Home Assignments for Your Admission

After you have applied for admission and uploaded all the required documents, you will receive a a
confirmation of your registration. After we process your request you will receive an invitation by
email to schedule your admission day. Through your personal intake page, you can schedule it by
yourself. There are four assessments/interview weeks per year. If you are a non-EU country resident,
please allow some time for your letter to arrive, as it takes longer to evaluate and confirm the
diplomas from outside of the EU.

The assessment weeks for 2018-19 will be held on:

February 19 – 23 (Results before March 17)

March 26 – 29 (Results before April 21)

May 14 – 18 (Results before June 9)

June 11 – 15 (Results before July 7)

WdKA 2018 Home Assignments

(scroll down for Dutch version)

We ask you to pick one home assignment, as part of the Willem de Kooning Academy’s admission
procedure. We hereby present 10 assignments for you to choose from. All of these assignments have
in common that they will allow us to see how you work, how you think and what fascinates you.
We’d like to see your visual skills and your feeling for colour, form and materials. Try to be original.
All assignments also have in common that they evoke some form of artistic process. Most of them
require a series of works, or a series of experiments.

We’re interested in everything you do, so please document your steps. Also the things that did not
work out, because that will allow us to assess your ability to reflect critically.
If you cannot choose, or if you feel inspired, you may of course pick more than one assignment. In
the event that you have only a small portfolio, you can use these assignments to build a portfolio. So
we need to see at least one assignment, but you can do more. Print out the Home Assignments here.

Show and Tell

(inventiveness, context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability, storytelling)

With this assignment, you make a visual connection between words and ideas. Answer each of these
ten questions in the form of an image, a movie, animation, object, product or ‘thing’ (and not with
words).

Who are you?

What did you look like as a child?

What is your main character trait?

What inspires you most?

What do you normally never take a picture of, make or depict?

What do you love about art or design?

If you weren’t an artist or designer, what would you be?

What is the first thing you touch in the morning?

What is your favourite piece of art or design, by someone else?

What is the meaning of life?

Present to the admission committee your complete process: your research, your ideas, sketches,
steps and choices and of course your final series of answers.

I-Robot

(inventiveness, context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability)

Test the addition or adaptation in real life (!), make improvements where necessary, and document
this, making drawings, photos and/or video.

Present to the admissions board your complete process: your research, ideas, sketches, steps and
choices, and of course your final working (3D) model.

Six Degrees

(context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability, storytelling)

‘Six degrees of separation’: apparently it is possible to connect everything or everyone, in only six
steps. Prove this principle by connecting six objects, places, movies, stories, images or people. The
connected objects, stories, images or people result in a new object, movie, story or image.

Present to the admissions board the six separate objects, places, movies, stories, people or images.

Then present the connection, or connecting element. It can be a literal connecting element, with
which you fix one thing to the next, or a more abstract connection.

Finally, present the new object, place, movie, story or image that arises from the connected things.

Describe this new object, place, story, movie or image in 300 words or less.

As in all assignments, present to the admissions board your complete process: your research, ideas,
sketches, steps and choices, and of course show your final result.

Lost and Found in Translation

Take a random item or image from in or around your house.

Take a map of the world, and draw a straight line across the world map, on a random angle, with
your house positioned on the line.

Make an imaginary journey around the world, along that line.

Translate or adapt the chosen item or image to every country you visit. What colours are used
around the world? What materials will your translations be made of? Take, for example, into
consideration the culture, traditions, climate, available materials, means of production, degree of
economic development, political situation, etc. in order to arrive at an adaptation or translation.

Design and make an exhibition of these new translations that you found on your trip around the
world. Find the perfect spot for this exhibition and the perfect way for exhibiting the translations.
You could even design a poster and flyer or a website for the exhibition.

As in all assignments: present to the admission committee your complete process: your research,
your ideas, sketches, steps and choices and of course show your final results.

Thingness

(feeling for material, context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability)

All things have physical qualities. Everything has a colour, a texture, a shine, a dullness, a materiality,
a weight, a size, a smell, a touch, a hardness, a meaning, a function, a value. Even a photo, a film, an
animation or a book have these qualities.

Take three things*, and analyse their ‘thingness’. Document this in pictures, drawings, film, models,
samples, etc. Perhaps look for synonyms, copies, fake versions, representations, etc.

Then use their physical qualities to create one new ‘thing’. What can you do with that ‘thing’?

Use the new ‘thing’, make improvements where necessary, and document this, making drawings,
photos and/or video. You need to study the effect that your thing has.

As in all assignments, present to the admissions board your complete process: your research, ideas,
sketches, steps and choices, and of course show your final results.
* Things can be everything: objects, clothes, accessories, spaces, buildings, products, art pieces,
photos, animations, films, posters, books, etc. If for instance you create an artwork, the use might be
to exhibit the piece; if it is a film, you show the film; if it is a poster, you hang it somewhere specific,
etc.

100 Times You

(context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability, storytelling)

Collect 100 things, each with its own form or shape, colour, material, all telling something about you.
Organise and show this collection of 100 things in an original way. Make and design a catalogue of
this collection of these 100 things, with short descriptions. Write an introduction and a conclusion for
the catalogue.

As in all assignments: present to the admission committee your complete process: your research,
your ideas, sketches, steps and choices and of course show your final result.

An Extra-Ordinary Week

(context awareness, communicative ability, creative ability, storytelling)

During 7 consecutive days, you make 5 images or objects per day, resulting in 35 images or objects
that describe your extra-ordinary week. You can make these images at fixed times: each day at
specific times – or not.You may depict your actual and factual happenings, but you could also merge
fantasy and reality, or abandon reality altogether. So, will it be fact or fiction? It’s up to you.You can
use all media and materials.These 35 images or objects tell your story, so be aware of the story, and
think of a way to show the 35 images or objects.

As in all assignments, present to the admissions board your complete process: your research, ideas,
sketches, steps and choices, and of course show your final result.

8
Online-offline

Design a daily online connection offline. Which of your favourite daily activities online, is interesting
to make happen in a physical offline situation?

What kind of connection is it? What kind of people does it connect and how? Which elements are
interesting for an offline connection (in the physical ‘real’ world) and which elements would you like
to adjust? Create the connection for at least two people. It could be either an object or a service.

Test your offline connection, to see whether it actually connects and works. If it fails, adjust and try
again, but document this test phase and show it to the assessment committee.

Present in your portfolio your complete process: your research, ideas, sketches, steps and choices,
and of course your final (3D) result.

Observe and Tell

This is an assignment about observation and storytelling. Explore your direct environment. What
attracts your attention? Is it people, someone close to you, or perhaps some strangers? Do you
notice something specific? Perhaps nature or animals attract your attention? Or is it man-made, like
streets, buildings, objects, products, cars, etc.?

What story you would like to tell? Is it fictive or non-fictive? Is it a story for someone specific, or for
everyone?

Tell a story, with free choice of medium: you can make images, objects, movies, animations,
products, etc.

Visualise your inspiration and your design process by writing down thoughts, sketching, drawings, or
using materials.

10

Try, Fail and Overcome

We all know: imagination is always better than real life. Images in your head always look better than
when you try to actually make or realise them. And if it is not like the image in your head, you have
failed, right? But are you sure? Could these failures perhaps lead to something beautiful? Could it
perhaps lead to your own personal creative self?

Explore your creative expressions. Do you want to create dresses, houses, stories, or perhaps a
message? Start exploring!

Make a series of 24 mistakes: drawings, designs, forms, shapes, stories that fail. Start with creating
one failure, and react in the next failure upon the previous one. Each mistaken drawing, design, form,
shape, story, etc., is a reaction to the previous mistake. Where does this series lead to?

Present this series of 24 failures or mistakes, and describe/clarify each mistake, and your reaction,
with a few short notes.