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How can image-making in the digital age offer opportunities to explore not just what we make, but how we see, and how the politics of our world shape that vision?
• Fall Dates Coming Soon!
• Online!
• Five-weeks, time based in CET
• Small class of participants
• Certificate of Completion
Artist / Student (Full Time)
€225* (Reg. €245)
Freelancer
€245* (Reg. €265)
Professional
€275* (Reg. €295)
Generous Supporter Ticket
€295* (Reg. €305)
*Early enrollments (by 28. Sept.) keep our courses sustainable and help us plan ahead. Thank you for supporting!
course
description
Virtual space and pictorial space are deeply connected because both rely on visual construction to shape perception. Images are not neutral: the way they are framed, composed, and presented influences how we understand the world. Just like European oil painting constructed a way of seeing the world — framing objects, landscapes, and bodies as possessions — The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe.
In this class we will explore the virtual environment as pictorial space, focusing on painting, video game engines, and world-building.
A virtual environment, like a painting, is a constructed space and can be treated as a studio or stage where pictorial strategies are still central. We organize visual elements and three dimensional objects on the plane using perspective, light, color, framing, vanishing points and composition. The space that is experienced through digital or simulated environments (VR, games, CGI, computer-generated architectures) are extensions of those pictorial strategies. Unlike fixed images, they are dynamic, time-based, and interactive: characters evolve algorithmically, environments mutate.
What would have been a scene in painting becomes a world you can inhabit, that unfolds on its own, like a living picture, transforming into an autonomous virtual ecosystem.
In this course you will be introduced to
Traditional painting tools
Digital painting
Virtual environments
Unity game engine
Blender for 3D modeling
course
outline
Week 1: Virtual environment as pictorial space
The first class introduces the historical relationship between painting and virtual space, showing how pictorial strategies have evolved into interactive forms. We will examine Panofsky’s view of pictorial space as perspectival, cultural, and symbolic, and how virtual space builds on and expands these traditions. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty, we will consider how pictorial space engages embodied perception. Participants will also begin working with basic tools for creating pictures, moving images, and simple 3D worlds, while reflecting on the politics of space and its role in shaping worldbuilding and collective experience.
Week 2: Forms and Actions
In the second class, participants will work with 3D models, combining them with traditional painting methods and digital tools within Blender Software, while reflecting on the practices of Gustave Courbet, Francisco Goya, Joan Mitchell, Philip Guston, and Marlene Dumas. The session emphasizes that virtual environments can function as studios or stages, where the pictorial strategies remain central. We will explore how the technosphere enables narratives and gestures that foster resilience within the blind spots of our interconnected lives. Finally, we will examine the coexistence of diverse digital spaces and the political impact of curated content, where each creation gains resonance through dialogue with our peers.
Week 3: Painting
Painting processes in the digital age In this session, we will continue by bringing drawing and painting practice into digital space and collectively transforming it into new visual forms, taking cues from the works of Avery Singer, Laura Owens, Ian Cheng, Sara Sadik, and Oscar Murillo. Participants will explore how digital space makes images navigable and participatory,
extending the world as an ongoing invention and arrangement of seeing. The workshop emphasizes that technology is not just an instrument but an extension of social relations, making space for personal experiences to be expressed. Finally, we will examine how perception in these environments is embodied, making space not an abstract grid but something lived and experienced through the body.
Week 4: Composition
You’ll learn to set a scene, composite and bring models to life, and experiment with the camera in Unity Game Engine. Through perspective, light, color, framing, vanishing points, and composition, participants see how traditional visual tools extend into digital and simulated spaces such as VR, games, CGI, and computer-generated architectures. By bringing spatial perspectives together, we can learn how to seamlessly merge with our digital histories, inviting time as our companion while nurturing a gradual and affectionate connection with the mundane world, and composting our online sediments. A collective way to understand how we can imagine and situate many different worlds existing simultaneously.
Week 5: Politics and World-Building
Learn the characteristics of world-building in context and group discussion. How can we inspire innovative strategies for collective coexistence with the pictorial language and virtual environments? Painting will be reconsidered as a form of world-building, moving beyond the flat canvas into spatial and immersive environments where multiple perspectives intersect. Together, we will design and build a collective exhibition space that reflects both individual and shared perspectives. A collaborative approach in building digital environments and a presentation of work that is collectively curated.
who is this
class for?
This class is for artists, designers, and creative makers interested in translating traditional painting techniques into virtual and interactive environments. It is aimed at those who want to explore how perspective, composition, light, color, and framing can shape immersive, time-based digital spaces. Participants should be curious about world-building, dynamic virtual ecosystems, and the interplay between interactivity and visual storytelling.
The class is also suited for anyone looking to experiment with VR, game engines, CGI, or computer-generated architectures as tools for creating living, evolving pictorial worlds. In this course, you will be experimenting with unity game engine bringing painting practice into digital space worldbuilding and the architecture of virtual environments composite and bring models to life exhibition-making in digital space. No prior experience is necessary,
about online classes
Classes are 'live' meaning that you can directly interact with the instructor as well as with the other participants from around the world. Classes will also be recorded for playback in case you are unable to attend for any reason. For specific questions, please email us and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
about
scholarships
We are offering a limited number of reduced fee scholarships for this online class for those facing financial hardships. These allow participants to pay a reduced fee and are reserved for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ who otherwise would be unable to attend. To be considered for one of these scholarships, please use this form.
To apply for a reduced fee scholarship, you must fill in the form no later than two weeks before the course begins. We will not accept any class sign-ups or scholarship applications after this date, as our regular sign-ups will determine the amount of scholarships we can accommodate. We will notify you only shortly thereafter if your application has been approved.
We are a small organisation with no outside funding and like many, we are also in survival mode. We depend on tuition fees for reimbursing class instructers, space fees, and operational costs. We ask you to consider this when applying for a reduced fee scholarship. <3
meet the
instructor
Mario Mu
Visual Artist, Director
Mario Mu is a visual artist and director living in Berlin, Germany.
Mario works on various research projects which are often constructed as extended gaming platforms. Apart from frequently incorporating sound and drawing, his practice mainly shifts between game design, 3D animation, and performance. He received a BFA from the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, Croatia, and an MFA from the University of Arts in Berlin, Germany. He has been working on a series of events as an author and collaborator in the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb; Singapore Art Museum; TAP-Théâtre auditorium de Poitiers, France; V2 Rotterdam, The Netherlands; MGLC Ljubljana, Slovenia; MAAT Lisbon, Portugal; Play Co and Seager, London, UK; Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Research Center for Proxy Politics, Ufer Studios, Galerie gr_und, and Silent Green in Berlin, Germany; in Croatia Pogon and GMK in Zagreb, Metamedia Pula, Manus Split, among others.
Digital and online projects include collaborations with AVYSS, Mizuha, The Killscreen, The Carillon, BoCA Biennial, Milan Machinima Festival, Gamescenes, Itch.io, Gestalten Publishing, FACT Magazine, Wrong Biennale, The School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe, STYLY, Lima Sky, Pivilion, and Inquiry Inc.