[NetBehaviour] naughty boy

Wed Aug 19 12:17:56 CEST 2009

There are intense Taylorist pressures in society at this time and the
current UK government is playing to that tune. It is a pity.

As for how academic institutions think  yes, they have to consider their
bottom line. That means weighing up the costs and likely gain for each of
their activities. No institution can run an activity at a loss for too long
and it is always hard to argue for cross-subsidy from profitable to
unprofitable courses, especially in the transparent costing regime that now
exists (where departments and courses have to pay for the internal
institutional resources they use and then break even or generate a surplus
against other institutional activities).

However, it is important to remember that not all courses cost the same to
run. Chalk and talk, like Media Studies, History and many other social
science and humanities subjects, are relatively cheap to run, especially in
those institutions without strong tutorial based traditions (that means most
new Universities). Other courses are far more expensive, sometimes by
multiple factors. These include the creative arts, film and TV, medicine,
architecture, mathematics and engineering. But the fees institutions can
charge are not really variable, although the gearing employed by HEFCE/SHEFC
to calculate the annual grant is subject sensitive. That goes some way to
paying these extra costs  but not all the way. It is then a political
decision whether to subsidise certain subjects to ensure they survive.
Currently creative arts subjects are getting a relatively good deal.

In Scotland we have no student fees so the situation is very different to
the rest of the UK. However, it is not a bed or roses  even for the
students. The unit resource per student here is falling in comparison to the
UK and will fall further if UK fees rise and Scotland sustains free Higher
Education at the point of delivery. This will be bad news for both
institutions and students north of the border as we will struggle to compete
with the UK market, losing our best staff and, eventually, students  - who
will follow quality, even if it costs more.

Personally I do not know what the solution for this is  expect wholesale
reform of the system both sides of the border. I don¹t like the idea of
students running up massive debts and am comfortable with the redistributive
aspects of paying for education through general taxation. However, as mostly
middle-class kids benefit from HE access the question then is from whom is
the money being redistributed and to whom? In this context a graduate tax
system (as is run in Australia) might actually be fairer and more
redistributive in favour of traditionally disadvantaged socio-economic
groups.

It is a difficut issue to untangle and I wonder if there ever was a golden
age of Higher Education?

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: Corrado Morgana <corradomorgana at blueyonder.co.uk>
Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:58:15 +0100
To: 'NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity'
<netbehaviour at netbehaviour.org>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy

A recent radio4 article..some minister discussing the cost of education.The
gist: If a student can¹t afford an education then they should look for
courses which will guarantee an income after the course. AAARRGGGHH!!!
Educational institutes as we know are businesses, they will taylor their
courses to those that make money and get students-art courses and especially
media arts related courses are being chewed up and mauled by increased
student targets (international and national) lower funding and critically
for this argument, higher student fees. If students who cannot afford
courses are vectored towards courses that will generate employment, such as
was mentioned apprenticeships, my fear is that this will create a more
taylorised and stratified class system-I think most have heard this before.
Those less well off will end up doing apprenticeships while the other more
well off will enter the more academic and creative Ostuff¹ [trust funds and
old boy networks help]. This is a pattern I¹m see in arts education already.
I came from an immigrant, council housed, NHS, breadline family and ended up
going through further education the year before student loans were
introducedSphew, would never have been able to otherwise have completed or
even started an arts education.. the other options would have been a welding
apprenticeship and the steelworks, all noble but the equivalent of a slow
painful death for me at the time. (computer salesman nearly killed me as
well!)

The art scene that I mix in is largely not trustafarian and wealthy. Bright,
intelligent and academic, a healthy mix of social backgrounds
We might end up filling Britain¹s deficit of plumbers and bricklayers-some
whose Ohobbies¹ might be art; some who genuinely contribute, create and
evolve Oart¹. But implicit taylorisation worries me, as does Sennet, for
other reasons

Rant over..

C

-----Original Message-----
From: netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org
[mailto:netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org] On Behalf Of Simon Biggs
Sent: 19 August 2009 8:20 AM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] naughty boy

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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