Modes of Criticism - radical pedagogy

Radicalise Me - Danah Abdulla

Education is political

Being radical within the context of the work

Challenging ones teaching practice

Power hierarchy – allowing students to challenge your ideas etc. is radical, although what’s interesting in that comment is Abdulla’s terminology – ‘allow’ shows that even within her own text the hierarchy is clear.

Design Friction - Anja Groten

·      “Who are you designing against?” “Which communities do you affect with your design?”

·      Participatory design, people partake and contribute to the design and development, an attempt to address social questions in design – socially engaged practice, male photographers.  Reducing domination of experts and decentralising the design process. Looking at an exhibition I reviewed all female artists had collaborated with the social groups, the two male artists hadn’t it was quite clearly their aesthetic, in fact in another project the social group refused to continue working with them on the grounds that they weren’t listening. So why are so many commissioned?  Communities determined by their commonalities usually, but why not by their differences. Distribution of funding – shouldn’t we critically examine?

o   Different perspectives with design practice

§  Materialistic perspective (product as catalysts)

§  Ethical perspective (designer as catalyst)

§  Political perspective (process as catalyst)

·      “Intertwined practical as well as political concerns”

·      “Collaborative design, ceasing hierarchies, abandoning strict task distribution and solution-driven approaches” – makes me go back to migrating birds, which is something I noted in my interview for the phd, flying in V formation, at one point someone takes the lead, then someone else, and so it goes on, to work effectively as a team is to have a lead on your area and your strengths, to remove egos

·      Hackers & Designers – challenge predetermined hierarchies, non-commercial and non-institutional space. Short period of time for research, collab, more like a residency for designers than a new form of education?

·      “Why are the authors of the books I read so white so male so Eurocentric” – THIS! On the MA it was only white male Europeans, like no one else has done research.

Education at 400bpm - Hannah Ellis 

“People come to education for different reasons, and stay for different reasons”

It’s quite telling that Hannah Ellis references Fletcher from Whiplash first and foremost in her essay. The character Fletcher, played flawlessly by JK Simmons, pushes his students to the edge in the belief that this will make them the greatest Jazz players. The idea that the lecturer knows best, that they have nothing to learn from their students, and whose personal ambition shadows any teaching is something I’ve seen in both Universities that I went to.

Ellis notes that within the field of graphic design, although this isn’t limited to this field, that lecturers are ‘graphic designers first, educators second – if at all’, going further as to say “with stability comes banality (the ups and downs relatively minor compared to the rollercoaster extremes of precarious zero-hours employment) and instead, days are thick with things that aren’t teaching but have to waded through just to keep things happening.” I’ve heard this argument from many people I’ve worked with over the years, that paperwork does not allow them to do their job, forgetting that its part of the job, and usually the people who use the words ‘wading through’ are those who lack organisational skills. The people who spend half and hour telling you they are too busy to do a certain task that would take ten minutes. When I see these comments I’m reminded how few lecturers have left academia and worked in different environments, or indeed on their own without a University backing them, you cannot underestimate the impact this has on your own learning and understanding of the greater creative arena. Perhaps if their lack of education and experience wasn’t an issue they would be able to support students and work around the red tape that many of us do in our jobs, creating artists not churning out “battery students”.

Ellis mentions “the educational fringe” as being looked sideways by lecturers, this may be the case in design, but in photography lecturers don’t even know about alternative schools or what they stand for, how they develop artistic practices etc. I find it difficult for lecturers to claim you believe and stand for education and completely disregard everything outside of formal education, it’s incredibly narrow minded and will not allow for change within the institute.

What also cannot be ignored is at the time of writing this the Black Rights Movement has seen a resurgence. This leads to conversations about the arts, artists, equality, and also education. Every lecturer I have had over two photography degrees are white, that isn’t unusual in photography, looking at many courses across the UK that is norm. The students themselves are also white, this leads onto inclusivity as well as accessibility. Tuition fees cause a dividing line, this is something that alternative schools have always tried to counteract, to open up education for all, but in reality it leads to a different kind of exclusivity. There are still questions over time and money in order to attend, even if the program is free you still incur costs to attend, to travel, visit exhibitions etc. You also need to know about these schools in the first place, many of which, unsurprisingly, are focused in London and the south.