The Fall of Mankind...

How does Art function in Academia? I have moments every now and then where my mind is blown that there are professors who are giving grades for what artists are doing in school. Okay, so this sounds like a basic fact of life, why question it? Typically I don't, I struggle through the process of making and thinking and not thinking just like everyone else, the end result of a grade always seemed like a footnote. But then you find yourself in new territory, all the sudden you end up in a class or a system where it isn't about trying, or deeply learning (mistakes being 90% of that activity). You find yourself being aware of calculations being made against you (or for you) and how do you respond? Do you fight it, or do you wave the bleak flag of surrender? I know you might be thinking that this is a ridiculous dilemma, but I think it would also be a huge surprise to see how the tone of your work shifts when you are allowed to feel that knowledge and experience trumps the satisfaction of a paper devoid of red ink. I would never say that grades shouldn't be involved, (only in a perfect world) but I do think there should be a hierarchy of value. I have been lucky, and truly feel that for the most part I was gifted the chance to believe and pursue work that I desperately needed to make, and was supported in my endeavors. However there is always the time where I am confronted with the other world and I can feel it grate like sandpaper against my insides.

xoxo,
Charlie