04. Arts and the VET-HELP Funding Cuts in Australia

This is very interesting and I have been following along with personal interest, of course. I have a problem with the stopping of Arts funding, but not necessarily a problem with stopping funding to courses that have had zero students in the past few years. I understand NIDA's point of view, that they only take a small number of "best and brightest" students each year so as not to flood the market, but a lot of these courses being cut are not intentionally keeping their enrollment low for quality assurance purposes, the enrollment just IS low because there is little to no demand for them.

I have conflict in that I truly believe that anyone who wants to study the arts should be able to. However, will this move make community arts organisations more valuable in the long run and would the money perhaps be better off spent on peer mentoring schemes for artists? Or does this take away some of the legitimacy that artists are striving for over the long term to be seen as a viable, authentic and educated career choice?

Lifestyle Choice???

I think that for a lot of people, the term, "Lifestyle Choice" when it came to artistic careers felt quite degrading. It is the denigration of the passion and commitment and training it takes to get anywhere in the field. It was also that the idea that what artists do is not legitimate. That we are somehow so separate from society as to not be included within it. As if you are not surrounded by the creative thoughts of people  everyday, from the houses you live in to the computer you work on or the IKEA picture you have hanging on your wall.
I wonder whether it is the trickle down effect that is so disturbing here though. That the Arts was so hard hit out of so many courses seems to be indicative of the value it has throughout society in general and that in the future it will have even less because it will be funded less. Only 13 out of the previous 70 made the cut. The hardest thing about this is that there HAS been dodginess within the vocational training industry and the private college sector for a long time, so it is understandable that the industry needs an overhaul. But for those creative courses that HAVE been doing the right thing, it must be quite enraging and discouraging. They will be feeling the stain of being tarred with the same brush for years to come.

The other problem I see with this is that artists are generally

lacking in funds and doing the simplest of courses in painting, printmaking, jewellery making is expensive for a variety of reasons. The materials used in a lot of these courses can be hard to come by and cost a lot in both time and money to procure and work with. So for a lot of artists, myself included, a lot of the time, doing art with high quality or even basic student quality materials becomes a prohibitive exercise. Having a place in a VET-HELP funded course helps a lot in training in those skills you need and working in the materials you feel best suits your creative outlet is a huge relief on the financial burden to a lot of artists out there.

I HAVE read the list of courses that are being cut. I would have preferred that the funding being cut from VET Arts courses be diverted into other Support of the Arts funding. But it was not....and THAT is a whole other topic for another day....Thoughts anyone?

Refs:
Business Insider: Funding cuts threat to creative arts
https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/Funding-cuts-threat-to-creative-arts

Jewellery Diplomas Stripped of Government Funding
http://www.jewellermagazine.com/Article.aspx?id=7075&h=Jewellery-diplomas-stripped-of-government-funding

Can you still get a student loan for your TAFE or Private College Course?
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/vet-courses-eligible-for-student-loans/7919402

Australian Government VET Student Loans Information
http://www.education.gov.au/vet-student-loans

Government stands firm on Stopping Arts Courses From Getting Student Loans.
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/govt-stands-firm-on-arts-courses/8035460

All photos used originals from ALISON JAMES ART. 

03. What is Art Anyway?

I have this discussion regularly with people about what actually constitutes art. A lot of the worst or most sensationalised examples are often brought up with the challenge, "How can you accept this as being ART? Don't you find it immoral/tasteless/talentless/ridiculous?"  It is almost like when you actually come out to the world as an artist, you have to solidly defend every piece of work that has ever been labelled as art to everyone's satisfaction or you lose credibility for the label of being an artist.

In all honesty, who am I to judge someone's work as art or not art. That is a job for the critics. I can judge whether I like a piece or whether I do not. I can judge whether something resonates with me emotionally or makes me think critically. I can look at a piece of work and admire technique, thought, beauty. And I do. I do all these things. But it is not for me to make a pronouncement on whether it is art or not.

So what makes me so arrogant that I call what I do "art" or call myself an artist? Well….let me address the second part first as it is the easier of the two. When I fill in the profession  box in a form, I tick the artist box because I am paid to produce art and curate a gallery as well as design and present workshops on creative repurposing, art and crafts. I also have been paid for some of my art pieces that have sold at exhibitions and have been commissioned to do site specific installation art. It is what I do as a job, as well as what I do because, like breathing, I simply MUST. I go to sleep thinking of pieces I am working on or ones yet to be started. I work on it every day. I feel bereft if I don't get to expressively create each day. I art, therefore, I am an artist. (Sorry Descartes!!!!!)

So what makes what I do "Art"?  It is, of course, presumptuous  of me to call it that.  Once, someone said of one of my pieces that took quite a long time, a ridiculous amount of obsessive thought and planning and a lot of late nights and cramped hands to complete, that it "Looked like a doodle someone would do in a meeting".  I can remember being taken aback as I tried really hard not to let the comment hurt me.  It was not delivered with malicious intent and it was my own false sense of pride and ego that stung….because after all…what ARE doodles? What are those things that people draw when they are letting their thoughts wander and their hands show us what is in their mind? Is that not exactly what I am doing? Trying to show the outside world what my inside world is like? And is that not my very definition of what art is to me?

I may take a concept, puzzle it out, look at it in different ways, sketch different ideas, choose a medium that feels right and experiment with different techniques in my chosen medium all before I start the final product….but in the end, you are still seeing my hands show you what is in my mind. You will see my thoughts and I will tell you a story in a visual way. So yes, it IS like doodling, just in a more finished and refined way. But that connection…that is what is important. That for one brilliant, bright and beautiful moment, someone else has been able to see into my mind...and if I am really clear with our connection...I might get them to look at the world, for just that little moment in a completely different way. 

The process is different for us all. The meaning and techniques and motivations are different for us all. I can only tell you what art is to me and why I choose to do the art I do. You may or may not call it by such a label but I choose to remember the words of Andy Warhol…

So please excuse me….I am off to make more art.

Refs:

Picture 1
http://blogs.uoregon.edu/alumpkinsaad250/portfolio/artifact-1-what-is-art-for/

Art vs Science vs Philosophy

I have a varied background. I started off as a musician, playing brass and woodwind instruments but during my Education degree, made a choice to follow Art instead. I graduated as an Art, Science and English teacher and taught those in high schools for a couple of years before heading back to university to study and graduate from an Environmental Science degree. For ten years, I ran my own business followed by a not for profit business. I presented workshops, produced art and developed characters for environmental entertainment purposes, combining my love of science and art and environment.

I often hear, "Science and Art...that's a weird combination." So, I would like to address that thought with my own views on the comment...

Science, Art and Philosophy are all essentially ways of doing exactly the same thing. They are ways of looking at the world and dissecting it, of seeing it in a different way and expressing those ways of seeing and knowing.

Descartes says it more beautifully than I do..."Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum". I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am.  We are creatures of doubt and thought. One of the best things I was taught during my science degree is that there IS no truth. Every law and theory we are presented with is only so until it is proved otherwise, so we live, personally and generationally in a series of paradigm shifts of "truths". It is a quest of some magnitude to doubt and question, to understand and accept, so why choose just the one way of seeing and doing and knowing?

Through science, I learned to form succinct questions, to seek evidence and analyse both quantitative and qualitative data in order to come to a conclusion...which is not really a conclusion, but only the start of more questioning. Science is a lot of learning through DOING.

Through art, I learned to express the world through emotion, to capture that doubt and throw it out there in order to encourage more questioning and dialogue. Art is learning through FEELING. 

Through philosophical enquiry I learned the practise of applying logical argument to a concept. How you think and come to conclusions is just as important as what you know.  The acceptance that there may actually be no answer or that the answer is unimportant in comparison to the enquiry is fundamental. Philosophy is learning through THINKING. 

So, you see, the title to this post is misleading. I don't see there actually being a "versus" component between art, science and philosophy. They are all one and the same thing...it's just we as people who like to compartmentalise and shove labels on them so they are easier for us to understand. And in conclusion, dear reader....in the immortal words of The Matrix...

Let's start from the (almost) beginning...

It's a very good place to start....

Ok that is quite enough sound of music for now...so let me start with an introductory post....

For the people who already know me by my Second Life blog which can be found here, this may be a little confusing. I am splitting into two blogs simply because I wanted to talk a bit more about the art and philosophy stuff as well as the Second life stuff, but the two aren't always compatible.

The second life blog is important but I can hear a lot of the people following my art musings scratching their heads and wondering what it has to do with my art, so I would like to explore that idea a little further.

 My main question is..."What would it take as an artist, to go from having no skills, and no conceptualisation of the social constructs in a virtual world to being an exhibiting installation artist in that world?"

The whole idea was so foreign to me when I first thought it. My abilities lie in physical art. Things I can touch. I have a conceptual and often abstract component to my artwork and a great love of installation art. I would like to do more of it.  I enjoy the physicality of making art...the smell of paint, the sound of a pencil scratching on a page, the feeling of sculpting something with my hands...so to think that I could possibly transfer the skills, learn the language of the digital, find my place in a virtual world....it is a little bit mad and also very, VERY exciting.

Part of the totality of the art I am creating is based around the cultural, the social and the story of the journey. It is about understanding what a virtual world is and being able to become a part of that community, to feel a sense of belonging and to give back something in return. The journey is as much the art piece as the finished installation and chronicling it transparently and publicly and in turn letting people comment, in a weblog format is also important to the evolution and understanding of that journey.

So that is WHY I am writing the chronicles of the Second Life of Mangrovejane. I hope that has cleared things up for my huge audience of...one. 😄 If nothing else, it clears things up for me and gives me a clear focus and purpose for the separate blogs. And on that note, I bid you a fond so long, farewell, Auf Weidershen, goodbye.....errrmmm until the next post.....