(Image by Phillip Guston)

“…No one can prove …that any given book or film is better than all the others.”

And here it is, wallop, my biggest problem / difficulty when it comes to teaching – taste-based bias. Does me, or any other teacher, liking or not liking a piece of work really matter in terms of a student’s progression? Could you argue my experience as a commercial image maker has some precedence? But how much and what type of experience genuinely warrants a more educated or superior taste? Surely to go into teaching with an attitude of hierarchical tastes between students and teacher would be ill advised?

“…If …I say that the painting is beautiful, then I am not in fact describing the painting at all. Instead, I am talking about myself,”

…Which is of course bad practice as a teacher? Obviously some technical or referential insight here and there is helpful, but this line really struck a chord with me. Is how an image makes me feel in relation to previous experiences, as Kant argues aesthetic taste is, of any use to a student?   

“Beautiful art . . . promotes the cultivation of the mental powers for sociable communication”

I take from this that ‘beautiful’ art is capable of building communities, which I really agree with. Putting the definition of beautiful to one side momentarily, shared artistic, aesthetic tastes can definitely build collectives, often in the face of adversity, look at the impressionists. I suppose updating this statement post Duchamp however would probably require substituting the word beautiful. What would be the shared adjective for the aesthetics of the original punk movement be? Or todays, post William Gibson, post millennial, post gabber techno and post gender art school ravers?    

“…On the other hand, a work art may be spoiled if used in the service of an external purpose”

Context is everything! This is an interesting point I often talk about with my students. Controlling the perception of an image through its location or presentation can often be as important as the image itself. For example, it’s almost impossible to appreciate the album artwork of some music you find abhorrent even though its appearance is unaffected. It’s the same as an artist’s unsavoury behaviour putting you off the work. Look at Picasso; his romantic career doesn’t stand up to contemporary standards meaning some people have really been put off his paintings.

“…decentring, in which patients move to a wider perspective on their symptoms and problems. Instead of “being” their negative thoughts and emotions, patients are helped to “reframe” these as mental events in a wider context of awareness. There is a parallel here with art criticism.”

Using a psychotherapeutic stance to view art successfully is such a great comparison however not without issues. By taking a step back in your thinking to widen your observational stance on a work in relation to other factors is certainly the soundest advice I can take from the piece. However, in always taking this wider view would you be in danger of overlooking the nuances of a work? In its extreme this theory would almost suggest if a work related to a wider context, it is more worthwhile? Which could then lead us on to the point of populism vs freedom of expression and perhaps an even bigger question. Forget what makes an image beautiful – what makes an image successful? (+ how the hell can I teach that?!).

Although I have neither negative or positive feelings toward this quote from today’s workshop I still found it particularly interesting. A lot of my reasoning for taking on the course is trying to locate my role within my (illustration) team. On joining it, particularly on MA, I was initially surprised at how, to be brutally honest, little experience there was of illustration. So this quote triggered some thinking around my navigation as a teacher and learner and how valueble is my experience as an illustrator?

On one hand student’s projects range so heavily within illustration its hard to facilitate the research knowledge students require to progress. On the other hand having experience relating to actual, professional, image making, I believe, can be really helpful.

However according to the conversations at the in person session combined with the course’s promotion of reflective, self referential study its seemingly all up for debate and I couldn’t be happier! What I’m most enjoying about this socratic approach is the freedom its giving me. If your goal is always to question and experiment you can remove the anxiety of perfection.

Through conversation and introspection, in the end this quote’s legacy to my teaching practice has been to strive to always enjoy not knowing. I’ve always enjoyed rough, spontaneous and unfinished art so maybe now it’s time to apply that to my teaching?

“A work of art has an author and yet, when it is perfect, it has something which is anonymous about it.” Simone Weil.

In my tutorial with John he reiterated the daunting fact that I would be the most important subject matter throughout the course. So in order to address this, I first needed to face the thing that always gets in the way of my learning – I’m just not very good at learning! I have long been a professional procrastinator and a ruthless hunter of distraction which is why this course is so, so necessary. Sure, I’ll watch every documentary and YouTube talk on my areas of interest going, but studying actual books, with just words, I have to admit – rarely happens. So to seek some advice I turned to an episode of ‘Speaking of Psychology’ (the podcast of the American Psychological Association) entitled ‘Study Like A Champ’ about the book of the same name. Although the title stinks of all American smugness, the interviewees Regan Gurung, PhD, and John Dunlosky, PhD give some genuinely great advice I shall definitely be taking forward:

“Learning is just difficult!”

This is something I think I hadn’t really admitted to myself going into this course – it’s not going to be easy and more importantly if it is easy i’m probably doings something wrong. Coasting the course to pass will of course get me the qualification but if I don’t fully engage my actual learning will be extremely limited.

“Prepare for how we (you) are going to learn”

Already I feel as if I am a bit out of the loop on the course and if I am truly honest with myself its because I haven’t made sufficient plans as to how I am going to navigate my learning. Before I even get into thinking about how best to retain knowledge I need to plan the best and right time to do so. Planning is key.

“Copious note taking …is a strategy in itself …and helps us organise out material”

Ironically I felt this point especially hard as I lost my original notes; making me realise I had in fact, remembered very little about the podcast. According to Dunlosky, studies have shown that writing notes doesn’t necessarily increase the intake of knowledge over those who haven’t written notes; it simply gives you a record. Although this may sound obvious it helped me to realise how little we actually retain in memory alone. Also the grouped notes I’ve taken on the podcast have definitely help me to sufficiently compartmentalise the information in a way that makes this blog post a doddle.

The way in which you make notes also has significance. However, Interestingly there is apparently no difference in retention between digital and hand written note taking. However ‘any device that enables you to be distracted by something else can be problematic.’ For example in writing this post I have checked my email multiple times as notifications come in, something I wouldn’t suffer from my trusty Pukka Pad (that replaced the aforementioned lost one).

“Anything that is using mental energy is taking energy away from what we are focusing on”

Studying in relation to brain activity is essentially the practice of turning information into long term memory, however working memory has limited capacity. So reducing your activities whilst learning is the most effective way to synthesize knowledge. Basically – distractions no matter how small are going to impede on the amount of information you take in. I can definitely relate as I have been drawing whilst observing these online seminars so its no surprise I have probably taken little in.

“Doing something with the material”

When students create their own working examples of how to apply the information at hand they are way more likely to take it onboard. I feel like this is such good advice from my experience as both teacher and student. For me, concepts become so much more useful if you can find ways of applying them and expanding on them in your own practice. However, coming up with an example of me using an example now seems a bit gratuitous!

Overall these aren’t groundbreaking in terms of techniques but in realising they are things I probably already knew I feel better equipped to get going on the course. Similairly I was able to use some of the techniques as I wrote about them making the process of writing this post genuinly valueble to my learning. 

Also mentioned in that previous article was an interesting video about Turkish academics starting their own alternative art institution. Long story short the government had fired any and all Turkish national university staff who had voiced solidarity with Kurdish resistance. Interestingly the staff that still had their jobs in the original institution organised a salary share with those carrying out unpaid work in this new art school. I wonder if that would happen in London?

This video by by Oscar Durand and Kathryn Hamilton nicely outlines the project and its intentions.

On looking into the legacy of Joseph Beuys’ alternative educational ideas I found out about the ‘Blueprint for Counter Education’. It was a boxed publication with accompanying posters that acted as a portable university founded by sociologist Maurice Stein and his collaborater Larry Miller. The great tagline reads: “This counter-university makes obsolete the traditional university process … There is no textbook, no final exam; and the ‘faculty’ includes Marcuse, McLuhan, Eldridge Cleaver, and Jean-Luc Godard.” It was/is an exciting pedagogical experiment to subvert the organization of knowledge in the form of a “highly participative series of art-life games”. As a graphic designer and huge fan of Dada I was immediately drawn to the design of the posters particularly in this satisfyingly sci-fi looking dummy room.

Heres the original article: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/31/beuys-legacy-artist-led-university-projects

And more info about the above: https://blueprintforcountereducation.com/