Page 25 - Studio International - October 1970

memorandum paragraphs 2-3: 'This framework a good course by the members of the department, an academic, is only too clear. An academic
permits a wide variety of courses. It is intended although perhaps 'minor' disagreements may would at least have presented his own policy
to allow for approaches of widely varying have produced 'minor' changes. statement; perhaps entertained a dialectic
structure and character. Each course should be The fact that a change can be made in a between old and new theses, despite the
arranged to reflect the college's interpretation of course half-way through its three-year duration possibility of there being no resulting synthesis.
the content and purpose of advanced study in calls in question the quoted necessity that the That he is instead an administrator is also clear :
the field with which it is concerned. Colleges will NCDAD should sanction a course and that the incoherent (he produces no alternative policy),
have freedom to pursue their own artistic students' work should be assessed in relation to irrational (he offers no rational criticism), unjust
direction and find their own solution to the that course. The NCDAD's authority is or irresponsible (actions are performed without
common problems.' revealed as a myth, not by the Art Colleges' consideration of their full consequences).
3. An upshot of the Fine Art Department quasi-autonomy, but by the instantiated actions The main tenet of an ideological argument is
meeting on 9 December 1970, was a proposal that have taken place at Coventry. (Has Mr that it shouldn't seem strange for the products
put forward by the acting Head of Fine Art— Plummer had his proposals accepted by a of an Art Theory course to be works of art. This
`That we establish a painting studio where NCDAD committee ? Is there any formal entails tramping along the well worn path of the
painting would go on' —which was defeated by evidence of his policy ? Is Mr Plummer acting in question, 'What is the Ontology of Art ?' Art
the department committee. Furthermore, it was accord with the NCDAD's requirement for the Theory attempted, by looking at recent
asserted that all the Fine Art students had establishment of a course any more than the paradigms of Art, to solve or at least suggest an
agreed to the course proposals made by Mr previous policy-makers whom he is criticizing ?) answer to this question. This answer states that
Atkinson and Mr Sandle, and had passed We are positing as one of our main points here the Ontology of Art is of a different logical
unanimously a motion proposed by student that colleges are autonomous, and that this fact world than many people have supposed. Much
representative David Rushton as follows : 'All is well known and used; but also that art recent art, particularly American, has moved
policy amendments that purport to be in the departments are autocratic. When it counts, there along this path toward what may be considered
"students' interests" but not in accord with the is little democracy in art colleges (particularly as testing the necessary requirements of a work
students' notion of the educational aims should within polytechnics). Not that democracy is of art (i.e. a generous interpretation of
be condemned on the grounds that they may be particularly good in itself, but that here those `Reductionism' and `Minimalism').
disguising the interests of others than the subjects on the 'shop floor' can contribute a Our predicament will seem even more
students for whose benefit the amendments are great deal more to policy-forming than can ridiculous if the NCDAD are to appreciate that
ostensibly intended, while not in any way administrators. Indeed, these subjects have Don Judd's Dictum (`If someone calls it Art, it's
catering for the student interest.' When one asks given a tremendous amount of time and thought Art') is a paradigm of some influence in art.
how the students would decide what were the to the course that ran from Summer 1969 to This appears to be trivially true for it acts as if
`students' interests', it was explicitly said at the 1971. What is so saddening and enraging is that it were a law of identity; and Judd's point was
meeting by the student representative that the the majority of staff who had worked hard for even made tacitly by Duchamp much earlier. It
staff who taught the students were best able to the course have been dismissed (with little is not pertinent here to expand an ontological
judge. notice to themselves or to the students whom argument fully; it is sufficient to say that the
4. It has been the argument of the Director of they had taught). Those students reaching their hypothesis of Wittgenstein — 'The limits of my
the Polytechnic, Sir Alan Richmond, that there final year and second year find that there is language mean the limits of my world ... we
are no precedents for the assessment, by the inadequate staffing. It affects even pre-diploma cannot think what we cannot think; so what we
NCDAD, of wholly written work. We consider students who had applied to and been accepted cannot think we cannot SAY either' (Tractatus
this outlook naturalistic and uncritical. That it for this course. It is well known that students 5.6-5.61)—is a correct understanding of the
has not been the case does not mean that it apply for particular universities to study under world: that is, there are no intrinsic qualities
could not be the case. (How are precedents particular academics. such as arthood, goodness, numbers etc. of
established ?) To say that the newly instated Dean caused `lumps of matter'. So what we say tells us what
5. The motions quoted above, as passed or these malevolent consequences is true on a is Art in the world. A distinct discipline of the
dismissed, did not reach the higher levels of the simplistic level. To ascribe to him the 194os and '5os was Conceptual Analysis, which
Polytechnic government. For this reason it responsibility for these actions is questionable. If attempted to sort out the logic of the world by
would not have been possible for the NCDAD Mr Plummer, or the acting Head of Fine Art, sorting out our language problems. Conceptual
to ordain these proposals with the 'contractual Mr H. Weinberger, did appreciate the Art has attempted and will continue to attempt
right' that they should be carried out; the consequences for the individuals, then they are to point out similar problems of a logic or a
NCDAD did not hear of them. And, as responsible for an action which has been of metaphysic of art by a correspondent analysis.
importantly, the contractual obligations of the considerable injustice. However, it has been put The whole point of Art Theory was that we
staff and students over the last two years have forward by some students that the new Dean should not commit the fallacy of Naturalism.
been promulgated and were, as Gratian would could not know of the effect that his actions That is, that one ought not to follow the
have pointed out, reasonably conceived and have caused, and that thus he can at the most be paradigms which show us what is Art, but as
reasonably declared; the course can therefore considered irresponsible. Alternatively, in quite critical practitioners consider alternative
not be dismissed as mere laissez-faire. There is successfully and speedily ridding us of the 'dead a-priori reasons for making art.
a leading principle in Natural Law which states wood' which had kept the course running (as PHILIP PILKINGTON
that nobody is bound to what he does not know well as having helped to construct it), Mr KEVIN LOLE
about. Those who took part in the course, those Plummer is unjust: it has been a conception of DAVID RUSHTON
who taught and those who were taught, did justice, held by such unworthies as Kant, J. S. Faculty of Art and Design
know what was required of them and responded Mill and H. L. A. Hart (vide Rawls, Justice as Lanchester Polytechnic
to what was asked of them. (This principle can Fairness', Philosophical Review 1958), that each Coventry
defend the NCDAD: ignorance which is not person participating in a practice, or affected by
The Art Theory course was part of the Fine Art
wilful either by choice or from negligence it, has an equal right to the most extensive course which consisted in toto of: Romanticism,
always excuses.) liberty compatible with a like liberty for all, Epistemology, Art History, Technos and Art Theory.
What all these points have shown is quite while inequalities are necessary only when they Its position was not only to consider its own
simply the 'institutional fact' of what the course work out for everyone's advantage. `problems', 'interests' and 'answers', but in some
was; and that this past course was believed to be That Mr Plummer is not, as he claims he is, sense to set the intellectual tone of the course by
raising questions within the other parts of the course.
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