Finding the Problem
Bergson’s first rule in the method of intuition involves finding the right questions before looking for solutions: “The truth is that in philosophy and even elsewhere it is a question of finding the problem and consequently positing it, even more than solving it” (1946, p. 58-59, cited in Deleuze 1991, p.15). This is not to say that the solution does not matter, but that “the problem always has the solution it deserves” (Deleuze, 1991, p.16). (Deleuze, G. (1991 [1966]) Bergsonism. New York: Zone Books.)
The following questions are derived from the conversations that took place during the MPF (In) Dialogue event. They are grouped together by broad themes that cut across the three conversations.
Who gets to be part of the art school?
What are the barriers to giving a wider range of people access to art schools?
What criteria is being used in choosing who is allowed into art schools? Who is being excluded?
How can art school avoid the violence implicit in the process of selection and categorisation of prospective students?
How do different art schools define an artist and how does this affect admission and education?
How can we allow more people to experience the seduction of making art?
Can the rules be changed so that anyone who wants to can play?
How can students be treated as peers?
What would it take for students to feel like they are artists and scholars?
What happens when students don’t have to pay for education?
What does it mean for artists when you have:
Free childcare?
Secure employment?
Autonomy for educators?
Respect for artists/educators?
How can the richness of an individual’s lived experience be acknowledged within art schools/universities?
How can art schools build structures of solidarity?
How do we look after one another?
Is the aim to create better art schools, or a world in which art schools are no longer needed?
Are art schools teaching students to be better artists or better people?
Can universities learn to break away from habits of competition and bias?
Can the professionalisation of art be avoided?
What does success mean to an artist? (What should it mean?)
Are art school students performing the idea of the artist as imagined by their teachers?
Is the art school there to educate or to encourage the process of becoming an artist? (Becoming an artist doesn’t stop).
Where is the time needed to make art?
What is important? Teaching? Facilities? Peer groups?
Do art schools need better buildings and resources, or can they ‘do things with nothing’?
Can change come from within the art school?
What can be learnt from working with communities outside the art school?
What can be learnt from working with other disciplines within the university?
How can the walls be broken down?
How can a neighbourhood be built?
Can art be made ordinary?
Is a more ordinary (as opposed to exceptional) model of the artist needed?
Does assessment reinforce inequalities?
Can art schools refuse to give grades?
Can artists and students in art schools resist the Panopticon?
Does evaluation prevent honest conversations from taking place?
What happens if you don’t follow the rubric?
What happens when we compare art school pedagogies from around the world?
How can different ideas of art be bridged? Is art a global language?
How can pedagogy be reenchanted? How can life be reenchanted?
How can desire be cultivated in others?
How do we trouble the waters?
Hannah Kate Sackett 