Interview with BA Creative Arts Student – Christin Penz

What have been your highlights in the BA Creative Arts unit – 1.2 Creative Arts Skills?

What I enjoyed most about Creative Arts 1.2 was the freedom to develop my own way of working. Rather than following one fixed path, the unit provided a framework that allowed me to focus on the themes, techniques, and materials that were most relevant to my own practice. I found that very liberating.

Another highlight was discovering that the appropriate methods often only emerged through the process of making. Instead of starting with a fixed outcome, I was able to experiment, reflect, and let the projects evolve over time. This openness helped me to develop more ambitious and layered work while becoming more confident in my own artistic practice.

Developing Language Can Exclude alongside my theoretical research was another highlight. Rather than adding theory afterwards, research and making developed together, giving the project much greater depth.

In what ways are you building your interdisciplinary approach?

(how has this progressed from 1.1 into 1.2) 

I build my interdisciplinary approach by testing different materials, techniques, and media within each project. Rather than deciding on a final outcome too early, I experiment with different formats and allow the work to develop through making and reflection. Across my projects, I combine text, video, photography, print, installation, AI, and participatory approaches, depending on what best supports the idea.

At the same time, I increasingly connect practical making with theoretical research. The appropriate methods often only emerge through the process itself, and the dialogue between theory and practice helps me to develop more layered and contextualised work.

Compared to Creative Arts 1.1, I have become much more confident in my practice. I developed a wider range of skills and feel more comfortable combining different media and techniques. The greater freedom within the unit also gave me the confidence to follow my own interests and let projects develop through experimentation and reflection.

In what ways has the skills hub supported your study?

Without the Skills Hub courses, my three projects would not have developed in the way they did. Engaging with different techniques, materials, artists, and ways of working opened up the space I needed to develop my ideas.

For me, ideas provide the basis for practice, but practice also generates new ideas. It feels like a continuous cycle in which research, making, and reflection constantly inform one another. The Skills Hub supported this process by encouraging experimentation and openness rather than leading towards a single outcome.

What advice would you give to prospective students thinking about studying Creative Arts at OCA? Or students starting their first unit on the Creative Arts Degree program?

My advice would be to stay curious and allow yourself to experiment. Don’t be afraid to try new techniques, materials, or ways of working, even if they feel unfamiliar at first.

One of the most valuable things I learned is that there are rarely real mistakes.

Many of the things I first thought had gone wrong later became the starting point for new ideas or new directions. Try to stay open to unexpected outcomes rather than aiming for perfection. I would also encourage students to visit exhibitions, look closely at the work of other artists. You do not need to know exactly where a project will end when you begin. Often the process itself reveals the most interesting ideas.

Can you tell us a little bit about the work and ideas in your linked creative presentation for 1.2

https://christinpenz.de/portfolio-christin-penz/

My creative presentation documents the development of three interconnected projects and shows how I tested ideas and adapted my practice over Unit Creative Arts Skills 1.2. Across all three projects, I work with found materials, such as photographs, text, and objects, where past and present become connected. In HER, I explore personal memory through archival material. In Language Can Exclude (LCE), participants choose fragments from the Western canon and question whether these texts still reflect current discourse. In Autopsie of Things, I work with a broken object, found images, and historical tapestry within a biographical framework.

Across these works, I explore fragmentation and reassembly by taking things apart and reconstructing them in new forms. HER works primarily visually, LCE focuses on language and voice, and Autopsie of Things is more spatial and technically oriented. None of the projects exists as a single object. Instead, they combine different elements that interact to create immersive experiences. Although each project has a different focus, they all explore how objects and texts carry memory and meaning, and how these shift when they are transformed into new media. 

They also investigate the relationship between the private and the public sphere, raising questions about authorship, identity, memory, and whose voices become part of cultural narratives. Throughout the projects, I deliberately avoided deciding on a final outcome too early. Instead, I tested different materials, media, and installation formats, allowing each project to develop through making and reflection. The presentation therefore not only introduces the individual works but also documents the evolution of my practice and the connections that emerged between them.

Language Can Exclude is an ongoing collaborative project, and I am always looking for new participants. If you would like to contribute, you can find more information and join the project here: https://christinpenz.de/language-can-exclude/. Language Can Exclude continues to develop. In September, I will be filming an acting student in the Berlin State Library reading fragments of the transformed texts. Rather than showing all of the original contributors, one single performer will read texts written by many different people. I’m curious to see how this changes the work and what it says about voice, authorship and representation. All contributions will remain accessible through my website, where the archive will continue to grow.