Today more than ever, we need to critically reflect on our relationship with media and technology.  How can we explore the 'side-effects' of an increasingly data-driven world both locally and globally? In the Sustainable Media Lab, you will be part of a creative learning hub that investigates media eco-systems and how they can stand the test of time.

What is the Sustainable Media Lab?
What could a more sustainable digital future look like? At the Sustainable Media Lab, we bring together leading researchers, experts, and practitioners to explore the possible answers to this question. Would you like to be a part of it?

Rapidly changing technical, legal, and societal environments require a different way of thinking about media, its technical entanglements, and its role in society.  We are particularly interested in how digital technologies impact the way we get informed and make decisions, and safeguard our human rights; put another way, how can we make our media ecosystems sustainable?

Our lab accomplishes this by creating innovative experiences, interventions, events, and educational resources that prompt individuals to consider the impact of technology and media on their lives and the world around them. We partner with global and local organizations to encourage proactive solutions and promote conversations at the intersection of technology, research, design, and art. By working together to re-imagine human interactions with socio-technical systems, we believe it is possible to build more balanced and resilient media ecosystems.

What will you do
At our lab, located in The Hague, you work together with other students and professional partners to unlock and solve large societal issues and to create a snapshot of the relationship we, as humans, have with media and technology. With your contribution, you create value for the future: a safer and fairer world in this digital age.

You will work with inspiring organizations from the media, culture, social justice, and technology sectors. Examples of our current partners include Digital Rights House, Greenhost, Hivos, The Municipality of The Hague, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Waag, The Hague Humanity Hub, Just Peace Month, and more.

In our lab, the curriculum is integrated with the Media, Technology, and Societal research programme led by our enthusiastic Professor Ben Wagner. We follow the design thinking process of Professor Guido Stompff, which is divided into 4 phases (climbs): discover, define and frame, develop, and deliver. Each phase results in (intermediate) products and will be reviewed by the partner, coaches, experts and researchers.

Further, we support our students' projects by offering a unique addition to the living lab structure: The Deep Dives. In this section of the course, students spend each month learning about a complex, contemporary issue like misinformation, surveillance, or bias in AI. Students will explore this topic via interactive workshops, field trips, and guest lectures with experts. Participating students will have hands-on experience managing their own Newsroom where they will translate these Deep Dives into engaging public-facing content, such as podcasts, a zine, a blog, social media content, or short videos that creatively explores the theme of the month.

Finally, we focus on your personal development. We encourage you to work on personal development goals and help you to become the authentic leader of your future vocation. You will reflect, understand your behaviour and learn what to do, when you do not really know what to do.

Examples of Issues
From the intensification of fake news to the ways in which AI can pose a threat to our human rights, we explore the many present-day topics that affect our media systems in an agile and design-oriented way.

You will deliver practical solutions to help reimagine and create conversation around the complex challenges related to media, technology, and society. Examples of challenges you can work on, include:

• A podcast concept in which residents of The Hague’s Zuid West could become more educated on current issues and trends related to digital rights
• A pop-up exhibition focused on combatting misinformation with media literacy
• A guidebook and workshop about how artists, activists, and consumers can create and purchase NFTs in a more ethical way.

In semester 1 the Sutainable Media Lab and our International Music Industry Lab will join forces and operate from the same lab space: Slachthuis Haarlem. We’re excited for this collaboration. We believe it will enrich the experience for both labs. 

We work with three overarching learning outcomes or competences. These are:

Experimenting
You design and create creative solutions for complex issues from the metropolitan agglomeration on the basis of analysis and through various iterations and development loops. You do this in collaboration with partners from the professional field and other disciplines from the creative domain.

Interdisciplinary collaboration
You bring in your own (professional) expertise and value and use the perspectives of others for jointly solving problems. You play an active role in teamwork and work together constructively and in a solutionoriented way.

Professionalization
You (proactively) direct his professional development by making substantiated choices, formulating personal learning questions and learning goals, using feedback and reflecting on your professional actions.

• You are at least a third-year bachelor student (propaedeutic year has been completed).
• You are enthusiastic, creative, innovative and can work autonomously.
• You can handle uncertainty and see this as a chance to learn.
• You are passionate to tackle complex challenges together with stakeholders and peer groups.
• Your development is self-directed supported by setting your own educational goals.
• You choose your own educational path supported by a teachers’ coaching and within the opportunities of your team.
• You are open for new and pioneering forms of education and assessments (portfolio development, feedback and reflection).

On average, you will be on location four days a week, to work on relevant real-world challenges and practical cases. 

No need to study for exams: your knowledge and skills will be tested with a group project and an individual portfolio. 

• The trips abroad are a mandatory part of the lab. They will be funded by Erasmus + grands – your transport and accommodation will be covered for you, as well as some of the meals and excursions. Please note, you will need to budget some pocket money.
• In addition to the trip abroad we may take periodic field trips to nearby cities such as Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Rotterdam. For international students, please budget accordingly for 4-6 day trips outside of The Hague.