[-empyre-] about Brooke's post

Fri May 24 01:20:22 EST 2013

I am so happy the conversation is going deeper and we are discussing
methodologies and the real politics of the education and the training of
artists and writers as part of a corporative society.
I hope this answer Simon's post about not finding so much material att
discuss about :)
When I proposed to Renate and Tim the topic of this month's discussion it
was based on my own experiences, needs and unsolved questions.
I am a trained anthropologist as Gabriela and I am also a writer, as a
writer I am not educated at all, it means I have never been in a creative
writing course or attend any university to study writing. But I am a writer
since very young and has published 14 books in different languages.
As a writer or as an artist you are demanded to know everything about
publishing houses, to pay taxes as a writer or from your sold pictures if
you are an artist.
My friend Cecilia Parsberg, guest in the earlier weeks of this discussion,
withdrew herself from the gallery she showed photography on because she
felt she didn't suit in the gallery system, her photos were too artistic or
to weird for someone to hang on a wall, she photograhied inhabitants of the
shantytown of Soweto in South Africa or homeless in Cape Town...
Her choice of motives made her unsuitable for customers who wanted "nice"
pictures.
She and me collaborate for many years, being human shields in Palestine,
being witness in Jenin, www.ceciliaparsberg/jenin and doing many seminars
and films and exhibitions where our shared skills were put together.
We cooperated with software technicians and other filmmakers and writers to
achieve the maximum of exposure in different places: magazines, galleries,
cultural centers, newspapers, radio, television, bookfairs.
Our strategy was to choose a common goal, Palestine or shared economy or
women against the law (specially important to me, who spent four years in
jail for being against dictatorial laws in my homeland, Uruguay), etc etc
and work as a team adding different people with other skills when we needed
solved things we could not solve self.

Ana

On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 11:48 AM, Ricardo Miranda Zuniga <
ricardo at ambriente.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Gaby,
> As a professor at an inexpensive city college - Hunter College where I
> work with many immigrant and first-generation students of lower middle
> class families/demographics, I am always concerned about preparing
> these students to get a job upon leaving college as well as thinking
> critically.
>
> As I work with my colleagues to build curriculum, we consistently ask
> ourselves two questions - what practical tools do current students
> need to know and how can we guide/enhance their analytical and problem
> solving skills.  I consider these questions with colleagues who also
> teach production courses.  I also have colleagues who only teach
> analysis and do not feel that a liberal arts college should be
> training students in software and take a more purest stance of the
> college as ivory tower.  As the son of poor immigrant parents, I feel
> that the liberal arts college as an environment purely for
> intellectual engagement is unrealistic and short-sighted and that such
> a space reserved for the entitled, wealthy, well-networked elite.  I
> agree that this reality is sad and troubling.
>
> With this in mind, my pedagogical objectives in art and media
> production are the following:
> 1. As Ana points out, collaboration in the classroom is key.  Students
> learn from one another and gain a shared sense of fulfillment.
> 2. Develop/teach skill sets that will be lasting - teach the
> principles, not merely the latest software.  Understanding the
> principles that underlie software will better prepare students to
> ever-evolving software tools.
> 3. Approach software critically - even in computer lab, software-based
> production courses, always present software as tools.  I stress to my
> students that it is the ideas and rigor of approach and production
> that is most important.
> 4. Pair technical and practical material with analytical material.
> 5. Expose students to as much weird shit as possible.  Many of my
> students have only been exposed to mass media and have no knowledge of
> vanguardist movements.  Exposure to alternative modes of production
> functions as a trigger, students see that they can do differently.
> Last semester after presenting the work of the Yes Men, a student
> immediately came up to me to ask how she could join.  I put her in
> touch with Igor and hopefully a new collaboration was spawned.
>
> ricardo
>
> On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 6:22 PM, Gabriela VargasCetina
> <gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx> wrote:
> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I am enjoying this discussion very much.  What I know of Brooke's work
> is very inspiring, and it is difficult to see how the scale or her projects
> would make them manageable by a single person, so the question group /
> individual becomes very relevant.
> >
> > I am an anthropologist and we have pretty much the same problems you
> have all been describing: the humanities and social sciences train students
> to work individually, and not together with other people.  Furthermore, it
> is very difficult to get an anthropologist to work with others from mixed
> training, including mathematicians and artists.  I have been allowed by our
> Faculty of Anthropology to put together courses where students have to
> dance or perform their theoretical concepts, or design
> anthropologically-meaningful websites using theories derived from fiction,
> always in teams.  However, many of my colleagues (especially at other
> universities) think this is all bizarre and nonsensical, and even the
> students think that they do not develop 'useful skills' in my courses.  And
> yes, like art students, as per Ana's comment, anthropology students today
> are being told they should find ways to 'market' themselves to
> corporations, individually, and follow instructions instead of questioning
> the world.  There is the job market problem, though: where will graduates
> from anthropology find employment, other than at the local branches of
> multi-national corporations?  I don't have any answers, but the fact that
> the questions are so difficult is sad and troubling.
> >
> > Gaby Vargas-Cetina
> > Facultad de Ciencias Antropologicas
> > Universidad Autonoma de Yucatan
> >
> > On 5/22/13 4:43 PM, Ana Valdés wrote:
> >
> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> >
> >
> >
> > Brooke I loved your rethoric question:
> >
> > I teach collaboration too and just a few days ago during final
> > presentations saw the power of bringing people together who do not know
> > each other well -- or at all-- for a common cause or, as Paul notes,
> shared
> > agendas. I pair groups of students to make media work for non-profit
> > organizations in Westchester, a pro-bono approach with a participatory
> > design bent. But I guess I am left wondering why collaboration is to this
> > day is still seen as unusual or something special in art practice and art
> > education and not the modus operandi? Now we are going to study
> > individuality ... the methods of and reasons for working alone!!
> >
> > I agree totally with you and wonder why all artist educations
> >
> > are headed to educate artists as "entrepreneurs", as they were
> >
> >
> > heads of an unipersonal enterprise with only them as contracted.
> >
> > I think that's the problem when you try to create the idea
> >
> > artists and writers are "professions" as doctors, podologists,
> >
> >
> > architects, dentists or other.
> >
> > The writing educations grow as swamps, the "creative writing" is now
> >
> > an accepted part of the curriculum in many of the world's universities
> >
> >
> > but do we have seen the growing of a talented writing group
> >
> > of people equivalent to all who are being educated as writers or
> >
> > do we see the same amount of people writing without any
> >
> >
> > academical education?
> >
> > My point is: we are evolving from the concept the artist or the writer
> >
> > as gifted by God and part of an elite to another myth:
> >
> > the artist or writer as part of a corporation, skilling them in
> >
> >
> > selling of their own works, marketing it and publishing it.
> >
> > I think collaboration is nearly mandatory today if you want to make
> > changes and leave a trace in the world we live into.
> >
> >
> > Ana
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > http//congresomujeresdenegromontevideo.wordpress.com
> > http://www.twitter.com/caravia158606060606060
> > http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
> > http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
> > http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0
> >
> >
> >
> > cell Sweden +4670-3213370
> > cell Uruguay +598-99470758
> >
> >
> > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
> your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
> long to return.
> > — Leonardo da Vinci
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Gabriela Vargas-Cetina
> > Facultad de Ciencias Antropológicas
> > Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
> > Carretera a Tizimín km 1
> > Mérida, Yucatán 97305.  México
> > Tel. +52 999 930 0090
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
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>

-- 
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http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0

<http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/>

cell Sweden +4670-3213370
cell Uruguay +598-99470758

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
long to return.
— Leonardo da Vinci
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