i watched a pbs tv show tonight on martin luther king. i was familiar with
most of the material already, but it was well put together and there were
interviews with people close to king that i hadn't seen before. mostly what
i (re)learned was that king worked not only for the civil rights of black
people but also worked more generally for a more just redistribution of
wealth, whether for black or white or whomever, and he also stood strongly
against the vietnam war.
anyway, i suspect all of us net.artists have occassion to wonder what more
we can do than the art itself to help this poor old world a bit. I went to
the http://pbs.org site, and the show on king was linked from the homepage,
though even if it weren't, there's a good on-site search engine that
would've let me or a kid find it. i was wondering what sort of experience
this would be in relation to the documentary. and it's really pretty
interesting. I've seen this before with pbs stuff: the show is great and the
Web site is inspiring and opens onto a wealth of material both onsite and
elsewhere on the web and in books and audio files and videos.
also, they're thinking of the kids and their teachers. which i think is
really important in a project like this one and also in some of ours.
there's a "teacher's guide" link with proposed activities. like building
time lines concerning the civil rights movement. when you poke around on the
site itself there's actually a few timelines that would help the kids with
this sort of project. i see the activities are divided into groups like
history, geography, civics, and economics.
i think it's pretty cool to see the broadcasters making such inspiring use
of the net. and in integration of media: tv and the net. and there's all
sorts of books listed as well. maybe the artists can take a lesson or two
from the broadcasters at pbs.
ja
http://vispo.com
citizen king
-
Type: discussion
Comments
art isn't necessarily particularly didactic or at all didactic, of course.
it isn't so much about teaching lessons as creating challenging experiences.
still, such experiences are important in schools and there's great scope for
art in education. i take it that part of what we're about as net.artists is
to help society use computers imaginatively and wisely. so that they become
extensions of our humanity even as we move into the 'post human' (which is
the human extended by technology). that requires people experience
imaginative and wise use of computers, and it also requires that they be
able to find their way to their own imaginative and wise use of computers.
the art provides the former. but artists can help with the latter too, in
their projects.
ja
http://vispo.com
On Tuesday, January 11, 2005, at 11:47AM, Jim Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:
>art isn't necessarily particularly didactic or at all didactic, of course.
>it isn't so much about teaching lessons as creating challenging experiences.
>still, such experiences are important in schools and there's great scope for
>art in education. i take it that part of what we're about as net.artists is
>to help society use computers imaginatively and wisely. so that they become
>extensions of our humanity even as we move into the 'post human' (which is
>the human extended by technology). that requires people experience
>imaginative and wise use of computers, and it also requires that they be
>able to find their way to their own imaginative and wise use of computers.
>the art provides the former. but artists can help with the latter too, in
>their projects.
Another book I'm waiting for in the mail may be of interest here:
Handbook of Inaesthetics
Alain Badiou, Translated by Alberto Toscano
This volume presents a new proposal for the link between philosophy and art. Badiou identifies and rejects the three schemes of didacticism, romanticism, and classicism that he sees as having governed traditional "aesthetics," and seeks a fourth mode of accounting for the educative value of works of art.
168 pages, 2005.
ISBN 0804744092 paper ISBN 0804744084 cloth
- Rob.
From an educator's perspective, a concise book on the topic is "Creating Significant Learning Experiences." The paradigm is not to shovel data from professor's brain to student's notebook, but to design courses that cause students to have, er, significant learning experiences. Which is what Joseph Beuys was doing in his courses all along. Not all education is didactic. The most effective education is frequently not.
The question is, who are we trying to educate? To whom are we speaking? This summer I will teach at Anderson Ranch Arts Center ( http://andersonranch.org ) along with Josh Davis and Mark Tribe. The Ranch is premised on the belief that "to create is human." All very egalitarian and appealing to my personal, craft-centric ethic.
T. Whid has argued here before that he is an artist, not an educator, and that he is not responsible to bend over backwards to speak to the masses or jump through hoops to help them understand his art. Fair enough. Ironically, I think MTAA's work is becoming increasingly accessible, which to me is a good thing.
So artist's aren't responsible to educate the masses. I agree. But I would innocuously suggest that artists (particularly net artists) try to avoid speaking exclusively to any single, parochial group – even if that single group consists of "important" people like academics, new media curators, hardcore C++ coders, or all the beautiful people in Manhattan. To me, a lot of early net.art feels trivial, narrow, and incestuous because it was largely an insider game amongst a few friends. But at least it was a game at all and the friends were marginally interesting.
What every artist needs is a good biographer, critic, or curator who can make his work accessible to the public. Every Turner needs his Ruskin, so to speak. You can try to be your own Ruskin (cf: DJ Spooky/Paul D. Miller or Miltos Manetas/Miltos Manetas), but you'll inevitably run into a conflict of interest.
Regarding PBS online, check their companion site for the PBS Art21 series:
http://pbs.org/art21/
Along with all the meta-art documentation, they even include a working Golan Levin piece on the site.
_
Jim Andrews wrote:
> art isn't necessarily particularly didactic or at all didactic, of
> course.
> it isn't so much about teaching lessons as creating challenging
> experiences.
> still, such experiences are important in schools and there's great
> scope for
> art in education. i take it that part of what we're about as
> net.artists is
> to help society use computers imaginatively and wisely. so that they
> become
> extensions of our humanity even as we move into the 'post human'
> (which is
> the human extended by technology). that requires people experience
> imaginative and wise use of computers, and it also requires that they
> be
> able to find their way to their own imaginative and wise use of
> computers.
> the art provides the former. but artists can help with the latter too,
> in
> their projects.
>
> ja
> http://vispo.com
>
>
On Jan 11, 2005, at 11:52 AM, curt cloninger wrote:
>
>
> T. Whid has argued here before that he is an artist, not an educator,
> and that he is not responsible to bend over backwards to speak to the
> masses or jump through hoops to help them understand his art. Fair
> enough. Ironically, I think MTAA's work is becoming increasingly
> accessible, which to me is a good thing.
haha. Maybe. But my Mom found 1ypv
(http://www.mteww.com/mtaaRR/on-line_art/1_year_perfomance_video.html)
pretty boring. I think she described it as 'watching the grass grow.'
take care,
===
<twhid>http://www.mteww.com</twhid>
===
> Handbook of Inaesthetics
>
> Alain Badiou, Translated by Alberto Toscano
>
> This volume presents a new proposal for the link between
> philosophy and art. Badiou identifies and rejects the three
> schemes of didacticism, romanticism, and classicism that he sees
> as having governed traditional "aesthetics," and seeks a fourth
> mode of accounting for the educative value of works of art.
>
> - Rob.
Thanks, Rob. I can't find much on the Net about this book except
http://www.sup.org/cgi-bin/search/book_desc.cgi?book_idD08%204409
How did you come to this book?
there's usually some educational dimension to art. it usually isn't made for
the classroom though. not that it necessarily should be. but it's an
interesting option both in terms of art and education possibs.
also, there are generally schools close by that need help with their
computer set up and with how computers are approached, used, etc.
i guess schools are trepidatious about involving a lot of volunteers. but
education can't really be just left to the pros. though the education
systems do need more money for pros and other resources. it seems that
people who know what they're doing (in any sense) with computers
(technically or imaginatively or socially or concerning business etc) are in
short supply and schools should increasingly be open to volunteer efforts to
help kids get a sense of what's up and how to do stuff, particularly in the
fundamentals, since the teachers are bound to be very much in the dark
themselves except in the most fundamental of fundamentals, perhaps, the
blandest and most basic things.
ja
On Wednesday, January 12, 2005, at 07:54AM, Jim Andrews <[email protected]> wrote:
>Thanks, Rob. I can't find much on the Net about this book except
>http://www.sup.org/cgi-bin/search/book_desc.cgi?book_idD08%204409
>
>How did you come to this book?
I was looking for interesting contemporary philosophy and my Google-fu is mighty. ;-) I got the copy I ordered this morning, so I'll let you know if it's any good. What Badiou I've found on the web reads very well. I'm getting the big compendium of his stuff next:
http://www.continuumbooks.com/BookDetail.aspx?BookID
> I think it's the state more than the pros. Computer education
> must be socially enriching, not just a freebie for future
> employees. Beware freeing up money for pay-TV or vending machines
> by volunteering. :-( I think we need to start thinking of
> education and social support as something that people can (and
> must) do rather than states.
Teachers have their hands full, certainly, and work hard just to stay
afloat. And there aren't enough of them, they aren't payed enough, etc. A
brave bunch, as far as I'm concerned. I agree that "computer education must
be socially enriching, not just a freebie for future employees." I think
that states must continue to play the largest role in education–and put
more money in it and make it more possible for poor people to be
well-educated–but I agree that people who aren't professional teachers need
to pass on what they know to the kids at schools, whether that's through
actually working in the schools or paying more attention to the schools in
things like art materials for study or whatever.
One could (and it has undoubtedly already been done well) do an interesting
piece of art that consisted of activities for kids concerning net.art and
computing more broadly.
http://www.16beavergroup.org/journalisms/archives/000633.php is an engaging
sequence of "theses" on art by Alain Badiou; yes, he seems quite
interesting. I look forward to your thoughts on the book of his 'Handbook of
Inaesthetics'.
ja
http://vispo.com