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Education!

Myself and education have never really seen eye to eye. Anyone who knows me well enough knows that much of what I know is self-taught. Admirable. Yes that maybe so, but society does not do admirable, your knowledge and understanding cannot be a result of your own, it much be accounted for by someone or something of a higher calibre with headed paper and flashy .com website.

I am not enough in that respect. Much of what I know is refusing to accept that there is only one or two ways to do something and both happen to be written by the same institution.

If I am so compelled to challenge the art school; why then do I have BA and MA after my name? maybe it’s because one has to be in the thick of it to truly understand? For me it’s not the public as a medium, it’s the art school as a medium, with the students at its core.

I was asked a question today: Is it the community of the art school that has compelled you to practise in a socially engaged way?

I can’t answer that right now, I will just have to add it to the pile! But what got my interest was ‘school community’. I and some others are trying to recreate this very thing outside of the system. For many years this has been the case for many collectives. But the art school community is unlike any other. The mix of friends, relationships, competition and intellectual copyright forms a breeding ground for much of the issues I am drawn to.

My mission then, is to reacquaint myself with the art school life style but from outside the white walls as opposed to within.