Page 23 - Studio International - June 1973

means, all one needs to do is to look at a few Art education Comment No. 2
films by Godard, Robbe-Grillet, Dwoskin, . . children are children are children and
Makavejev, even Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray and immigrant rapidly integrate and adopt the culture of their
and some films of John Ford. children environment. . . . art may be an important
Together with Annette Michelson's "thing" in its own right; in school it must be
introduction and the Brakhage-Frampton subservient to the children.'
interview, the issue of Artforum also contained These seem to indicate strong assimilationist
detailed descriptions of sequences of views, with implications that all children in art
Brakhage's films and discussions of some classes should be treated entirely alike, whether
aspects of Eisenstein's montage techniques. Pakistani, English, or Chinese. Yet the value of
One must, however, give Artforum credit for attempting to produce hybrid Pakistani-
printing a translation of Roland Barthes's essay Englishmen or Chinese-Englishmen in schools
on a few framestills of Eisenstein's films (first seems ill-defined.
published in Cahiers du Cinema, No. 222, 1970). While assimilation may be generally
The essay deals with what Barthes calls 'the acceptable as a policy, it is questionable
third meaning', the indescribable extra beyond whether it should be interpreted in such a global
the informational and symbolic level of the way as to affect all aspects of school practice,
image. The third meaning depends for its and questionable whether art programmes
appearance on the interruption of the diegetic conducted along totally assimilationist lines can
timeflow. It only seems to appear in stills, but fully exploit the talents and experiences of
in fact it depends on our knowledge or immigrant children. If there is the possibility
awareness of 'a diegetic horizon, the possibility that, through a consideration of the culture
of configuration' in a sequence. In this and art forms of immigrant children, the
connection it is unclear why he denies (or at experiences of all the children in an art class can
least fails to mention) the possibility of a third be widened, then it would seem plausible to
sense in news photographs. However, some of adopt a flexible policy of cultural pluralism.
the areas designated as carriers of this third A recent Community Relations Commission This would also suggest acceptance of the fact
meaning, such as make-up, skin texture, details statement on the role of art education in that immigrants are immigrants, and that they
in facial expression, etc., could be systematized multi-racial schools indicated that: may have something of their own to offer to a
and treated as filmic-non-cinematic codes of `all pupils should have an opportunity to learning situation.
expression, to use Metz's terminology. The real encounter the African and Indian After all, it would be a strange teacher who
trouble begins when Barthes emphasizes that contributions to the world's art. Mode 3 CSE would not accept that often the knowledge and
those signifiers of the third sense cannot be will be employed where pupils wish to offer experience which children bring to the
described. All one can do is designate their (for example) Indian art history instead of the classroom make a vital contribution to any
location and perhaps their function: to ensure conventional course.' educative process within the classroom.
the impression of reality, to ensure the The statement appeared to offer a possible The Indian, Pakistani, or West Indian pupil
filmicness of the filmtext, etc. Perhaps one could guide to art teacher thinking on the who brings his own kind of perception and his
go further and call on another analysis of a programming of art activities for immigrant own kind of experiences to the school art
filmstill by Barthes : the face of Garbo (in schoolchildren. But art teachers are a strange lesson, may contribute intrinsically valuable
Mythologies, 1957) where the third sense - if I crowd at the best of times; consequently, material to the art education programme of the
read Barthes correctly - is identified as what the CRC suggested should happen in school. For the immigrant child the value of
`representing the fragile moment where the schools and what actually occurred tended to an art education programme might lie in its
cinema is about to extract an existential beauty become two very separate things. inherent potential for providing some form of
from an essential beauty'. Couldn't the same During a recent survey on 'Art and the self-recognition, or self-identity. Through a
kind of analysis be applied to the framestills Immigrant Child' art teachers in a number of properly constituted programme, art activities
from Eisenstein's films ? Perhaps the third West Riding schools were asked a series of may provide the immigrant child with the
meaning is not as mysterious as all that: a questions. Two of the questions were: (1) to encouragement and opportunities for using
further analysis could easily reveal that these what extent do you feel a school art programme forms and symbols derived from his cultural
signifiers without signifieds (i.e. objects) are in should utilize the previous art experiences and origins, and, by having their intrinsic worth
fact no more than redundant re-affirmations of activities of immigrant children ? and (2) do recognized and accepted, contribute to feelings
signifieds which already exist elsewhere in the you feel that an art programme for immigrant of pride and self-identity.
film on the symbolic level, in other words, as children should seek to promote in the For the second generation immigrant child,
guarantors of the impression of reality, similar children's work the retention of more who may be in the marginal and, perhaps,
to the elements which Barthes described as characteristics indicative of his cultural ambiguous position of not being fully aware of
`superfluous details' in literature, a notion he background ? the cultural worth of his origins, but who is
developed in his essay `L'Effet de Reel' in The response was extraordinary; thorough nevertheless interested enough to enquire, art
Communications, No. I I,1968. This might be sorting produced a total of twenty-two education may provide opportunities for the
the reason why they become apparent only in relevant comments which fell into a number of study and appreciation of the art forms of his
stills : they could be mere fragments of a main categories. The following examples are country of origin.
discontinuous series of signs whose function it is representative of the most commonly expressed
to establish or reinforce some specific points of view. Comment No. 3
connotation. Whichever way one looks at it, `Many of the children in this school were born
Barthes's essay definitely does present the Comment No. in England, and therefore cultural influences
reader with a number of important and `I do not feel that immigrant children should from the mother-country are often lacking . . .
challenging problems which have to be have a special course because they are for this reason I feel that a retention of the
investigated in detail. D immigrant. - Each child develops individually child's natural instincts (related to his cultural
PAUL WILLEMEN as a person.' background), is a good idea and should be

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