[-empyre-] FW: empyre January 2013 wrap: International Art English

Tue Jan 29 01:34:11 EST 2013

Yes - but...

...whilst the origins of IAE might be in some of the pseudo-intellectual back channels of second rate academia its sustenance is driven by commerce, in the form of the art market. Not quite the same thing as Korsyn is identifying.

best

Simon

On 28 Jan 2013, at 11:05, Phi Shu wrote:

>   “When [art] becomes the object of academic disciplines as it is today, discourse can become a site of struggle among the factions and interest groups that compete for the cultural authority to speak about [art]. The expert critical and technical languages that these groups invent can foster a social bond among those who share them, but they can also alienate and exclude outsiders.”  Korsyn (2003:6)
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> On Mon, Jan 28, 2013 at 11:02 AM, D Ryan <digimaton at gmail.com> wrote:
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> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Simon Biggs
> Sent: 28 January 2013 09:37
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] empyre January 2013 wrap: International Art English
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> IAE (on closer inspection) seems to stand for International Art English. Language functions to establish difference and exclusivity. Being able to speak a certain way marks you as a member of a group - whether a class, a sub-culture or a club. Art schools have always been an entry point to the art world - although not the only entry point. At this point in time the PhD does not appear to represent such an entry point. To some extent it seems to be lead to another door, with the art world rather keen to keep it's door firmly closed to those who might knock on it from this direction of entry. The door the PhD leads to is also closely guarded by guardians who seem rather nervous about what might happen if they let these new arrivals in. Every group has its gatekeepers (often self-appointed).
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> Don't we all love human behaviour?
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> best
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> Simon
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> On 28 Jan 2013, at 08:52, Phi Shu wrote:
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> Thanks Simon.
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> and finally for me, an item in the news today that sums up part of the problem with writing about art:
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> IAE always uses "more rather than fewer words". Sometimes it uses them with absurd looseness: "Ordinary words take on non-specific alien functions. 'Reality,' writes artist Tania Bruguera, 'functions as my field of action.'" And sometimes it deploys words with faddish precision: "Usage of the word speculative spiked unaccountably in 2009; 2011 saw a sudden rage for rupture; transversal now seems poised to have its best year ever."
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> IAE has made art harder for non-professionals.In fact, even art professionals can feel oppressed by it. The artists who've responded most positively to the essay, says Rule, "are the ones who have been through master of fine arts programmes" where IAE is pervasive.
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> From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of Simon Biggs
> Sent: 27 January 2013 16:51
> To: soft_skinned_space
> Subject: [-empyre-] empyre January 2013 wrap
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> As we approach the end of the month of January we bring the month's theme on research and practice in relation to the artist's PhD to a close - although informal discussion can continue. In the next couple of days Renate and Tim will announce the empyre theme and our guests for the month of February.
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> We would like to thank this week's discussants Keith Armstrong, Wendy Kirkup, Mike Leggett, Daniela Alina Plewe and Miguel Santos, as well as the invited discussants for the prior two weeks, Cécile Chevalier, Laura Cinti, Talan Memmott, Maria Mencía, Anne Sarah Le Meur, Maria Grade Godinho, Sue Hawksley, Donna Leishman and Bronwyn Platten. We would also like to thank all those members of empyre who have contributed to what has been a lively and intriguing debate and everyone who has been following the discussion. Empyre continues to be a dynamic living community of people who continue to find the listserv environment one that can facilitate critical and discursive exchange.
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> To place this month's discussion, on the relationship between research and practice in connection with artist's PhDs, in something of an historical context it might be relevant to remind ourselves that the empyre listserv was, itself, developed as part of an artist's PhD project. Melinda Rackham, who's PhD titled Empyrean: Soft Skinned Space was awarded in 2003, established the empyre listserv as part her doctoral research in order to seek clearer insight into how creative practitioners actively form themselves within the nebulous and motile spaces that are the internet and consider how that discursive space can foster more motile and fluid properties that often absent in other structured contexts. In a sense our discussion this month has, over ten years later, seen a revisiting of some of the themes Melinda was engaging and which, as we have seen, other creative practitioners, seeking to understand how research can inform their work, have continued to query. Over the decade the internet has changed enormously, with the advent of Facebook, Twitter and other mediating layers and protocols that have functioned to remediate the internet, forming what is sometimes called Web 2.0 or the social web. In this context Melinda's model of what the social might be continues to be highly relevant.
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> It remains apparent that the circle is not closed and the debate concerning research and creative practice remains open, active and disputed. Given that as artists and researchers we wouldn't want it any other way we can assume we agree this is generally a good thing.
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> Many thanks to all for this month's enlightening and engaging discussion.
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> best
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> Simon
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> _______________________________________________
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> Simon Biggs
> simon at littlepig.org.uk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk
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> s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
> 
> http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
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> _______________________________________________
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Simon Biggs
simon at littlepig.org.uk http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ @SimonBiggsUK skype: simonbiggsuk

s.biggs at ed.ac.uk Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/edinburgh-college-art/school-of-art/staff/staff?person_id=182&cw_xml=profile.php
http://www.research.ed.ac.uk/portal/en/persons/simon-biggs%285dfcaf34-56b1-4452-9100-aaab96935e31%29.html

http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/  http://www.elmcip.net/  http://www.movingtargets.org.uk/  http://designinaction.com/
MSc by Research in Interdisciplinary Creative Practices
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees?id=656&cw_xml=details.php

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