Are you interested in approaching design as a critical, creative, and transformative practice? KASK & Conservatorium offers an English-language master’s year in Autonomous Design. We also offer an entry-level path with a focus on experimentation, participation, artistic research and methodologies of Autonomous Design. 

Autonomous Design is a research-oriented, transdisciplinary master’s programme, offering a collective learning environment. We analyse, contest, research and propose alternatives; with fun and energy, independently and collectively, playfully and curiously, and in exciting interdependence with the social realities, needs and urgencies of a world in change. 

Our design focus is not on efficiency or productivity, but we develop processes, relationalities and sensitivities that are contextualised and situated. Students develop their artistic talents in relation to societal challenges. They open perspectives towards futures we might need. 

A broad range 
Topics and attitudes that meet in our collective studio: activism and the politics of everyday life, ‘more than human’ society, organisation as artistic form, rebellious objects and subversive systems. Recent practices include: mobile mushroom farm for solidarity cooking practices, making furniture from bioplastic and food waste, validating negativity as a creative force, woodworm design, becoming an expert in falling over, post-punk techno-poetry, creative prosthetics design, participatory design work with undocumented people, gender fluid nail studio. 

Interdependent and collectively 
You will work independently on a project during the master year, guided by mentors, and in constant dialogue with fellow students. You follow a collective masterclass that addresses fundamental aspects of artistic practice and is supervised annually by an external designer or artist. Graduating autonomous designers find connections to a highly diverse professional field of critical collectives, ecological design platforms, transdisciplinary art houses and unconventional  initiatives. 

Find out more on autonomous design. Application deadline: June 21, 2025 / Intake interview: August 25, 2025. Step-by-step guide for the registration procedure.

About KASK & Conservatorium 
The Royal Academy of Fine Arts (KASK) and the Royal Conservatory constitute the school of arts of the HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts and Howest. The school brings together talented and motivated students together with outstanding educators, active artists, designers and theorists in art and design from all over the world. The mission statement of the school defines its main tasks: development of the arts, education and research in an international perspective. 

Our main campuses are at the epicenter of Ghent, the cultural capital of Flanders. Ghent is very receptive to the international art scene and is especially welcoming to students. In addition to being embedded in this artistically rich environment, the school itself is a cultural actor organizing exhibitions, concerts, festivals, weekly lectures and daily film screenings. 

Full list of programs / More info about the application process.

Contact 
If you have any questions about your application for autonomous design or if you are interested in joining a student exchange programme with KASK & Conservatorium, feel free to contact us: schoolofarts [​at​] hogent.be / T 003292433610.