A Different MFA Question

On Thursday, August 26, 2004, at 03:37PM, Jason Van Anden <[email protected]> wrote:

>I do not have an MFA.
>For those of you that have one:

I've an MA in Electronic Arts (1996). Occasionally someone says I should put "MA" after my name, but that always seems pretentious.

>How have you personally benefited from achieving it?

Yes. MDX taught you a lot: history, current practice, maths, code, electronics. It had good connections and opportunities during the course. Surviving an intensive course is good for confidence and self-reliance as well as the more concrete stuff you learn and produce.

> … having it?

Somewhat. The social network was/is good. I don't think it's affected my prospects outside that.

Anyone considering a course needs to evaluate what it offers in total, not just how eager the course is to have your money. You need to be taught something, given support and insight, and afforded opportunities. If anything's missing from that list, the others had better be *unbelievably* good to make up for it.

- Rob.

I don't have one either. I don't think my life would be any different
if I had one.

I do have a BFA.

congrats on the show :-)


On Aug 26, 2004, at 10:25 AM, Jason Van Anden wrote:

> I do not have an MFA.
>
> For those of you that have one:
> How have you personally benefited from achieving it?
> … having it?
>
> Jason Van Anden
> www.smileproject.com



===
<twhid>http://www.mteww.com</twhid>
===

Thanks t.whid!
Back at ya!

Hmm … maybe this means an MFA isn't so important.

Jason Van Anden
www.smileproject.com

t.whid wrote:

> I don't have one either. I don't think my life would be any different
> if I had one.
>
> I do have a BFA.
>
> congrats on the show :-)

If you are making art on a regular basis and feel that you have a good
understanding of your own personal psyche don

Ok, here goes;

For a while, I got by without an mfa. However, after the dot-com crash
and the Bush tyranny against the arts, I found that money has gotten
increasingly scarce. And, although I have a good resume, industry
experience, etc, I find that the workplace is getting more
production-oriented (as if it weren't already), and honestly, I'm tired
of having to compete with all the really good 25-year olds who are
satisfied with getting their foot in the door.

And, as an independent artist of over a decade, certain obstacles come
up when it comes to organizing larger projects or trying to work for
social justice within the machine outwards. There's only so far you can
go at times without dealing with institutions. In addition, the options
are greater for me after an MFA.

Furthermore, it gives a chance to, for 2-3 years, to really sink your
teeth into some really meaty work. I mean just geek out at a higher
level than you did before.

There are people who live quite well, are happy without, and don't need
an MFA. That's like the techno-pundits saying you have to have a
computer nowadays or you're irrelevant. That's a lie.

You don't need an MFA to be an artist; but to have one opens certain
doors you might want to have to have opened. If this is not what you
want, then an MFA might be an enriching experience, (if you're at the
right place), but doesn't do more than develop you as a person or maybe
even as an artist. Also remember that development is not always
positive, too.

If you want an MFA - go for it. But you should really want it. If you
just want it for a better job, stay home (I admit that this is a
fraction of why I'm around one, but only a fraction). You'll do better
work there.

All I'm saying is that you should just be honest with yourself about
your motives. I had to come to that place myself, and it was tough.

Patrick Lichty
Editor-In-Chief
Intelligent Agent Magazine
http://www.intelligentagent.com
1556 Clough Street, #28
Bowling Green, OH 43402
225 288 5813
[email protected]

"It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees."


—–Original Message—–
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf
Of Jason Van Anden
Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2004 5:01 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RHIZOME_RAW: Re: A Different MFA Question

Thanks t.whid!
Back at ya!

Hmm … maybe this means an MFA isn't so important.

Jason Van Anden
www.smileproject.com

t.whid wrote:

> I don't have one either. I don't think my life would be any different
> if I had one.
>
> I do have a BFA.
>
> congrats on the show :-)
+
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Dear jason,

Wow simple and great question.

Yes it was a fantastic thing. To be to grow up with your work. To have time
to sink into it endlessly. To connect with friends about it. To be
inspired as well as to rage against the professors. To self define. To
still live by the expansive energy of it including the difficulty of it. It
was a core piece of the formation of a life. Go for it if you go for it for
itself. It's not a resume thing. Go only to a program that really calls to
you. That makes sense to you. Its the only way its worth it.
Thanks for asking ( something rarely is asked about! :-)

Christina

On 8/26/04 7:25 AM, "Jason Van Anden" <[email protected]> wrote:

> I do not have an MFA.
>
> For those of you that have one:
> How have you personally benefited from achieving it?
> … having it?
>
> Jason Van Anden
> www.smileproject.com
> +
> -> post: [email protected]
> -> questions: [email protected]
> -> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
> -> give: http://rhizome.org/support
> -> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
> +
> Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
> Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php

–
soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory


<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>

Tremendous benefit. I went into CADRE thinking that I was going to make
digital video, web media, director movies, and otherwise design for the
screen. I came out with an sound exposure and much experience in working
with information technology (note: not just multimedia) at all levels
and in all of its forms, as a medium. Graduate school not only gave me a
better grounding in the history of practice in the art discipline area,
but provided a number of different ways of thinking about how art might
be inflected by various the various cultural theories, scientific and
technical developments, politics, and media disciplines that are the
significant mediators of culture. And as Christina said, the time you
have to focus on your work and the relationships you develop are really
wonderful. (My practice is 100% collaborative - and I am still working
closely with many people I went to grad school with, and in fact, the
chairperson of my MFA committee, Joel Slayton.)

Also of importance to me was the opportunity I had to learn how to teach
well, and the gum-strengthening that you get from the flossing you take
when asked to defend your work before a large (often hostile) faculty
drawn from every sub-discipline of the arts. I have never had tougher,
more difficult and often more irrational audiences (mostly on the part
of older faculty who felt threatened by a medium that they made no
attempt to understand and viewed as an interloper), during public
presentations. Finally, grad school encourages artists to transform
their indulgence in particular media into broader research agendas; this
is a present and growing role for artists. The future is less a matter
of masturbating with pre-existing media and trying to attract critics to
"the product", (I nice metaphor for all of the problems with modernism,
imho), and more a matter creating models and new tech which facilitate
the production of further knowledge, understanding, and quite
importantly, the promotion of greater agency and autonomy (or protecting
what is left), as networks and media blur the bounds between human and
machine. And digressing a little, grad school was a lot of fun… days
of being relatively poor - falling into debt - but happy anyway.

Christina McPhee wrote:
> Dear jason,
>
> Wow simple and great question.
>
> Yes it was a fantastic thing. To be to grow up with your work. To have time
> to sink into it endlessly. To connect with friends about it. To be
> inspired as well as to rage against the professors. To self define. To
> still live by the expansive energy of it including the difficulty of it. It
> was a core piece of the formation of a life. Go for it if you go for it for
> itself. It's not a resume thing. Go only to a program that really calls to
> you. That makes sense to you. Its the only way its worth it.
> Thanks for asking ( something rarely is asked about! :-)
>
> Christina
>
> On 8/26/04 7:25 AM, "Jason Van Anden" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>I do not have an MFA.
>>
>>For those of you that have one:
>>How have you personally benefited from achieving it?
>> … having it?
>>
>>Jason Van Anden
>>www.smileproject.com
>>+
>>-> post: [email protected]
>>-> questions: [email protected]
>>-> subscribe/unsubscribe: http://rhizome.org/preferences/subscribe.rhiz
>>-> give: http://rhizome.org/support
>>-> visit: on Fridays the Rhizome.org web site is open to non-members
>>+
>>Subscribers to Rhizome are subject to the terms set out in the
>>Membership Agreement available online at http://rhizome.org/info/29.php
>
>

–
Brett Stalbaum
Lecturer, psoe
Coordinator, ICAM
Department of Visual Arts, mail code 0084
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gillman
La Jolla CA 92093