MY STUDENT MOBILITY IN GRANADA: Jovana Mališić

Jovana Mališić
University of Arts in Belgrade, Faculty of Applied Arts

Erasmus+ Mobility for Studies at:

ESADA – Escuela Superior de Arte y Diseño de Andalucía, Spain

I had the privilege of spending the first semester of my fourth year of studies at Escuela Superior de Arte y Diseño de Andalucía in Granada as part of an Erasmus+ Mobility project. Besides the amazingly warm weather and longer days, Granada as a city had to offer so much more than what meets the eye.

It is a city full of international students, with a few student organizations that have activities, one-day trips and vacations planned all throughout the semester. The nature and architecture present in the city and on the mountains and cities nearby is something very memorable and different from the Balkans. It was a very refreshing and eye-opening experience to live in a place so different from my home and be included in a different lifestyle while speaking in a different language.

While Spanish class was provided by ESADA, I chose to replace that class with another elective subject, and while I do regret not having the opportunity to learn more spanish I am more than grateful that I got to have class with Professor Oscar de la Visitación, Photography, art direction and visual merchandising. The projects we did in that class and the people I worked with were amazing and something I really needed at this point in my creative development. They all taught me to let go, improvise, experiment more and trust my gut, but most of all I had so much fun working on them.

I generally did have a problem following all the classes, though, because of my limited knowledge of the language. But the professors Álvaro Fernández and Samuel Funes did everything they could to overcome the language barrier with me and were always there to help with work on the projects. I was also lucky to have very supportive classmates that also helped me keep track of everything that needed to be done and even helped me print out some prototypes in times of need. The projects we worked on in the semester were very different to the ones I am used to doing in Belgrade and they required a whole different approach to design and project management. The whole concept of teaching and scheduling was different as well, rather than having different projects for different subjects all of the subjects (except the elective ones) focused on developing one project at a time. Our first project was month-long and focused on the future product scenarios of the olive industry. After doing the dossier and presentations we had the opportunity to go to Valencia and visit a very prestigious porcelain company Lladro. Upon arriving in Granada again, we did a sprint design of a lamp for Lladro, to be reviewed by their Creative director. The biggest part of the semester was taken up by the second project which focused on creating a food experience design. It was very useful for my future career that I got to work on them and also refreshing to be included in the project-based system of teaching which helped me focus on the projects and also explore more in those themes and work on an idea that really interested me. It expanded my views on design and taught me how to design with a broader picture in mind.

I am really grateful for the opportunity to experience something like this and think that it has shaped me into a different, more mature and creatively liberated person. It showed me a whole different perspective on life and I cannot recommend it enough to any and every student who is thinking of joining the Erasmus mobility programme.