[NetBehaviour] naughty boy

[Simon Biggs]

Hi Alan

I wasn¹t trying to address that argument ­ just questioning whether
education and work ethic are enough to facilitate a meaningful life. Yes,
decent health care is important. A degree of financial security highly
deslirable.

The US spends more of its GDP on health care (16%) than any other country in
the world and yet is the only OECD country not to have some form of
universal care. The outcome of that is that average US life expectancy is
lower than the OECD average (even lower than the UK¹s ­ whose NHS costs 8%
of GDP and has taken such a battering in the US media recently). What Obama
is trying to do with US health care looks way overdue and only sensible.
Those arrayed against him look like selfish big business protecting its
bottom line at the expense of the people.

Mind you, everyone admires American teeth ;)

Best

Simon


Simon Biggs
Research Professor
edinburgh college of art
s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk
www.eca.ac.uk/circle/

simon at littlepig.org.uk
www.littlepig.org.uk
AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk



From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com>
Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:15:26 -0400 (EDT)
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Cc: Theory and Writing <WRYTING-L at listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy



It's not instrumentalist; it's more fundamental. If you're crazy with
stress because of bad health care, little or no income, you just don't
function well. If you have students, I assume you're full time - my two
courses at SVA won't even pay the bills (adjuncts get next to nothing). I
have nightmares over this, migraines, etc. In other words there has to be
a modicum of feeling you're not going to lose your apartment or your
teeth, you're going to have some sort of stability somewhere. I don't have
that - it doesn't sound like 'naughty boy' does either.

- Alan

On Wed, 19 Aug 2009, Simon Biggs wrote:

> I always feel guilty seeking to justify to students why they should persist
> with completing their degrees, whether BA, MA or PhD ­ so I don¹t. They
> often say they want a degree so they can get a decent job and balance that
> with their creative practice. They say they see me, with a job and an
> artistic career, as a role model. I point out to them I left school at 15
> with no qualifications -  to be a hippy. Other than being an artist and
> coincidentally securing various positions because of my artistic activities,
> including my current one, I have never had what I consider a real job in my
> life. I¹m just a good for nothing artist ­ at least in the eyes of the taxi
> driver or plumber I often encounter (people with real jobs). It seems that
> being good for nothing can be more rewarding than being socially useful.
>
> I find it a worrying that people judge themselves by whether they are
> gainfully employed or not. Everyone has something to contribute. We live in
> societies, both poor and wealthy, that historically have tolerated
> significant percentages of their populations being what, in todays terms, we
> would consider economically inactive. However, economic inactivity does not
> mean a lack of productivity. There are so many ways that people can
> contribute value to themselves and those around them without getting a job.
> I never wanted a job anyway!
>
> We should not allow an instrumentalist view of life to become paradigmatic,
> especially in creative practice. That is the death of the artist.
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> Simon Biggs
> Research Professor
> edinburgh college of art
> s.biggs at eca.ac.uk
> www.eca.ac.uk
> www.eca.ac.uk/circle/
>
> simon at littlepig.org.uk
> www.littlepig.org.uk
> AIM/Skype: simonbiggsuk
>
>
>
> From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com>
> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
> <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
> Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:25:23 -0400 (EDT)
> To: Theory and Writing <WRYTING-L at listserv.wvu.edu>
> Cc: <netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy
>
> My degree's in english, which has been useless all
> these years; Azure's is in environmental conservation from NYU (mine's
> from Brown). She hasn't been able to get work; I teach from time to time,
> part-time, and the stress is incredible; I think about suicide, running
> away with Azure, etc. etc.
>
>
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number
SC009201
>
>
>


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