The second year of studies focuses on deepening artistic, conceptual, and technical knowledge, while allowing students to define and develop areas of specialization. Throughout the year, students engage in extended creative processes that include research, experimentation, production, and presentation. The curriculum supports the development of independent artistic thinking alongside collaborative and interdisciplinary practices.
Second-year students participate in advanced studio courses, theoretical studies, artist workshops, exhibition visits, and meetings with artists and curators. Students present works and processes within departmental events and school-wide festivals, and take part in the interdisciplinary colloquium.
Students are required to complete 8 mandatory courses, participate in the interdisciplinary colloquium, and select elective courses according to their individual areas of focus.
In this course we will delve into installation as a site-specific artistic form dependent on place, body, and material, and explore the relationships between objects, space, context, and viewer. We will examine the powerful space in which sculpture transcends mere form and becomes testimony to action and presence. The course will investigate the critical concept of the index as it emerged in conceptual art—the idea of the artwork as a physical trace, residue, or direct evidence of an event.
We will ask what an installation is, what defines it, and how it operates on us on physical, emotional, and cultural levels. We will examine how materials contain multilayered personal and collective cultural information, how we as artists choose to work with them, and the meanings of these choices. We will address the boundary between art and craft, and between utilitarian objects and artistic objects, through the study of works by contemporary artists, designers, and outsider artists. We will observe artists’ working processes and material research, and connect ideas to studio practice.
Throughout the course we will combine discussion, exercises, and diverse material practices—plastic materials, media, sound, light, and text—through which each student will develop a personal language. Assignments during the second semester will lead to a final project: site-specific installations developed under the instructor’s guidance and presented to the public in a short-term group exhibition held in a gallery space in Jerusalem.
This course examines modern art from the second half of the 18th century through the first half of the 20th century—a period of approximately 200 years marked by both minor and major revolutions in art. These shifts are evident in a succession of stylistic “isms” that challenge one another and propose alternatives for representing society and the environment of their time, including Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, and others.
The course offers close study of leading artists and analysis of key artworks, accompanied by readings of texts and manifestos related to the formation of modern art, serving as a conduit for understanding contemporary art. A chronological in-depth reading of art movements begins with Rococo and Neoclassicism—the former as art enlisted in the service of royal and aristocratic capital, the latter as politically engaged art in the service of the French Revolution—continues through the study of women artists throughout the 19th century from the perspective of contemporary gender studies, and culminates in the revolutionary upheavals driven by technology and progress that transformed artistic representation, modes of operation, and new techniques within a modern cultural, biographical, and socio-political context.
The course combines in-person lectures based on presentations (20 classes per year), readings of manifestos and texts, film screenings, and visits to exhibitions and institutional and alternative exhibition spaces in Jerusalem (2–3 tours per year). The course assignment is a written paper submitted at the end of the year, in which students present a presentation that reads and analyzes a personal connection between modern art and their own fields of practice, according to guidelines. The course grade is based on a combination of the paper, readings, attendance, and class participation.
An advanced, hands-on video course intended for students with a background in photography and video editing. The course focuses on the editing station as the central site of the creative development process for video art and video installations. It will accompany and guide the creation of several substantial video projects based on a personal and collective archive of materials that will be assembled over the course of the year.
We will explore ways of using video to challenge reality, and to dismantle and reassemble physical and mental structures. The work will take place primarily in the classroom, based on project submissions, during which students will practice advanced functions in Adobe software. Alongside exercises, we will conduct guided viewings of contemporary video works, with an emphasis on artists who have developed a distinctive language of editing and creative use of raw materials.
We will address the complex relationship between the audible image and the visible image, and our dynamic capacity as editor-creators to influence this relationship. We will examine how filmed materials can become physical materials—through various modes of situating video in space, such as projection onto physical surfaces or working with multiple screens simultaneously.
Traditionally, our action as holders of a camera involves looking outward toward the world and searching for an image that precisely conveys our intentions, emotions, and point of view. In this course, we will expand our perspective on the possibilities of working with the photographic tool. Although photography will be the starting point of our creative work, must we necessarily add more images to the infinite accumulation of images in the world?
We will explore additional options: seeking new raw materials, turning to archival materials, and engaging with our private archives (for example, family albums, image collections accumulated over the years, and more). We will appropriate images from various sources (found materials) and integrate them into our personal work. We will examine the practices of artists whose raw materials consist of images that already exist in the world. We will photograph without a camera. We will photograph with a camera. We will examine personal biography and engage with memory.
An advanced, hands-on video course intended for students with a background in photography and video editing, with an emphasis on graduates of the first-year Video Skills course. In this course we will learn, practice, and develop projects in advanced video formats, with a focus on live video.
Students will acquire and practice live video techniques used in music, dance, performance, and theater productions, including VJing, multicam setups (routing multiple cameras and broadcasting video), projection mapping (precise projections onto objects and buildings), reactive/interactive video, the use of sound and motion sensors, and advanced integration of video within installations. The course emphasizes hands-on technical skills alongside conceptual thinking, concept development, and the preparation of raw materials.
The course includes learning the software Resolume Arena for live video operation and projection mapping, and its integration with other video-sound software. We will learn and practice working with video equipment, video mixers/switchers, controllers, and wireless/networked video recording and transmission equipment. During the course, some evening sessions will take place off campus, during which we will project onto buildings. Students will experiment with and learn about different types of projectors and apply the knowledge acquired in class. Semester B will take place as a project-based workshop, in which students will develop a major final project presented as part of the Musrara Mix Festival.
This course aims to explore the dynamic interface between technology and art, with an emphasis on developing a deep understanding of the mutual influences between these fields. The sessions will combine theoretical study and discussion, the acquisition of technological skills using advanced tools, and critical discourse. The course emphasizes the integration of traditional skills with new technologies.
One of the core topics of the course is the impact of artificial intelligence on the world of art and creative practice, which will be addressed through hands-on work with various relevant tools.
This course is intended for graduates of the Introduction to Studio Photography course who are familiar with the studio environment. Beyond refining the practical skills acquired in the beginner studio course, the emphasis will be on harnessing studio production tools to create works that go beyond technical exercises, aiming to develop an autonomous body of work with conceptual and thematic significance.
The course begins with a review of material from the introductory course through several short exercises (and one medium-length exercise) both inside and outside the studio, designed to refresh skills while introducing new production tools (advanced lighting equipment, cameras in various formats) and deepening methods of working in the studio environment.
Concurrently, students will be required to research and reflect on approximately five characters drawn at random. Each student will select one character to become the protagonist, whose world they will immerse themselves in to create their final work.
A course in urban landscape, architecture, and street photography inspired by the book Invisible Cities. In this workshop, we will photograph Jerusalem through the lens of the Italian author Italo Calvino (1972). Sessions will include exploratory walks around the city to investigate it through the camera, learning how to translate human encounters and Jerusalem’s urban landscape into photographic language.
Students will develop a photography project inspired by the book and course content. In addition to enhancing visual skills, the technical aspects of photography will be taught to maximize the creative potential of participants’ equipment. The workshop will include practical city tours, inspirational sessions, and critique sessions held at the Musrara School. Semester B will focus on photographic tours and meetings in which students will design a book summarizing their personal photography project as a final course output.
Although the course title is borrowed from a filmmaker’s book, it assumes that creators in all time-based art fields may benefit from occasionally thinking of their work as a form of sculpture. In sculpture, emotion or narrative never precedes composition. The intersection of imagination and composition forms the core of artistic action, often requiring no further definitions.
The course presents a broad, interdisciplinary approach to art, drawing on sound, cinema, video art, theater, dance, performance, and literature. It emphasizes cultivating curiosity, experimentation, resourcefulness, and reflexivity as foundational elements of creative practice. The course aims to expand the toolbox for practical development of ideas in sound, image, movement, action, and word, with a focus on collaborative learning, mutual inspiration, personal material development, knowledge exchange, existing practices, and the invention of new practices.
An interdisciplinary workshop exploring the relationships between image in video and cinema, soundtrack and music, and the relationship between object and sound in space and sound installations. We will investigate the role of pop songs in film soundtracks, explore the human voice and its diverse uses in screen arts and radio dramas.
Lessons include guided listening to modern and contemporary classical music, discussions of historically parallel art works, and guided viewings of films and video art. The workshop includes recording and creating soundtracks, sound works, radio dramas, and a unique writing workshop. Assignments accompany the lessons to reinforce learning.
The course aims to develop analytical skills, understanding, and the ability to work with the integration of moving image and audio, while exploring the history of music in these contexts and practicing interdisciplinary thinking. The workshop runs three hours per week and includes lectures, listening, viewing, discussion, assignments, and critiques.
This course is for students seeking a deeper understanding of the relationship between art, philosophy, and cinematic creation. It invites students to engage with films that open the mind to alternative states of consciousness. Viewing is an active process, free from the need for narrative logic or metaphorical interpretation.
We will explore the concept of time in cinema, particularly in works by filmmakers operating at the margins of narrative, where time becomes the raw material. The course focuses on directors whose works challenge viewers, requiring engagement and patience, and offering a profound cinematic experience in return. It is a theoretical course examining cinema as visual philosophy. Instead of asking “What’s the story?”, we ask fundamental questions like “How does the medium think?” and “How does it challenge human perception?”
We will study the cinematic revolution in which film abandoned its role as servant to linear narrative, exploring its ability to express time itself. The course will distinguish between cinema focused on dramatic, critical moments and cinema devoted to every moment—including non-eventful moments that defy cause-and-effect logic.
Directors studied include Andrei Tarkovsky, Béla Tarr, Claude Lanzmann, Michelangelo Antonioni, Terrence Malick, Jim Jarmusch, and Stanley Kubrick. Students will learn how each uniquely explores the essence of the cinematic medium, using rich visual language and poetic rhythm to create thought-provoking cinematic experiences. Each lesson cluster focuses on a different director, with selected clips, historical and artistic context, and full film viewings to experience the work in its entirety. The course develops tools for critical analysis, including discussions of rhythm, composition, and sound design, cultivating an appreciation of cinema as an independent visual art form.
This course invites you to use Adobe After Effects as a powerful creative tool for realizing your artistic vision. The course is divided into two stages. In the first stage, we will build a technical foundation through an introduction to animation principles, composition, and layers, enabling all participants to gain basic confidence and control in the software. In the second stage, we will embark on a personal creative journey in which you are the driving force and the course adapts to your goals. Each student will define a personal project based on their interests and artistic contexts. We will learn how to use technological tools to solve artistic challenges and translate abstract ideas into concrete forms. Through this process, we will discover how After Effects becomes a working tool that offers new and compelling possibilities of expression. By the end of the course, students will leave with a solid technical foundation and, more importantly, with a complete and unique project that expresses their personal voice and mastery of the new tool.
The course provides a broad understanding of sound design in the digital world through the operation and conceptual understanding of synthesizers and diverse synthesis techniques (additive, subtractive, wavetable, granular), as well as the use of real-world sounds via sampling. The goal of the course is to develop a conceptual understanding of personal sound design that expands the student’s musical toolbox and pushes the boundaries of their creative practice. The course is based on the software Reaktor and Ableton Live.
The birth of music: between ritual and power, the romantic spirit, change, rebellion, protest, energy — what is the revolutionary impulse? Different approaches to revolution: the emotional sources of free music, and the revolutionary origins of sound-focused music.