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aubergineeggplant t1_ir53g92 wrote

Reply to comment by werewolfmanjack in Save Scrotie the scrotum (4real) by banasee

I’m a born and raised working class Rhode Islander who left the state to attend an very ideologically progressive art school and then came back. As like a young artist in Providence I inevitably hung out with recent RISD grads/ grad students and eventually facility. I also worked there off and on for a few years.

Art school in general is weird and needlessly intense and insular so there’s that, but pedagogically RISD’s program always seemed to be overly rigid and archaic. The lack of opportunity for true interdisciplinary learning and experimentation and the instructional focus on technique over the conceptual and critical aspects of art were pretty glaring for me, resulting in some pretty derivative, shallow “fine art” work at both the undergrad/graduate level.

I graduated art school in the mid 00s, and haven’t worked there/ observed student work since like 2012 so this may be somewhat of an outdated perspective l.

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banasee OP t1_ir66n10 wrote

Thank you for the very thoughtful reflection. Honestly these days it feels like the opposite issue. It's affecting my department at the very least. During all four years a lot of the professors are conceptually vocal about whatever the hell they like, without regards to the different interests of the students. We end up graduating and feeling like we have poor techniques and just wanna draw. The professors who taught techniques were very lacking as well. I think some of the professors during the 2000s that still stayed at school had fallen on hard times. There are times where they just give up teaching. Sometimes older instructors are too or tired sick to teach attentively. There was even a professor who came into the class high.

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aubergineeggplant t1_ir6bj04 wrote

That sucks. I adjunct at another local college and my syllabi are living documents that evolve based on student need and interest. I love teaching at the higher ed level, and I’m sorry you had that experience with your professors, esp because I can only imagine the debt a lot of your classmates have taken on to get that degree.

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banasee OP t1_ir6ci12 wrote

If I start teaching I would like to do what you've been doing and make syllabus based on student needs

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jahvape000 t1_itc9rxk wrote

You guys do have it rough. No money means no teach...well. The students and the teachers are getting milked. Not sustainable.

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werewolfmanjack t1_ir5gokb wrote

Thanks for the thoughtful response. That said I strongly disagree with your assessment and generalizations. I can guarantee the work done at your college was no less shallow or derivative, no more mindful or critically sophisticated. It’s art school…. only ~1/10 kids’ art has more aesthetic value than when it was blank paper in the store anyhow.

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aubergineeggplant t1_ir64bbo wrote

Oh our work was absolutely shallow. I mean, I quit art for a whole decade and mostly just do drawings of animals now so I’m not really in a position to say shit. So you’re right. It’s not really about student work. I’ve thought about it a bit and I think that my real issue is the undergraduate program’s rigidity. As an educator I really value interdisciplinary and multimedia study, and want to see art taught as a tool of argumentation.

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