Want Your Children to Survive The Future? Send Them to Art School

Want Your Children to Survive The Future? Send Them to Art School

Can you imagine a world in which most jobs are obsolete?

If not, you are most likely in for a rude awakening in the coming decades of radical shifts in employment. This is particularly true for new parents propelling the next generation of workers into an adulthood that many economists and futurists predict to be the first ever “post-work” society.

Though the idea of a jobless world may seem radical, the prediction is based on the natural trajectory of ‘creative destruction’ — that classic economic principle by which established industries are decimated when made irrelevant by new technologies.



When was the last time you picked up the hot new single from your local sheet music store? Many moons ago sheet music was the music industry, with the only available means of hearing pop songs being to have a musician read and perform them. This quickly eroded with the advent of the phonograph, leading to a record industry that dominated the last century and is now itself eroding due to the explosive growth of independent online publishing.

It’s hard to justify using a massive workforce of recording engineers, media manufacturers, distributors, and talent scouts to accomplish a task that a musician can now do by herself in an afternoon with just a laptop. The same goes for the millions of skilled labor and manufacturing jobs that will soon be crumpled by 3D printing technology, the thousands of retailers whose staff and storefronts can readily be supplanted by automated delivery systems, or the dwindling hospitality and transportation industries currently being pecked away by app-based sharing services like Airbnb and Uber.

Never heard of 3D printing, ridesharing, or “post-work” theory? That’s okay; you can just Google them. In fact, thanks to Google we may now add the very concept of knowledge itself to our growing list of no-longer-scarce resources. When anyone can access the world’s greatest library from their cellphone, even the long-revered skill of knowing things loses its marketability.

The Art School Solution


Photo by Jeff White, courtesy of Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment


If preparing your kids for a world in which hard-working, knowledgeable people are unemployable frightens you then I have some good news. There is a solution, and it doesn’t involve tired, useless attempts at suppressing technology. Like most good solutions it requires a trait that is distinctly human.

I’m speaking about Creativity.
Send your kids to art school. Heavily invest time and resources into their creative literacy. Do these things and they will stand a chance at finding work and or fulfillment in a future where other human abilities become irrelevant.

Any adult reading this at the time of publication came of age in an era when parents urged children to learn a subject that would funnel straight into a specific career field. Even those parents who encouraged their children’s creative dreams did so with an addendum that we should also consider getting a degree in a practical field that “you can always fall back on if sculpture/philosophy/theater/poetry doesn’t work out”. No doubt this protective instinct was a smart one considering the reality of our youth. An arts education might promise a life of self-discovery but there has always been reasonably assured financial stability in the high-demand arenas of science, education, skilled trades, governments, etc. Surely that dynamic won’t last much longer as more and more physical and mental human tasks are commandeered by machines and software.


Photo courtesy of Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment

I don’t say this to dismiss the importance of any field of study. A world without scientists or doctors or teachers would be just as broken as a world with no artists. Without programmers and engineers the very technologies that make life efficient would quickly disappear. But with the abundance of information and tools freely accessible online to a generation of youngsters equipped with computers from toddlerhood, it’s safe to assume that those who want to maintain current technology have few obstacles in learning how to do so — No degree required. The same goes for any pragmatic skill.



The arts, however, are a polar opposite to pragmatism. Cameras have long exceeded our ability to realistically and efficiently render images, but still our love of painting remains to this day. By now we know that the value of a great painting isn’t in its accuracy at rendering a view but in the artist’s unique capacity to convey a viewpoint. Even those uninterested in “fine” art are driven to make purely aesthetic decisions on practical matters such as clothing, shelter, and transportation. Our willingness to pay extra for beautiful clothes, inviting homes, and sleek cars is motivated not by functionality but by emotionality.


Photo courtesy of Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment


It’s inherently human to want the objects in our lives to communicate feelings and ideas to us and about us. The constant searching for and assignment of meaning dwells in everyone, but the artist is the person who exercises this muscle regularly enough to control it. The person with creative literacy — a basic understanding of the mental, emotional, and sociological tools used for creative thought and communication — is able to find purpose and apply meaning to her world rather than having meaning handed down and purpose assigned to her. The painting student completes his senior thesis exhibit with a head full of many more lessons than just how to paint. He’s now equipped with an ability to see problems, connections, and solutions where others see only a blank surface. I assure you this ability is not limited to the canvas.

Photo Courtesy of Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment

I’m not saying anything new here. These qualities of a liberal arts education have been expounded by its proprietors for ages, but with major industries quickly running out of a need for worker bees it’s becoming clearer by the day that our professors were right.

In fact it’s somewhat amazing that this idea was ever in question. Humanity’s highest-paid workers have always been those who as a result of their innovations created opportunity for others to work.
There’s a reason Steve Jobs became a billionaire, and it’s not because he could program computers.

Of course history is also filled with countless stories of equally creative figures lost in the systemic grind of working for the Steve Jobs’s of the world. We’ve all known brilliant people, seemingly not made for our time, whose potential was crushed by dead end jobs after their work was rejected by the film/music/publishing/anything industries. The excuse of being ahead of one’s time can no longer apply though. We live in an age where a person speaking into a webcam can collectively raise hundreds of thousands of dollars just by telling people about a good idea. The gatekeepers are gone and they are not coming back. Our only remaining obstacle can be lack of good ideas.

It’s time for a revolution in education that reflects our new reality and gives students the necessary tools to survive it. Technological advancements will always outpace the offerings of the traditional classroom, making it entirely purposeless to force memorization of knowledge that may become irrelevant before children even graduate. Instead we should hone the skill that best ensures adaptability and resourcefulness during times of constant change.
It’s time for the creative classroom.



But what about STEM?





Does this revolution require us to toss out math or science or history? Does my ideal future classroom wedge would-be physicists into an endless curriculum of figure drawing classes?

Absolutely not!

Let children pursue their own interests and they will find their way to all areas of study as part of the exploratory process. Let the child who is in love with fire trucks continue to obsess over fire trucks. With proper guidance he will soon find himself learning civics, engineering, history, physics, chemistry, sociology, economics, and everything in between — all of his questions fueled by a simple aesthetic attachment to the pretty red fire truck.

No healthy child is born without an innate sense of wonder about their world. However, this childhood compulsion to explore is a bud quickly snipped by adults conditioned to fear the unknown. The tradition of discouraging unusual questions and behavior in children is so pervasive that we have come to view those who survive with their creativity intact as having a “gift”. What is more absurd is our amazement at the correlation of great artists and mental illness, as if the battle for self-expression which artists so tenaciously endure has no causal link to their psychic well-being.

Photo Courtesy of Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment

The change that will secure your children’s safe passage through the future comes when we strip creativity of its mysterious, unearthly status. Artists are not magical geniuses. We are simply people who were either privileged enough or stubborn enough to hold onto something that every living person is “gifted” at birth. Assume that your children have limitless creative potential and begin to nurture it. Assume that your children’s ingenuity is the one true safety net available in times of rapid change. Send your kids to art school and they will have exactly what they need to become anything they might need to be.

I speak from experience.



Photo by Eric Schultz, Huntsville Times

Dustin Timbrook is an artist in Huntsvill

An exploration of playfulness in contemporary art

You may have noticed that activity on my blog has been rather sluggish during the month of January.

The reason for this is that I have had to direct my attention away from the studio and focus on writing my Master of Fine Art dissertation which had to be submitted today.



The dissertation has been a huge challenge, but I have found it to be of great value to my practice.

I chose to write about playfulness in contemporary art, and identified three ways in which play can be said to exist within art, namely: the form of the artwork; the process of making the artwork and the way in which the audience experiences the artwork.

These key aspects were the focus of three contemporary practice case studies. Comparisons and contrasts were made between sculptor Phyllida Barlow, collaborative duo Zoë Walker and Neil Bromwich, and Carsten Höller.

I identified how play relates to the artwork they make; the processes they engage in when making work and how the audience interacts with the work.

My experience of going to see their exhibitions, and in the case of Walker and Bromwich, being involved in one of their artworks informed the inquiry which was aided by an examination of secondary research.

I intend to make the dissertation available on my website at some point but, in the meanwhile, if you would like to read my dissertation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

My email address is helen.shaddock(at)yahoo.co.uk

Raising the Bar

perseverance - endurance - failure - attempt - strength - determination - strength - action - effort - stamina - persistence - resolve - resistance - struggle




Raising the Bar from EJ Hill on Vimeo.

Circus Between Worlds - workshop #1

I am delighted to announce that the proposal I submitted for The Circus Between Worlds project has been accepted. The project is part of Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2016 and is led by Neil Bromwich and Zoe Walker. It will take place in the ruined shell of the Alexander 'Greek’ Thompson Church on Caledonia Road Glasgow. A variety of international artists and students from Newcastle University, Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art and Strathclyde University will present work as part of this ambitious off site-project.

Today I met with the five other students from Newcastle University that have been selected to present work. After discussing some practical issues with Neil and Zoe, we tested out some ideas in relation to my proposal. This work is performance based, and involves multiple performers. It was great to have a group of people willing to work with me to try out different ideas. I am excited about working in this way with each other to help foster a supportive critical network, and am looking forward to our session next week.

Here we are making different balancing poses in pairs.

Find out more information about the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art 2016 here:
http://glasgowinternational.org

B. Wurtz exhibition at BALTIC

"American artist B. Wurtz is best known for his carefully assembled sculptures and installations made of a wide range of commonplace, discarded materials. A prideful appreciator of lowly objects, his practice is highly concerned with the ethics of re-use, yet is also highly engaged with art history.



Meticulous structures made from food wrappers, plastic carrier bags, shoelaces, locks, mop handles, takeaway trays, mesh bags and wooden blocks all, in some way, refer back to the human essentials of food, shelter and clothing. Highlighting the overlooked, never allowing the visitor to lose sight of what the pieces are made of, and how they are put together, Wurtz’s works succeed in channelling the many possibilities of these everyday materials."

http://www.balticmill.com/whats-on/b-wurtz



Prior to visiting this exhibition I was not familiar with the work of B.Wurtz, and somehow this made the exhibition even more enjoyable. However, I must admit that, feeling a bit frustrated, I couldn't help thinking "if only I had done that!"



Despite the serious, considered and formal quality of the work, Wurtz uses materials in a playful manner, altering their function, and changing the context in which they usually are found.



Wurtz executes his ideas with rigour and commitment. In order for this work to have the impact that it does, it was important that he filled the space and used such a range of aluminium trays. It is through the mass that we appreciate the uniqueness of each individual item.





Ordinary objects and materials are given significance through their formal compositions.



Balance - Fragility - Precision - Instability - Elegance

Interpreting the Hancock Museum collection through dance

Yesterday I spent the day participating in Icon Dance’s workshop at the Great North Museum, Hancock.

It was billed as "a fun and creative exploration of the Great North Museum’s Ancient Greek Collection", and certainly delivered this.

Jilly, Karen, Helen and Niki

There were three other ladies taking part, all of whom were lovely and had very interesting backgrounds. Niki has recently completed a PhD at Newcastle University and was researching the Social history of festivals in rural communities. She is just about to start a position as a Research Associate at the University. Prior to this career path, Niki was a visual artist. Jilly is a friend of Niki's and they are bee keeping partners. Jilly is a dance enthusiast. Karen completed her Archeology Masters course in 2015, and her aim is to work in museums. We made a really good team.

After briefly meeting choreographer Martin Joyce, dancers Alex and Emma, and the Creative Learning Producer, Laura, we spent the morning doing various exercises with Laura.

She took us to the Ancient Greek Collection and we viewed the specific vessel that would be the main focus of our dance.

One of the first group activities was for one of us to stand in the middle of a circle and make a pose. Then one of the other participants had to make three changes to the pose that they thought would make. We repeated this so everyone got a turn at making the changes and being in the middle.

Another exercise was to work in pairs, and mirror each others actions. We were not allowed to speak to the each other to say who was leading, and so had to watch closely. At times it was very difficult to work out who was leading and who was following.

Thinking about the vessel in the collection, we had to think of words to describe how it looked, felt, tasted and smelled. We then devised short dance routines that in relation to these words.

Evidence of me dancing!

After lunch we met Andrew Parkin, the Keeper of Archaeology, who gave us a short introduction to the Greek Gallery/Collection, and spoke in detail about the history and purpose of the vessel we had been examining. It was a vessel for mixing wine and water and was used in symposiums that were meetings for men only, and involved lots of drinking and treating each other brutally; often fighting and causing harm to each other. Following the stories of it's history, my opinion of the object and what it referenced was changed drastically.

We then went back to the dance room to discuss words that summed up the vessel, and then, in pairs, developed a sequence consisting of 3 static poses and transitions between them. Throughout the sequence we had to maintain some form of physical connection to each other.

The dancers and choreographer then joined us, and they watched what we had developed and we watched what they had developed. They had devised a dance routine working its through the room, and had included references to the entire Ancient Greek collection. They had left a short part of the dance for us to choreograph, so we pooled our ideas together from the whole day, and provided instructions for them.

 

The day ended with the dancers doing the full dance to the members of the public.

 

The whole day was a totally unique experience and it made me appreciate the collection in a way I would otherwise have not been able to.


Thank you ladies!

Super slides are the slippery slope into art's babyish new era

Some evidence that my dissertation topic is timely 

From London’s looping Orbit slide to a giant Czech mountain ride, art is becoming a theme park for the selfie generation 

Jonathan Jones, The Guardian

Tuesday 5th January 2016

"I went sliding on a mountain in the holidays. In mud. My family and I set out for a gentle Christmas walk in Wales that became an unplanned mudbath after we climbed a rocky riverbed in search of fossils and ended up stranded and soaking on a steep mountainside. We were trying to pull ourselves up by tree trunks but kept sliding down again and again as the sun started to set.

A new attraction in the Czech Republic offers a similar experience – but one that is planned and safely designed and won’t leave you covered in mud. The Dolní Morava Skywalk on the Králický Sněžník mountain includes a giant slide that’s clearly inspired by the artist Carsten Höller. Not only can you see spectacular vistas of the surrounding peaks while making your way nervously along a glass-bottomed skywalk, but you can slide in the sky. 

It’s a big year for art slides, it seems. Höller himself is wrapping a giant slide around the spiralling Orbit tower in east London. He was invited to do so by its co-creator Anish Kapoor. Doubtless it is hoped that an exciting art slide will help increase visitor numbers at the attraction, where it has been claimed low ticket sales led to losses of £520,000 in 2015.

If in doubt, install an art slide. From the Czech mountains to Stratford, slides are now defined as both fun and cultural. Art is turning into play, and play now seen as a noble cultural goal for adults as well as children.

But the rise of the art slide (last summer also saw Höller’s creations turn the South Bank into a funfair) shows how some of our deepest cultural values are changing. High art has always been an introspective affair, from looking silently at paintings in a museum to sitting quietly to listen to a symphony. It is about contemplation and absorption. Two people can read the same book and talk about it afterwards, but the act of reading will still be a solitary experience.

Today, we seem to fear such solitude. Art slides are typical of the age of oversharing. It’s not enough to look quietly at art. We need to slide on it, climb over it or talk to it, then share selfies of the experience with as many online friends as possible. The privacy or shared tranquility of artistic contemplation is being trashed by an age that can’t stand being alone. 

Going into nature for real, or sitting in the Rothko room at Tate Modern, are the kinds of cultural adventures that take us to new planes and new places. They can be shared, but mustn’t be overshared. When all our most intense experiences are reduced to art slides and skywalk selfies, I’d rather be lost in the woods."

Read the full article here

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2016/jan/05/super-slides-art-babyish-new-era-orbit-holler-dolni-morava-skywalk