Page 27 - Studio International - May 1969

won't all be painters. group project to start them thinking as a ies or follow the work of artists, engineers and
'In the previous way of training, a person team and then beyond teamwork to their scientists working in collaboration through
never had his own identity. He studied under individual statements. Experiments in Art and Technology to see
six tutors and learned to paint six different In a one-term project, McAlinden and Page that the rules changed at the moment when
ways. What they were trying to do was to split the students into eight groups of five. the artist looked at a plastic advertising si gn
train the eyes and hand, when it's the brain Each group was to invent a tent which had to with a contemplative eye; first mentally re­
that allows you to see. incorporate a unique expression of their per­ arranged the images on a colour television
'Now we are not trying to produce artists so sonalities. Then the students were left alone. screen; first played idly with the idea of pro­
much as provide a visual education. The most For the first six weeks, the staff report subse­ ducing a picture through a computer, and
exciting thing we have done is to produce quently stated laconically, 'no tents were first envisioned the possible sculptural uses of
students who have gone on to take MA's in made and morale went down. Yet they were laser beams.
anthropology and psychology, for instance. rdlly finding and examining the social prob­ The old definition of art as an object to look
They have been accepted because of the lems presented by working in groups', and at in a gallery had been abandoned by these
breadth of mind towards their subject matter the results justified all their expectations. men, who have no single approach to their
which they gained through their visual train­ Page and McAlinden stress that the methods work, but who share the impulse to re-define
ing at Leeds. My point of view is that if you are unimportant; what is important is what the human condition, create a total environ­
take one thing well and get the process of is achieved. Mac added, 'It takes them a long ment and place their humanistic imprint on
learning from it, you can apply that to any­ time to believe that we are not trying to the fabric of an increasingly de-humanized
thing.' trick them.' There are occasional nervous society.
Willy Tirr puts it this way: 'If you teach them breakdowns, the result of the tremendous It follows that art schools which continue to
to think creatively, they will find a way in pressures some individuals feel when forced think of their goals in terms of producing
which form and content can come together, to discover who they are. sculptors and painters are out of touch with
and then they will learn the necessary tech­ Roy Slade points ou.t that because British the contemporary mood and that what is
niques.' society cannot adequately support those artists needed is a school which will encourage the
Atkinson concludes: 'I would like to make a it has now, the colleges which are not product­ individual to develop his talent in whichever
student's major subjects those which are the oriented may be an expensive luxury and one direction seems most inevitable.
centre of his interest. Suppose we find a · which the society may decide it cannot afford. It is also interesting to me that Leeds College
student whose interests are a cross between But if the art college can shift its emphasis to of Art should have formed such an approach
wireless, theatre and computers. The staff the development of the creative individual at the precise moment in human history when
helps him to discover and develop this. But at then Slade believes that the possible benefits to it is most needed. Man has gained complete
the moment, I've got to give such a person a society become much greater. mastery over his environment-including the
diploma in painting.' The future of the college's Department.of Fine ability to obliterate it-without having gained
The two men most responsible for the success Art appears uncertain at this writing. Atkin­ even the most elementary insights into his
of the first-year course are Robin Page and son is leaving to take up a new position in inner world.
Miles ('Mac') McAlinden. They are im­ London, Ontario, Canada. I get the impres­ The avant-garde theatre being developed by
mensely stimulating, challenging conversa­ sion that one of the factors influencing his the Living Theatre in the United States and
tionalists who bombard you with the force of decision has been the tremendous personal France, the musical environments created by
their convictions. These are that the approach effort that was required to set up the Leeds Cornelius Cardew, the experiments in sensory
must be open-ended and enquiring, an environment and to sustain it in the face of perception being conducted at the Esalen
attitude rather than a method, built on a persistent criticism from those who are more Institute in Big Sur, California, and the
generous concern for the whole man. They traditionally oriented. experiments at Leeds, seem to me to share
encourage students to make mistakes on the Everything depends on whether his replace­ similar goals:- to bring about changes in
assumption that this is an essential part of the ment shares the common goals. If not, it seems human behaviour.
learning process. likely that other staff members will leave. There is a common recognition running
'They (the students) are running their lives. There is, on the face of it, something out­ through these experiments, however varied a
We are not,' Mac says. 'We are only creating rageous about an art college, that doesn't method, that unless we become more self­
an environment. We are only a fence to care whether its students ever paint; that aware we are ultimately bound to destroy
keep stupidity out and let them grow. cares less about the eternal riddles posed by ourselves; because no system of government
'We believe that the only method is to ask the art than the development of the human po­ can finally succeed until human beings have
questions, so that they produce the answers tential. But on examination, the concept is learned the art of self-knowledge. D
which are their reality.' not as far-fetched as it might appear.
Page says, 'I am not so much concerned with The days when art could be defined only in A student comment on Leeds: 'The course.
art as I am with society. Group therapy? Of terms of sculpture and painting, or even as Difficult to detect; difficult to recognize.
course. In a sick society, where else do you the unique work of one man's hands, have dis­ Difficult to imagine. Probably not provably
begin?' appeared. existent. Impossible to fault. Impossible to
They start by presenting the students with a One needs only to tour the New York galler- even criticize. One can only criticize oneself.'

DORE ASHTON the American critic, JONATHAN BENTHALL,
who works with the Centre for the Studies of Science in
Art, CHARLES HARRISON, assistant editor, and FRANK
WHITFORD, a contributing editor, are regular contri­
butors to Studio International.

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