Posts & comments

I just posted a comment to Ron's most recent post--I don't know if such things aren't visible enough to enter the conversation (pretty new to this), but I thought I'd try. I'll do the same to Sam's soon.

Appropos of all this, I was part of an interesting conversation last evening at Jack of the Wood, where John Crutchfield, Landon Godfrey, Carolyn & Chuck (akk, last names escape me), and I gathered for a sort of Whiteness reunion at John's suggestion (that sounds a bit strange to the uninitiated, I know). Conversation turned to arts & humanities self-definition, marketing, and such. Art and commerce. Chuck, who is an architect, had interesting things to say about clients' resistance to new ideas. Landon talked about the fact that she works with a group that does web design and "branding" for select clients/companies. Really interesting issues of trying to make the advertising actually say something real about the product. Questions, too, of needing to be careful about how one defines oneself: the label may change the "labelee" (quote from Plato in Chaikin's Presence of the Actor: "The mask the actor wears is liable to become his face" (or something like that). Carolyn used to be Board Chair of Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, and talked about a mission statement that actually gave direction, defined purpose, provide a basis for choosing. Countered my skepticism about such stuff. Important thing was to be concrete rather than vacuous. (Now I'm remembering Havel writing about how to successfully overthrow the state: Keep demands absolutely concrete.) Stuff we've all talked about, I know, but interesting in light of the kind of conversation we're having. I think this kind of talk is not only fun at times but useful, too--if we can keep it real and not get caught up in our own bullshit. Always a challenge.

I think I'm missing most of the real good stuff from last night's conversation. Anyway, then John got up to join Wayne Erbsen and other musicians in an old time jam session. He stopped talking about this art business and actually did some. (Of course, I had to skeedadle right as they were to begin...)

Pugillism: You got a Problem with That?

THINKING
Out of the Boxing


Humanity & The Fine Arts

Let Howard Cosell stand-for Humanities,
not humanism as in ah-the-humanity! but
the Academic Discipline we practice in
Jensen:take-the-gloves-off history of human
accomplishment like history-of-art up
North in Kittredge & Holden territory.

Look, Look, Look: mediating a relationship
between spectator and contestant.
Explaining How.
Interpreting What.
Building critical knowledge of the GOOD
and the not-so; the Significant & not-really
and how to tell the difference (if not the
relationship.).

I learned the word “juxtaposition” in my
History of Art course—sitting in the dark
seeing Art Art Art from beginnings to NOW.

In the Humanities: I read literature across
the ages. Critical thinking about OPP! As
opposed to auto mechanics.

Expressing, too. I became somewhat Howard
myself. Describe a punch —origins and destination.
Articulate a flurry. Celebrate both Knockout and
15 rounds of Steadfast Determination, no quitting
till someone sings & they seat the delegates.. Sift
& sort, classify & categorize accomplishments in
the humanities and the fine arts if not across the
curriculum..

I made flip-cards for tests.
to produce telling details &.
back IT up. Juxtaposition I
remember as a good idea but
not on exams--prime time.

From Howard Cosell’s standpoint: humanities &
arts are the SAME: spectacle. ooo owww hmmm
ahhh damnit yes Yes YES that must smart; brings me
to the edge of my seat.

On the other hand: boxer Ali!

Let Mohammed stand for sport itself:
Both in Humanities and Fine arts: the agon(y)
and ecstasy—rough & tumble, wrangling with
the angel Art. Fight club & Members Only.
Biff, Bam, POW: the making of some sense
of one’s own. Mohammed can stand for
all that.



SAME & yet DIFFERENT
(a relationship: ratio, rationale)

History of AcademicHumanities & Fine Arts;

On the one hand: critical commentary mediating
spectators & can't-tell-the-players-without-a-
program..

On the other hand
in-game, damnit, two-
fisted dancing like butter
stinging like bees:
fighting my way out
of wet paper bags I
think’d be a snap just
by reading reading all
about it. Wuxtry! Wuxtry! .

xxxooo, Presbyter

We say

Some thoughts...

I don't how "true" this is, but I think I used to feel that the academy had the "authority" to tell incoming students, and therefore parents & guardians, what the academy's standards are.

I'm mindful that having to prove one's worth is a defensive position. Sharing what we do and why we do it doesn't have to sound like making a sale.

I don't think we have to be different, but if there are ways in which we are different, we shouldn't hold them back. Also, there are ways to be distinctive and diverse (among ourselves), without having to resort to a feeling of rank among institutions.

Personally, I am fascinated these days by looking at an analytical/critical mode of being on the one hand, and an experiential mode on the other. This is directly applicable to learning about one's self in creative work, but also in all kinds of activities, including academic work. Maybe one way we (?) might be different from a stereotype of classroom learning is that students learn to know, use, and contextualize themselves and others in the A&H at WWC, rather than being empty vessels waiting to be filled with (useless?!) knowledge... and then there is the virtue of small classes related to that experience...

Just a test

I'm just testing to see if I can post to the blog by email, as I'm supposed to do.  If it works, you can, too!  I think you have to accept the automatic invitation to join the blog as an author.  You send an email to: (your name).fineartsandhumanitie@blogger.com (ex: grahampaul.fineartsandhumanitie@blogger.com.)  Notice that there's no "s" on the end of "humanitie"--wouldn't let me do it.  Ran out of spaces, I guess.  Oh, the humanitie!!
 Remember, the password is: academics

This is all too complicated--easier just to go the the blog and post.  Thanks!

Graham

putting it all together (fah!geddaboutit)

Not at the moment having the time or energy to really respond to Carol's and Ron's and Sam's post--but at least acknowledge--I'm wondering about something Carol raised and I asked Phil Otterness when we were talking yesterday: Does our self-definition (which should, yes, be rooted in reality and reflect something that can be used as but goes beyond marketing) necessarily have to be distinctive compared to other colleges and related to what makes Warren Wilson distinctive--or should we just brag on our faculty and their excellence and achievements (which we don't much and which are more or less invisible) and not worry about being "different"? Actually, even in the latter case, a kind of list such as Ron started would seem to be a starting point.

But where it might really get interesting--in terms of figuring out/naming whatever it is we do, for ourselves as much as others--is if we go in Sam's direction and sharpen the distinctions, the dichotomies. Juggle both distinctions and commonalities (diversity/identity). And if we could name that "action" (as in acting: playing an action), well, we might be going somewhere. Wonder if the parents would get it?

Searching for Sam's "super-ordinate".

We play, we argue, we banter, we tease, we dig, we search, we re-search, we act, we draw (figures or conclusions), we compose, we push the envelope, take chances, we scratch our heads, we perform, we dance, we ... (akkk, stop me, please!!)

Of course, these are commonalties, I guess, Sam. See how quickly I do it?

But what GOOD is a Liberalart(s) Education?

Divided We Stand
United We Roll

I'm wary of labeling one "creative mode"
and the other "consumer mode"—
good for argument's sake but
it's not so simple, wouldn't
you say?

And "consumer mode" is nice and
provocative, but maybe gets us
arguing unproductively

I might almost as easily agree with
someone who argued that, "No, what
we need to do is identify the similarities
between doing fine arts and doing humanites."

I'd like to find out. Yrs, Graham

We could go either way: similarities on the one
hand, differences on the other. The challenge
might be that we let neither similarities nor
differences eclipse each other: don’t want
Sameness contaminating the Differences.

Or Differences occluding the SAMES.

(This happens “politically,” right?—which is
why we have to have Diversity Programs to
encourage proliferation of difference without
threatening (or losing sight of ) the over all
shared identity. And vice versa: don't want
identity & integrity homogenizing the varieties
of our aesthetic experiences.)

Let creating/consuming be the “minimal pair” we might
could use/abuse foreground similarities/differences:
the creating-to-consuming ratios in ARTS, say—in
contrast to the creating-to-composing ratios in
HUMANITIES.

A way of talking about IT is all. Juggling. Not nailing it down.

Let “consumer mode” (assuming we will characterize it)
be as happy a camper and as essential as “creator mode”
(assuming we can share characterization)--ignoring if we
can whatever stigma both words carry.

IT –whatever it is—is always more complicated than
we can represent. So maybe we can proceed—reduce
and simplify to what may be seen as root & fundamental
aspects, values, qualities of (in this case): ARTS on the
one hand and HUMANITIES on the other hand—knowing
our thinking is always a violence against “the whole”--a
crime of fashioning & modeling & representing.

For the sake of argument I don't mind overstating and
understating, contradicting, mixing metaphors and making
whatever mess, margin of error and room for play it takes
to maybe work up some shared clarity.

(Emerging phenomenon, some biologists like to call it,
evolution of some collaborative genius, edification,
loose thought: we can always get up-tight later—revise,
reform, tidy up the overstatement, un-mix the meta-force.
figure out the thread, cover up the muddle, nail down a
thesis—turn it in to Dr. Bradshaw for preliminary
assessment before revision & shipping to Don Ray
to convert into Zoomerang and overall collegiate
participation and polling and argument.

The DIFFERENCES and SIMILARITY of the
academic/work/service components in HUMANITIES
on the one hand & the academic/work/service components
of the ARTS on the other hand—no longer to be ignorantly
collapsed, conflated, or confused unawares— because of
course we will collapse, conflate, and confuse IT ALL as
we go about our individual business & Get R Done agenda.
How could it be otherwise? Plenty of Margin of error &
Rooms for play. Thank god.

Consider:
VARIANTS on the SAME cerebral/affective THEME
(they just look different—at first glance; diversity—is all )

Process vs Product
Pedagogy vs Discipline
Confusion vs Clarity
Muddle vs Tidy
Sinister vs Adroit
Media vs Message
Out of Control vs NOT
Imagination vs Knowledge
Conservatory Values vs Academy Values
Upside Down Flamingo Croquet vs Hard Balls & Mallets
Cloud of Unknowing vs.Syllabi-Driven Aims & Objectives
Liberal ART vs liberal arts (Making Mode vs Give&Taking Mode)
a liberal arts education vs. what'll we tell the parents its GOOD for?.

Any body who doesn’t see the family resemblance,
raise your hand. We can argue. Or what's a
college for?
.
xxxooo, Sam

Healthy Tension

I'll add below a list of what I'll call "marketing" points for this new division--what students "get" that will help them in later life. But I am wary of presenting a public face that does not reflect at least something like reality. But perhaps my suggestions will be broad enough to discuss as an outward representation, while we continue to discuss our own sense of distinctions/values.

critical and dialectical thinking/intellectual development

writing

contextualization of the present culture through study of shared (past) cultural references

self-expression / self-knowledge / A&H as a mirror

life-long learning fundamentals

part of a rich, full life!

I'm concerned that if the division does not define itself, others will define us. So, someone says something like "Majoring in English will help students get jobs. You have good communication skills, don't you?" I find that kind of statement horribly depressing, so we really do need to say something about ourselves to other divisions, to parents, to students, to review committees, to those looking at the general education program. When people look at the college's web site, they'll see a lot about work and sustainability, which is good, but we're pretty much invisible. Are we different from other small college fine arts and humanities programs? Are there ways to talk about the relationship between the liberal arts/fine arts and job-getting, which parents are worried about? Enough for now. It's late. I'm going back to Alexandra Fuller's memoir of childhood in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

Carol

Yes they do, Sam

Sam,

Yeah, I'm afraid the blog might be too complicated--and I'm not sure about the blog format as a way of back-and-forth, anyway (comments don't show up automatically, I think, which is why it makes sense to follow your lead and avoid the "comment" button). But thanks for making the effort. Thanks, too, for posting this to fac-l, too--I'll do the same.

I tend to agree with you too automatically, but I do think that sharpening the differences between arts and humanities is a good way to engage with each other and try to figure out who we are and what the hell we are doing or might do together. Though I'm wary of labeling one "creative mode" and the other "consumer mode"--good for argument's sake but it's not so simple, wouldn't you say? And "consumer mode" is nice and provocative, but maybe gets us arguing unproductively. But there I go: "getting along."

Right: What we need is a "super-ordinate" term. Right again: The way to get there is by sharpening differences. See how easily I agree? But how could I not? Still, I might almost as easily agree with someone who argued that, "No, what we need to do is identify the similarities between doing fine arts and doing humanites." I'd like to find out.

Yrs,

Graham

Arts & Humanities: need a 3rd super-ordinate term

Dear Graham,

It took me a while to get on this members only club;
I fumbled around with your links and google andthe
http address and am in-for-the-moment.

I book-marked, but still: it will probably ask for
id next time I try.

I remember MC Richards giving a talk outside
what is now the print shop, on late spring evening
during a Black Mountain Retrospective we held.

art art art art art art art art
art art art art art art art art

She repeated the word for a long long time and
said she hoped the repetition would some how
scour IT of it's hoity-toity humanist connotations.

The difference between ARTS and HUMANITIES?

I say: turn them way way way way up so that
the distinct values of each don't contaminate each
other--and don't let their view of each other (if
I can personify, deify even--Argyle Art and
Hurry Harry Humanities) reduce the strangeness
on both teams.

(Fred Flatland's version of Sally Sphere, for example:
imagine how collapsed--talking in circles as if he
knew what sphere was; and of course Sally can't do
justice to Fred either: pumping him up like a balloon.)

THEN (as if this were chrono-logical) having maybe
come to some shared terms of how distinct and discrete
each is:

(Fine Arts on the one hand;
Humanities on the other hand)

we might begin to see the nature of the ratios and
relationships that emerge for us right here now
in this place: our local food for thought.

Otherwise: arts&humanities--it's all ONE, yes?
what's the big deal?

COURSES is what they are. Aims & objectives &
assessment all around. Mohammed Ali & Howard
Cosel & why can't theyJust Get Along?


Yrs in Consumer Mode,

Sam

Thoughts a bit later. Questions.

So I'm wondering (whoa, bigger print--ok) what this new job of mine really means, and what good can come of it. Obviously, I think some good can come of it or I wouldn't have signed on. Three things come to mind immediately: communication, visibility, opportunities. If I can somehow facilitate more and better conversations among those of us in the group of academic departments, that will be good, I think. If the conversation can be lively, stimulating, fun, then we'll do it and something good will come of it, if only life getting more interesting. But maybe some opportunities will come of it: teaching, social gatherings, events, symposia, creative work on display. Visibility.

What is it we do in the arts and humanities, and how do we make it more visible? Do we do contradictory things (Sam's different modes), is there an arts/humanities split of some kind? If there is, can we exploit that in a creative way? Is there any way to describe what we do, or the multiplicity of our "doings", in a way that makes us distinctive, both in the larger college community and in the LARGER community of colleges? Is there a way to boast and swagger about it, whatever it is?

What don't we have that keeps us from doing what we should/could be doing? What have we gotten so used to not having that we've forgotten to ask for it? What do we keep asking for without being heard? What opportunities are out there that we could take advantage of?

How do I help?

How does what we do differ from what other areas of the academic community do? How might it clash creatively with what else is going on? How do we (Sam's terms, again) sharpen the distinctions, throw them together, and turn it up? What synthesis might occur that holds the contradictions in play? How do we make the sparks fly?

Where are the students in all of this? Are they leading or following? Or are they somewhere else entirely?

Could I be the guy with some ideas but who mainly gathers other people's ideas, throws them together (the people and the ideas), makes something happen that sparks new ideas? And can I be the guy who finds out who is not being heard and does something about that?

Coming down to earth: The job description (such as it is at the moment) talks more about me being the guy who tries to keep all the classes in the fine arts and sciences from being held at the same time. Right. Among many other things.

This summer we--division chairs and other new quasi-administrative types, Paula, Carol--get together and try to sort some of these things out. I sure hope I hear from folks within the division on some of this stuff. Hint.

First post: Testing, testing, testing...

I'm setting up this blog for the Fine Arts & Humanities Division--which has just been created--to see if anyone wants to play. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. There may certainly be better ways to get a conversation going with each other, but if this becomes a way to talk to each other, then it's worth it. If not, it's been fun playing around.

I haven't yet added everyone in all the departments in our division to the list of those invited to contribute to this conversation. I'll get everyone who teaches on the list, and any of you can then start a new conversation as well as comment on others' posts. At this point--and maybe forever--only the people who have been invited to post can read the blog--it's not published to the world! A "private" conversation. Of course, we can change the rules when we want.

'Nuff said for now.