[p2p-research] AsintheAs post

Sun May 9 09:49:23 CEST 2010

thanks a lot Kevin, I set the date to the 14th!

On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 6:23 AM, Kevin Flanagan <kev.flanagan at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hey Michel,
>
> That post is ready. Its saved as a draft on the site and pasted below.
> In case you want to review it before it goes live. Is there any date
> you prefer I set it to publish?
> The post itself has more links in it.
>
> Good night
>
> Kevin F
>
>
> --------------------------
>
> A brief history of P2P education in the visual arts
>
> I think most would agree art school and approaches to art education
> are in general quite different from the rest of academia. The study
> and practice of contemporary art requires a certain amount of openness
> and experimentation.
>
> As a student I found the emphasis on self directed creative
> exploration and the development of ones own thinking and ideas
> invaluable. Learning and exploring subjects of my own interest, on my
> own terms, in my own time was incredibly liberating. This de-schooling
> inspired a new confidence and appreciation for learning which had been
> lost during years of difficulty in secondary education. This is not to
> say that the courses where perfect. There where also some annoying
> restrictions. The division of art students into separate departments
> of sculpture, print and painting doesn’t make any sense when
> contemporary arts practice is so interdisciplinary. This only made
> things difficult for students looking for access to people, skills and
> equipment. Students and staff often struggle to maintain fertile
> ground for creativity. Art materials are expensive and studio space is
> at a premium. Finance for equipment and resources are scarce and
> competition between departments is high. More often than not finance
> is directed to more practical courses those capable of proving their
> value through more objective examinations and the ratings of
> postgraduate employer satisfaction. The value of the arts and
> humanities is difficult to measure in strict economic terms and as
> such they suffer. The recent decision to terminate Philosophy at
> Middlesex University a major center for research in the UK could be
> seen as symptomatic of this trend. See here for further details –
>
> http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=411482&c=2
> http://www.edu-factory.org
> Given the times we live in, widespread cuts in public sector funding
> can only lead to further intensification of this process.
> This epistemic bias leaves gaps in mainstream education and this is
> where peer to peer learning steps in.
>
> A brief history of P2P education in the visual arts
>
> Inspired in part by the work of Rudolph Steiner and motivated by a
> belief in the power of human creativity German artist Joseph Beuys
> believed that art could be a catalyst for revolutionary change. He saw
> everyone as an artist and society as a co-created social sculpture.
>
> “Only on condition of a radical widening of definitions will it be
> possible for art and activities related to art [to] provide evidence
> that art is now the only evolutionary-revolutionary power. Only art is
> capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile social
> system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in
> order to build ‘A SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ART’… EVERY HUMAN BEING
> IS AN ARTIST who – from his state of freedom – the position of freedom
> that he experiences at first-hand – learns to determine the other
> positions of the TOTAL ART WORK OF THE FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER.” – Beuys
> 1973
>
> Beuys was a professor at the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts from 1961
> until 10th October, 1972.
>
> “The the day on which he was discharged by the education minister
> Johannes Rau, for political reasons. Together with his students Beuys
> occupied the secretary’s office to contest the decision about the
> enrollment of students who have been refused admittance. He refers to
> a previous senates decision which states that every teacher has the
> right to admit as many students to his or her class as he or she sees
> fit. The sacking of Beuys is the beginning of a long legally and
> ideological dispute which is finally settled in favour of Beuys, with
> a judgment handed down at the highest legally level.” –
> http://www.beuys.org/beuys_room20.htm
>
> Later that year Beuy’s set up the Free International University for
> Creativity and Interdisciplinary Research. This was to be a free nexus
> for sharing information, in which all the participants were both
> students and teachers. Its aims where to break down boundaries between
> art, community, culture and politics. From humble beginnings in the
> informal atmosphere of Beuy’s Düsseldorf studio Beuys and comrades
> went on to establish Free Universities in Verlag, Amsterdam,
> Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg and Munich. http://fiuwac.com/ While plans for
> a Free University in Dublin never took off Beuys had greater influence
> north of the border where A.R.E Arts Research and Exchange applied
> many of the FIU principles in Belfast. Subsequently this had a
> significant impact on the history of visual arts in Ireland north and
> south.
> The influence of the Free International University is lasting.
> Last week I slept on a bed made of balloons at a sleepover as part of
> the reopening of the Model Niland Gallery in Sligo in the west of
> Ireland.
> The current exhibition ‘Dorm’ includes works by 22 international
> artist collectives. Many of whom I’m sure have at some point found
> inspiration in Beuys ideas. One group the Copenhagen Free University
> 2001/2008. Align their practice with situationist theory their aims to
> explore different relationships to knowledge production other than
> those posed by the knowledge economy.
>
> “We work with forms of knowledge that are fleeting, fluid,
> schizophrenic, uncompromising, subjective, uneconomic, acapitalist,
> produced in the kitchen, produced when asleep or arisen on a social
> excursion – collectively.”
>
> There seems to be a resurgence of popular interest in alternative
> education. The Hayward Gallery in London recently held a symposium
> named after Ivan Illich’s book ‘Deschooling Society’
>
> There is clearly a need being filled by peer based learning
> initiatives. With a growing public engagement with the language and
> discourse of digital media. Peer based initiatives today are aligning
> themselves more explicitly with the sharing principles of the digital
> commons.
>
> The Art school in the Art school is a good example of this. Run out of
> a third floor apartment in Syracuse New York -
>
> “The Art School in The Art School (The AS in The AS) seeks to generate
> a creative and intellectual community through an open school / open
> source structure. Through activities such as classes, discussions,
> forming groups of interest, reading groups, critique groups,
> workshops, eating and drinking, publishing, and making, The AS in the
> AS seeks to create an experimental environment for shared inquiry. All
> events are FREE and open to the public.
> The school exists in relation (opposition, subversion, supplement,
> mimicry) to Syracuse University’s School of Art and Design, which
> embodies typical US art school and university educational practices.
> The AS in The AS is a platform for self-organization: its activities
> are generated through suggestions, proposals, conversations, and
> finding ways to make things happen”
>
> Requests, suggestions and proposals for classes are posted on the Art
> Schools website. Here we see greater attention given to subjects that
> might otherwise fall outside of the remit of conventional educational
> practice. In addition to the art theory reading groups and avant garde
> film screenings there are classes exploring alternative funding
> models, barter swaps, micro lending, and discussions on student debt.
> There’s a strong focus on electronic and digital media with classes in
> building low power FM transmitters, introductory classes to Arduino
> and Pure Data. The school also lends itself to a more laid back
> treatment of taboo subjects in education hosting discussions on the
> role of drugs and alcohol in art.
> This fits nicely with the happy hour, art swap, beer making\bottling
> class and the proposed procrastination class.
> The excitement around this project is reflected in the comments people
> have left when visiting the website and I wish it success.
>
> Art for me is all about the free and open sharing of ideas. Creating
> spaces that nurture and support this are an essential part of this
> process. Knowledge resources and libraries play an important role too.
> For peer based learning networks internet is that resource. Internet
> access liberates us from geographic and economic constraints that
> previously limited access to public libraries and educational
> institutions.
> I remember trying to get my hands on a copy of Guy Debord’s film the
> Society of the Spectacle back in 2004. You couldn’t buy a copy it had
> been out of circulation for years. Eventually I found a really poor
> quality .avi with english subs on an edonkey file sharing network. It
> took forever to download. Which strangely added to my excitement.
> Since that time there has been a surge of interest in the Situationist
> movement accompanied by the release of a DVD box set of Debords films
> in France in 2008. There has not yet been an official English language
> translation or release. But many of the films are now available with
> English srt subtitles in DVD quality on file sharing networks. Is
> there a direct connection between the resurgence of interest in the
> work of the Situationists and the availability of those works on file
> sharing networks? Its hard to say. But this is only one example of the
> value of pirate libraries and networks in supporting access to out of
> print or difficult to find creative works.
> Creative archives and libraries such as http://ubu.com/
> http://a.aaaarg.org/ http://burundi.sk/monoskop/log/ are incredible
> resources
> offering cash strapped students and researchers free access to a world
> of art historical resources as well as critical texts in cultural
> theory. An avant garde library at your fingertips. This food for
> thought makes fertile ground for creative and critical discourse.
> As artists its important to support and build on this.
> Exciting times.
>

-- 
P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
http://listcultures.org/mailman/listinfo/p2presearch_listcultures.org

Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens;
http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens

Think thank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20100509/e7afef33/attachment-0001.html>