The Art School: 4 Proposals

In order to recover relevance in the contemporary scene, the school of art should consider new models for its physical organization. Some suggestions: become evenly distributed within the kitchens and garages of the real world, officially foster the time-honored rituals of socialization as part of the academic program, comprise the school entirely of other departments, or locate the whole operation in the belly of the art establishment itself.

from the book: Art, Architecture, Pedagogy: Experiments in Learning

This book is the result of a 2009 artist in residence at the Center for Integrated Media at CalArts. A viral.net project edited by artist Ken Ehrlich with contributions by:

Janet Sarbanes, Pat Morton, Tim Durfee, Machine Project, Katie Bachler, The Public School, Liam Gillick and Pablo Helguera. Design by Joe Potts/Glacier Erratica.

The site of education is a complex terrain, literally marked in time by physical, social, imaginary and psychic terms. I teach in a building at CalArts but where does the learning take place? Does the class really end when we leave the room? Likewise, I’m often rehearsing lectures on my long commute to U.C. Riverside and constantly communicating with my students by e-mail. To think about the architecture of an art education, then, is not simply to consider the material spaces
of art schools; rather, it is a way to examine how our ideas and fantasies about what an ideal education might look like constantly brush up against the banal reality of institutional corridors and bureaucratic maneuvering.

To order a copy, please visit:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1347259