Next to that, a selection of artists, all connected by play, demonstrate the fruitful addition it brings to their work. All these segments are inspirational elements for my graduation project where I intend to create a tool to reconnect us to play. The tool aims for a playful experience that simultaneously invites to reconsider the role of play in everyday life. Finally, it is an attempt to keep us young and in a state of constant curiosity and openness by learning how to improvise and accept failures as part of the game of life. And then to consider if playfulness can help us survive better in the world we live in.
