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The open curriculum
 The Image and Sound curriculum has been innovated and upgraded since September 2004, to meet the arts practice needs of today and tomorrow. The new curriculum is an extension and re-formulation of the Image and Sound curriculum that has been on offer since 1989. It is organized in such a way that individual creative and performing qualities will be developed in combination with the exploration of the basic principles underlying the making of art. Besides discovering individual forms of expression, students will take part in research projects covering different aspects of the process of creation itself. The curriculum has an open character: students determine how they will navigate through the program. During the first year their choises will be discussed in group meetings with a teacher. After the propedeutic examination students are invited to select two personal coaches to discuss the progress of their work, the way they want to move throught the curriculum, and their view on how to create an innovative contribution to the the world of art.

Courses
 Individual creative skills are coached through a series of compact introductory courses centered on topics such as Sense Interference, Creative Synesthesia, Mind Mapping, Ear Cleaning, Sound and Space, Image and Sound, MetaMedia, Robotics, and Thought Processes in Art. In addition, basic technology courses are offered three times a year for all students of the Royal Academy of Art: Moving Image, Sound, Web Design, Processing, and 3D Modeling. In these courses the history and basic principles of the new media are discussed and practically studied in hands-on sessions. Optional courses can be taken at the Leiden Institute for Advanced Computer Science of Leiden University by students with an interest in media technology: Introduction to Programming, Science Practice, Web Technology, Human Computer Interfaces, Hardware, Multimedia Systems, Multimedia Programming, Technology & Philosophy, Language and Text. Other optional courses may be followed at the faculties of Archeology, Arts, Law, Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Medicine, Philosophy, Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Theology.

The domain ArtScience
 The need to explore the new domain of ArtScience emerged from an awareness of how contemporary art is increasingly interwoven with technology, science and the social matrix in the widest sense of these words. Without a doubt, the information society has consequences for the arts, where new information arts are developing in relation to new information science. However, curricula dealing with these developments are rare. More and more rapidly young artists integrate newly available technologies in ways that cross the borders of the traditional fields within and outside of the arts. The aim of this study is to offer a practical and theoretical framework for a new generation of artists who imagine a new language of image and sound.

Artistic research, new media and new social contexts
 Collective projects have shaped the philosophy and image of the Interfaculty Image and Sound during the last fifteen years. These projects have always been based on research into historical, contemporary, technological and conceptual aspects of the central themes. But research as such was not structurally integrated in the basic curriculum, a situation that changed last year with the introduction of research projects related to the arts practice of the teaching staff. These research projects focus on the production of knowledge supporting the development of artistic ideas, concepts and models, the structural and contextual aspects of art, the principles and processes involved in perception, cognition and communication, and the potential role of new media in creating new synesthetic experiences.

The exploration of the domain ArtScience not only focuses on the usual artistic disciplines such as the fine arts, music, theater, dance, literature, etc., but is particularly directed to the use and production of knowledge of new media and the resulting dynamization of the arts in new temporal and virtual forms: film, video, sound art, mixed media, moist media, small media, computer animation, generative art, internet, interactive environments and new types of performances. In their relatively short history interdisciplinary art curricula have usually been based on the various disciplines they were trying to bridge. ArtScience abandons this in favor of an approach based on research groups. Instead of pretending to chart the new territory by allotting areas to the traditional artistic disciplines, the main concern is to investigate more appropriate ways to structure the new domain. ArtScience is the study of connecting art to new media and creating new relations to the diversity of social context addressed by fields ranging from the familiar in architecture, ecology, and landscaping to the undigested emerging sciences and technologies. It is expected that with this approach art will be produced and presented in unexpected environments, from alternative and underground venues to quite unusual public places and immersive environments created through the use of new technologies.

Artistic research and scientific exploration
Research projects are organized via research groups consisting of several teachers and guest teachers working together with students, all of whom are actively involved in the creation of art and the production of knowledge of the creative process. Students are guided to present the results of their artistic research and experiments in a variety of forms: personal presentation, written documentation, recorded image and sound, portfolio, website, etc. Some of the central research topics are: The Language of Image and Sound, Art as a Mode of Thinking, Generative Art (Making Art of Databases; Pattern, Visualization, Sonification and Composition), Interactive Art (Interactive Sonic Spaces), Robotics Theater, Genius Loci, and Alter Ego.

The ambition to connect the creative artistic process with artistic and scientific research has major significance for the character of the curriculum. Teachers and students are involved in initiating creative processes that may take the form of experiments that are at once scientific exploration and artistic research. One of the consequences of this will be a fusion of the art studio with the scientific laboratory. All participants—teachers and students—are expected to dig into the deepest corners of their imagination to use this faculty as a creative and intuitive source of knowledge as well as a source of ideas to bring unusual works of art to fruition. Together, teachers and students investigate which creative methods may take the form of research in the scientific sense of word. This can result in works of art, in presentations of the research results, or in a combination of both.

A domain as described here, in which education, research and production are focused on the bringing together of art and science has not been mapped before. The student is not only acquiring knowledge and skills, but also challenged to contribute to the program, which can be considered as an artwork itself, and to the exploration of ArtScience as a new discipline. This requires a special motivation, an eager research attitude and dedicated input from teachers and students. The motivation should be directed toward the development of the ability to learn by translating opinions into questions, and toward the production of new knowledge and skills as a result of the research. The implications of this are that not only are students able to receive criticism, but that they can formulate criticism as well.

The arts practice of former Image and Sound students
 The open curriculum offers many opportunities for multi-gifted students who want to develop their creative and explorative talents, since it is designed as a field in which the different courses and research groups are organized not only in the familiar successive order, but also simultaneously. This enables students at any time during their studies to choose particular courses or research projects that most closely fit their own needs at a given moment. A consequence of this is that students can create their own personal roads through the curriculum, limited only by mandatory participation in a minimum number of courses and projects necessary for the degree. Gradually students learn to define a personal field of fascination and their own individual methods of research for defining a new artistic profile, which distinguishes them from other artists and art directors in the creative industries.

Besides the courses and research projects, from the second year on, each student is supported by two personal mentors who will help to define an individual approach to the creation of art and to the acquisition of knowledge, to assist in making choices with regard to navigating the curriculum, and to help map a personal route in the art world outside of the school.

After finishing initial studies, students may choose to enter the professional arts practice immediately. The success of this will depend highly on their experiences with the art world during the studies, and the skills they have mastered to deal with particular challenges, including the ability to work in response to fixed assignments. Working as an artist means, economically, to work in a mixed professional practice, consisting of making personal contributions by creating independent, autonomous works of art, while being active as a teacher, cultural entrepreneur, creative director, or simply keeping a modest job to earn some money to continue one’s own projects. However, along with the option of immediately starting as a practicing artist, it is also possible to continue the studies for another two years by following a masters program at an art school or university. The Hogeschool van Beeldende Kunsten, Muziek en Dans offers a masters program in the field of Creation, Research and Development, whereas Leiden University offers, among many master programs, the program Master of Mediatechnology.

Former image and sound students have worked as independent artists and/or in a range of cultural institutions and creative industries: