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.

http://kevflanagan.wordpress.com/

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