Contemporary Art as Dialogue
Having been possibly the most infrequent blogger on wordpress, I think I will justify myself to you by providing a link to the blog of a group I’m involved in. The group is called ‘Contemporary Art as Dialogue’ and we are based in Sheffield. The group was formed in January 2008 so we are a fairly young group but we’ve had an extraordinary 18 months, culminating in an art festival in March 09. We formed during our time at art college, as a few of the members were involved in a poorly run critique group and wanted to be with people who shared the desire to succeed through the support of a network and who were also interested in collaborative practice. The group initially placed an emphasis on critical debate, which often came close to a poetic action (especially when the group deviated in discussions- e.g. one time we felt the urge to chant “the university is in ruins”, which is the first line of Baudrillards ‘The Spiralling Cadaver’, outside the new and controversial university art gallery on the eve of its opening by a member of the royal family. The gallery was controversial as there was then no plan to allow the BA fine artists use the gallery).
Today, we are a group consisting of recent graduates and MA students, working closely as a support group, and through collaboration.
You can see some documentation of our art festival at:
http://contemporaryartasdialogue.wordpress.com/
and we’ll update it with other projects soon
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Tags: & the Potential for progress, art, art fesitval, CAaD, chimney group, collaboration. collective, Contemporary Art as Dialogue, critical art, dialogue, groups, philosophy, Plateaus, Platforms, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, unit 3b
You’ve been SHU-ed
Prompting the Revolution
It has now been four months since Sheffield Hallam University moved its Art and Design courses from its Psalter Lane Campus to the city centre. I am writing this as a student of the University studying on the Contemporary Fine Art (BA) course in outrage at the mediocrity of facilities, the ignorance towards student concerns, and the deceit that one feels a victim of, which is surely the result of a discrepancy between the surface appearance of the University and the experience of the actual situation.
A few short years ago I applied to study on the course that seemed confident of its teaching and perhaps oddly proud of the quirky, somewhat downtrodden-looking building that it inhabited. At interview I was informed that during my time of study there I would be moving to a beautiful new building specially designed for art and design that would be ‘cutting edge’ and ‘world leading’. You can imagine my surprise two years later being told that I was being put in a basement with only a two square foot share of a desk! Further, you can imagine my anger when I heard a member of the marketing team telling a prospective student that same lie when we had already been informed otherwise.
Meetings and presentations and questions and answers and promises and “consultations” all followed providing further information. We were told that we would have no natural light in the studios (but we would have daylight imitation- just like Mark’s & Spencer’s!); the photography dark room would be situated on a higher floor so that natural light would need to be blocked out; and there would be a fantastic new gallery with £150,000 projection glass, which the University’s own students would not be allowed to exhibit in. I hear your cries of disbelief, but may I say, after four months of living through the actualisation of these plans I can confidently say that SHU has not disappointed.
The meetings and “consultations” and so on and so forth, proved to no avail as the student’s aired concerns were met with the reply “there is nothing we can do about that in the forth coming year but do feed back to us- and remember: we’ll make it work!”. There was no real reason for consulting with students to the degree that took place as many of the decisions were already made. It was the impression of negotiation that served in some way to rob the students of their criticism and anger as they had always been kept “in the know”.
So what is it like to be a SHU art student? Depending on which studio you are in, your day starts with either a descent into a stuffy rickets-ridden basement or into a glorified shed with no heating; in the case of the later you will probably leave the studio for a group critique as your tutor cannot bear the cold. Regardless of which studio you are in you will be met with similar reminders of the health and safety issues that are for both your sake and the University’s. You will then proceed to read notices about how paper on the walls that are not laminated are fire hazards, as you trip over the tightly packed desks and chairs. From here you may wish to visit the beautiful photography darkroom with its glitzy slow turning revolving door, but make sure if anyone else is in there you don’t forget to work close to this door as only one person can go through at any one time and SHU forgot to put in a fire door, whoops! On your way to the overpriced tango-orange Roller Café you will observe further notices about health and safety and the necessity to fill in a form for any activity that might chance a paper-cut. Don’t forgot your lecture in the new £26 million Furnival building and why not pop into the gallery and catch some art or as it would appear a 3D SHU prospectus with a Mark’s and Spencer’s sandwich on a plinth. Perhaps you might be lucky and catch an MA show, as the gallery events were so poorly organised even SHU students have had a shot at having a show there. You proceed to leave the gallery, walk to the other side of the building, go up a flight of stairs, go to the other side of that floor and then enter into the unused mezzanine of the gallery. Just make sure that there are not 32 people already in there or the whole thing could collapse! When you get into your lecture- be reassured that you will receive some of the finest teaching that one could expect, which alas reminds you why you have not yet quit this institution.
The hypocrisy, the unfulfilled promises, and the schizophrenia one must acquire to understand Sheffield Hallam University results in a negative learning experience. The placidity of reaping the assurances of the words of the University has only served to strengthen the machine that would place surface appearance, the promise of education and an emphasis on development ahead of taking a few bolds steps (even at the risk of weakening its reputation) and thus making these things achievable now. As a student, here and now, with little patience for the promises of the future, I must remember that when the rhetoric of words rears its ugly head we historically know that there can be no wordy reply. It will not be possible to properly reap the most of an education when the basic learning conditions have been trivialised- I see no Computing student struggling with a 1980′s PC so why must a fine art student accept less than is necessary? The complete rethink of art education that gained momentum with Art Monthly’s articles and symposiums cannot lose its vital force before its proper transformative effect, which ushers my question: revolution anyone?
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Tags: art, Art monthly, articlist, basement, Contemporary Fine art, Fine Art, harmer, natural lighting, revolution, sheaf, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam University, words
The Descent
So it has finally come: The time is nigh for the art school at Psalter Lane to move to the central campus in Sheffield city centre. The fine art course will be spread over 2 buildings named ‘The Sheaf’ and ‘The Harmer’ buildings. The studios have been relocated to the basement of the Harmer. I know what you’re thinking: ‘that sounds a bit depressing: being in the basement…’ and I would agree. Perhaps to further the argument that this is depressing I would like to tell you that this isn’t just any basement, it’s the basement of the ‘Most Depressing Building in Sheffield’ (voted by some architecty dudes a few years ago). Keeping with the Marks & Spencer’s theme I was recently told that the new naturally artificial lighting (the irony of such a term!) that is to be installed in the cave, I mean the basement, is exactly the same as the lights they use in Marks & Spencer’s stores nationwide. Whoop-dy-doo!!!!!!!!!!!
So lets get straight to the details:
· The fine art studios will be in a basement with no natural light
· The photography dark room will have windows which will have to be blocked out
· The studios will be reduced in size per person. (Although they have been shrinking in Psalter Lane for many years- sad times for art schools?)
· The studios are warm, very stuffy, shit air con!
· The building can only be accessed via other buildings
· There will be no student project spaces/ spaces to exhibit
· Sheffield Hallam University owns Sheffield city centre (give or take a few buildings here or there) and yet they will not sacrifice more space for students… hmmm.
· There has been an investment of £30 million in the relocation of the campus. However the new ‘Furnival Building’, which has been widely and misleadingly advertised as the new home of the art course (everyone I know, including myself, was told at interview that the course would be there and even as late as April 08 someone was told this lie) Also on a recent mystery shop at a marketing event for SHU I asked if the course was moving to and was told blankly ‘ the Furnival building’ and pointed to poster of the new build. So what exactly is going into the new building? Well you would be so lucky to get a straight answer- I couldn’t despite asking the high-fliers of the university. The new building is set to be a ‘shop window for art and design courses but principally will be dealing with digital technologies’. I asked Alex Pettifer (Director of Estate & Facilities) which courses would benefit from teaching opportunities but he couldn’t quite pinpoint those other than state that the opportunities would be broad and confirmed that there would be teaching opportunities. He also told me that of the money invested, £22 million would be spent on the new building. Now I know what you might be thinking: given the significant compromises that have been made with the studios and project spaces this sounds like quite an extravagance to have forked out especially when you consider the lack of courses benefiting from the building. As far as I can gather research will be rolling in these new facilities but yet again I can’t get a straight answer about that.
· The extravagances don’t stop there. £150,000 will be spent on projection glass in the new Furnival gallery. £30,000 will be spent on a shelf for front facing journals in the library. £200,000 was spent by the marketing department on a unit for fairs!
O.K. Towards the end the details were sacrificed to give way for my rant! My big question then is about the educational substance of the University. The very core facilities of courses are being sacrificed for more flashy, ‘quick-impressions’, which are definitely attractive to new students. Is that what its all about? Is the priority of a University getting new recruits? What these flashy statements say is that if we spend so much money on these relative unnecessary things then surely the basics have been taken care of. It is often very expensive to get the basics right such as studios, decent tutorial opportunities, and artist talks from artists within and outside the university (though I can assure you that the lecturers and the taught aspects of the course are excellent!). However these things won’t attract students who come to an open day. So get away with as little as possible on the basics and spend your money where it will be blindingly obvious that you have done so!!
O.K. Back to the move. The discrepancy between the needs of the students and what the University has offered is not down to a complete lack of communication between students and staff but rather, and may I say, incompetent management. When asked why this move was going ahead and if they agreed with it, most management stated that it was decided a long time before them! What a fucking insult! If people in charge of such major projects cannot take the initiative to overturn an awful decision then what does that say about their effectiveness in the University. Don’t get me wrong. If you ask management why the move is happening you will get as much bullshit as you require.
The communication with students, whilst significant over the past 2 months has come TOO LATE to change anything in the forth-coming year. Why were we not brought into the consultation when an actual manifestation of our specifications might have been possible? It does greatly reduce my faith in the managerial promises of working with students to gain spaces where necessary and accommodate the unusual requirements of an arts practice. Regardless of my strong faith that the fine art teaching staff will not allow the course to suffer (even though the restructuring of facilities is not their job!) I know that it will take some time for the course to find project spaces and gallery spaces and organise a way of putting on a good degree show! Given that this is my last year I don’t want to have to try to work at building up an arts school with the staff. My role should be finishing the last critical step of my course. And yet, if I do not work on building the art school then finishing the course smoothly might be an impossible task.
So what can I really do in trying to make the best of a bad situation? Well not much as I have discovered. I have been to meetings with various levels of management and can say for sure that very few really want to change anything. Despite assertions that they are open to suggestions- mine seem to have all fallen on deaf ears. I can say that the fine art teaching staff is perhaps the best bet. Newly promoted Hester Reeves seems keen to change the current plans or at least make them work, or as she put it, ‘make an ugly shoe fit on a beautiful princess’. Andrew Sneddon who is also a lecturer on the course has been scouting some possible spaces for a student gallery. Mark Purcell (Course Leader) seems to be vocalising his concerns in a very diplomatic way but its difficult to know if that works with managerial bullshiters.
So I again know what you’re thinking ‘He doesn’t think this move is a good idea!’ However this is not really the case. Despite my vast reservations I think that there are many possible benefits. Firstly and most importantly is the loss of studio space- O.K. more of a silver lining. At present when I am in my studio I can see no one- why? Because no one comes in. With more people in a bigger studio there might actually be a greater sense of community at the new campus (I’m not really supposed to say this as everyone has built up this bullshit of Psalter Lane as being a modern day social haven for students- what students? I say!) So again for these reasons it is difficult to complain about the loss of space- fairly self inflicted. The studio spaces were assessed by the university as to how well we used them and they came to conclusion that we didn’t really use the space so if you don’t use it- you lose it. Yet studios are necessary spaces whether or not they are being utilised all the time- not simply for storage. It does beg the question as to why some other spaces in the university have not been similarly assessed. Have you been to the main reception at city campus? Its massive. The entrances and foyer spaces exude a wealth of space, as do the managerial offices. Yet again, image over content. Just another way that the university has succumb to allowing a relative outsider (i.e. a prospective student or ambassador for business links) believe in a certain quality and value of the university through specially designed ‘public areas’ even to the detriment of teaching. Are universities still institutions of learning or have they become businesses? A big question- perhaps one I can come back to some other time.
Oh! Sorry! Good things? Well, there is also the city centre location, which is at the heart of the cultural industries quarter of Sheffield. Most lecturers believe that we will now have more to contribute to the area by attending private viewings of exhibitions and perhaps evening showing OUR work in some of Sheffield’s leading galleries who are apparently enthused at such prospects. While I’m all up for this and it sounds absolutely amazing I am yet again sceptical. We are, after all, only a 25-minute walk closer to the city than last year or a 50p 5-minute bus! So why would greater links with the galleries not have previously been possible? And as for more student presence at exhibitions- please!! I attend plenty of them- trust me its not that far and as I have already said, a 50p bus. Most students seem to make it O.K. to nightclubs in the area so if they really wanted to go to an exhibition opening- they would find a way :p Not that I’m judging but I’m sceptical that the move will bridge the unexplainable but undeniable gap between professional and student artistic spheres in Sheffield.
Also on the positive front there will be alternative places to eat other than the catering services’ pathetic excuse for a café (though they do make a great breakfast!) and bars and cafes can provide the new bases for student led groups sprouting up throughout the course. This brings me to the most significant benefit about the move to city campus, perhaps simply because it has already been evidenced, that is the tremendous reaction that the students have taken and the engagement with the university and all of these aspects of the course we have hitherto taken for granted. Everything is up for questioning regarding fine art education and recently culminated in a fantastic symposium at Psalter Lane where JJ Charlesworth gave an inspiring talk. When asked for advice about what we can do in the short term to ensure the promises of degree show spaces are fulfilled and that the commitment to making the ‘ugly shoe’ fit is sustained and evident from the word go, JJC proposed withholding tuition fees. Perhaps we could withhold the second payment of £1500 until the degree show? Some food for thought! O.K. activism aside, the move has brought some serious assumptions regarding spending and space allocation to the fore of not only students’ minds but to the management of the University (often via students). Lets hope that all this talk and thought justifies itself next year!
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Tags: Alex Pettifer, Andrew Sneddon, artifical replacement natural lighting, basement, beautiful princess, BLOC space, C3RI, city campus, contemporary, cultural industries quarter, dark room, degree show, depressing, digital technologies, exhibit, exhibitions, Fine Art, furnival building, harmer, Hester Reeves, incompetant management, JJ Charlesworth, Mark Purcell, marks & spancer's, millenium galleries, natural lighting, project space, projecton glass, psalter lane, roller cafe, SCAF, sheaf, Sheffield, sheffield hallam, showroom, site gallery, space, space assessment, studios, sylvester space, the end gallery, tuition fees, ugly shoe, university, university marketing, workstation
Hello World!!!!!!!!!!!
So what is an articlist I hear you cry! Well I thought I had just made up a word trying to describe someone who writes articles about ART. I tried to make the art more pronounced such as in capitals or bold etc… but wordpress wasn’t havin any of it.
So my blog will alas be kind of art orientated. Not art in general but rather art in Sheffield and the joys of an art school with continued reports on what it is like to be a student of Sheffield Hallam University… Boing! Boing! (note some sarcasm in the university cheer).
Please read and leave a comment with contact details if you find that anything is particularly interesting or you simply wish to do me a favour by saying ‘Stop! You’re shit and you’re boring me’. Though, to be honest, don’t expect to be entertained… I’m not that interesting 
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Tags: art, articlist, school, Sheffield, sheffield hallam, university
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