Quick report on Academic Council meeting 11/4

Dear FAH Faculty--

Here's a very quick report on the Academic Council meeting I just came from.  Nothing earthshaking--I just need to communicate quickly to you after every such meeting (Acad. Council, Exec. Committee, FAH Chairs), and I have been remiss in not doing so more regularly.

Reminder:  Academic Council includes the VPAA,the Assoc. Dean, the Div. Chairs, the Faculty Body officers, and directors of FYS & Writing Program, gen. ed., sustainablity, technology, and assessment (I may have left someone out).

Topics discussed:

• Faculty positions:  Paula stressed that the college will be in basically a "no-growth" posture for the next 2-3 years--no increase in numbers of students and therefore no additional $$ from that source--and she's fighting to make sure that positions that have been approved (Creative Writing, Music, Art) stay approved even if searches are postponed.  (I would certainly appreciate frequent updates on current searches/discussions regarding these positions.)  We talked about the need for faculty, working with Academic Affairs, to determine the appropriate number of positions for a student body of the current--and presumably future--size (940 this fall).  That determination can serve as a basis for continued proposals for new positions; the need will be there, regardless of funding availability.  Academic Affairs may start this process and then turn it over to Faculty Body.
• MAT (M.A. in Teaching) questions raised in yesterday's Fac. Bod. meeting regarding graduate-level independent studies:  Consensus was that since Grace was presenting the program concept for the first time and it won't go into effect until 2011, it's too soon to deal with some logistical issues--they will be worked out.  (I had a good long conversation with Grace about how some FAH departments could participate in the program--exciting stuff, though still early days.)
• General discussion on faculty morale (how to keep it up; how to deal with issues, rumors, etc.; how to facilitate clear communication):  One point that I made was that division chairs bear responsibility in conveying good information to our faculty, so Paula isn't left to deal with every question individually.  A general point regarding rumors which we all agreed on was that we should spread the word to everyone:  If you hear something and you want to know more, ask.  Ask me!  If I don't know, I'll find out and get back to you.  I think that's one of my major jobs.
• Continued talk on transparency led to a suggestion that we find a way to issue very simple accounts of what committees have met, when, who's on them, and what was discussed. (The idea is that such info would be much briefer than this report, for example:  Very, very basic.)  The point is for everybody to know what issues are being discussed.  An added benefit would be to increase the desire for all faculty members to serve on committees of particular interest to them.  There was discussion that some faculty members get tapped to serve much more than others; how can we spread the work so that everyone is involved but not overloaded?  Noting the level of involvement (or uninvolvment) in division chair responses to a faculty member's annual report is another good way to encourage involvement and discourage burnout.

Those are the main issues we discussed.  I might add more later but I want to get this up now.  Thanks for reading it!

Cheers,

Graham

Message from da FAH Chair

Dear FAH Chairs & Faculty--

I'm accumulating a growing list of things to talk to you about.  I'll be scheduling a FAH Chairs meeting for early next term, and I'd like to follow it with a FAH faculty meeting.  I may write more on the FAH Blog, but for now:

LIBRARY:  A time of reckoning and perhaps change is coming regarding library book orders and departmental book budgets.  Right now, the message from both Joy Pastucha (Acquisitions) and Chris Nugent (Director) is this:  Make sure you are not neglecting to order books in your discipline in order to keep the library's collection current.  Doing so benefits not only student research but faculty research and professional development.  ESPECIALLY:  Remember that faculty in new and upgraded full-time positions get a budget of $350 for each of the first two years (those of you who are new just got an email from Joy regarding your individual budgets).  Use it or lose it.  Some new courses get a budget of $300 (also an email from Joy to some instructors).  These funds are budgeted, and a real privilege:  use 'em!

FIRST YEAR SEMINARS:  Gary needs help in planning the first year seminars for the future, which means that we department chairs (and faculty) need to be planning when we will offer these seminars several years out and who will teach.  Not easy to plan for the future, but it's something that many of us (me) need to learn how to do better.  We'll all benefit.  Actually, maybe we can do FYS planning best as a division; we should be able to come up with a list of promised FYS seminars (or instructors at least) from FAH for the next 3-5 years.  We'll talk more about this in upcoming FAH chair & faculty meetings.

CCII:  Gary, wearing another of his many hats, needs our assistance as he works on the CCII component of the gen ed program.  I'll let him take it from here, but again, look for discussion at FAH chair & FAH faculty meetings next term.

ADVANCEMENT, GRANT APPLICATIONS:  Carol has been talking to Grant Writer/ Researcher Kelly Christianson, who would like to meet with our division (she's already met with the Social Sciences Division!).  The more she knows about us as individuals, as departments, and as a division, the better.  Talking with Kelly is one strong reason for having a division meeting next term, and relates directly to the last item on my list. 

PHYSICAL NEEDS (now stop it!  I'm talking about learning and office spaces.):  We made a list, we've conveyed departmental needs to Paula and to PAC, we've affected the strategic planning process, and now we need to continue to develop and refine our most pressing spatial needs.  We're about to move into the "Action Plan" stage of the planning process--where the rubber really meets the road, as they say.  Department Chairs:  Please work with those in your department to identify and articulate (succinctly) your most pressing needs, and please give me what you come up with at our Chairs meeting early next term.

That's all I'll write at this point.  I'll paste this on the FAH Blog, too, and may add more.  I'll be emailing department chairs to arrange a FAH Chairs meeting soon after we return from break.

Cheers,

Yer Chair,
Graham

Graham Paul
Chair, Fine Arts and Humanities Division
Co-Chair, Department of Theatre
Warren Wilson College
Asheville, North Carolina
phone: 828/771-3041

http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~theatre/
http://get.wwtheatre.info

Executive Committee meeting notes

Quick notes on the most recent Executive Committee meeting (division chairs + dean Paula + assoc. dean Carol):

In our meeting of 9/16 we discussed some issues that were raised in the Chairs Committee meeting the previous day (as a result of MY course proposals!):  What to do about a course proposed by an adjunct that is truly interdepartmental; that is, one that doesn't clearly fall within a specific department.  Paula expressed concern about making the curriculum wide open and so feels it's important that any course be housed in a department.  Makes sense.  The question then is, should a department be allowed to offer a course that doesn't clearly fall within its discipline (the course in question was Theatre's proposed ST Art and the Apocalypse)?  No clear answer, but there's clear concern about "adjunct creep" and having a basis for turning down a course proposal.

The larger issue came up as to whether the Chairs Committee should approve Special Topics course proposals.  Seemed to be general agreement that authority could stay at departmental level,  rather than rise to the level of all department chairs.

We agreed that the time was right to go ahead and put ballots in mailboxes for the major changes to "the document formerly known as green".  General celebrating ensued for the next 5 seconds.  Only one absolutely crucial issue remains:  What Color???  Judgment:  We'll see. 

Each division chair (Nat Sciences, Soc Sciences, Library, FAH) gave a quick report on what was happening.  The Library has evidently hit a temporary glitch with construction of the study rooms; Chris is a model of patience.  Paul reported that Natural Science Div is talking to PAC about the college possibly adopting one or both environmental quality programs that have been cut by UNCA (one dealing with lead poisoning prevention in the area, the other with water quality issues in streams, lakes, etc.).  Exciting prospects.  I followed with a summary of what's been going on in FAH (see my earlier post) and mentioned my interest in a Center for Community Based Research, which coincides with the Nat. Sciences idea.  Some general excitement about the possibilities for real interdisciplinary work through community-based research (Service)!

That's it.

Latest FAH-related news bits

Here are some things that have been happening:


FAH Chairs met Sept 2 -- I met with the chairs of our eight departments:  Leah, David (Mycoff), Warren, Sally, Ron, and Gary--Dongping sat in for Phil Otterness, and Angela couldn't make it.  The one item on the agenda was how and whether to use the list of departmental needs generated at our earlier FAH Division meeting to influence the strategic planning process (big community meeting planned for the following day).  We agreed to draft a statement intended to signal the need for appropriate teaching/learning spaces across all departments to replace the "Build a new building" item in the draft Strategic Plan.  That evening, I drafted a statement to submit to PAC and sent it to the chairs for revision.  Ron offered revisions and Gary drafted a wonderfully pithy version, which I subsequently emailed to Paula and PAC on behalf of FAH.

Further Strategic Plan developments -- Following the very successful community-wide strategic planning day, PAC released a much revised draft of the plan.  I was gratified to see our proposed change adopted almost word-for-word.  Following the faculty meeting on Sept. 8 (our "affinity group"), Paula released another much-revised version to present to the community last Thursday (Sept. 17).  At first, I was dismayed, thinking that our concern for upgrading teaching/learning spaces had disappeared or become too vague, but, looking more closely, I found the statement moved under Priority #1 and rephrased to include all areas of the college.  I think our efforts to create a more inclusive call for improving our facilities have paid off (although Ron pointed out to me afterward that it places resources for academic facilities in a wider competitive field).  Now, of course, comes the nitty gritty:  Developing the Acting Plan.

Other news and developments:  
Regarding the ongoing General Education revision discussion, Jeff Holmes announced in an Academic Council meeting (Sept. 2) that the results of his survey at faculty retreat regarding opinions on the need to change the program--and in what ways--indicate that the faculty is "all over the place" with this exception:  There is almost universal agreement on the need for a foreign language requirement of some kind.  A discussion of what such a requirement would look like and what it would intend should be interesting, with major consequences for the Modern Languages Department.

I've continued trying to help move a few facilities-improvement projects along:  Art (clay mixing room air quality issue, 3-D sculpture/metalworking studio) and Music (the decade-long-delayed conversion of a storage area to a band practice room).  Dealing with FMTS continues to be frustrating, although I honestly think they are trying harder to communicate where things stand--but I'm not sure things are actually moving any faster.  Maybe.  Steve Williams finally had to threaten to lock down the Music Wing in order to get a lock replaced (and the repair is still temporary).  The system is still very, very broken, something that I think PAC realizes.  My plan is to help the process as much as I can so that things actually get done--but not to replace direct communication between departments and FMTS!  If anyone has problems in this area, please let me know.

Writing Department adjuncts are now ensconced in half of Mitchell House (the stone duplex between the amphitheatre and the health center).  During this year, plans will be laid to renovate the entire building for office space--and FAH has priority (I believe!).

Speaking of Modern Languages, I was much involved in a last-minute attempt--successful--to find an adjuct to teach Spanish I & II in the wake of Luis's departure.  Thanks to Leslie Bradshaw's assistance, we found D.D. Swift, who is a welcome addition to the program.

Warren Gaughin has arranged for a consultant to visit the Music Department next month to help in their process to significantly beef up the Appalachian music part of the program, particularly with the upgrading of a part-time position to full-time status (delayed from last year).  As part of the same process, Phil Jamison is already teaching half-time in the Music Department (thanks, Mathematics).

Bette Bates and Don Baker are going to serve on the Sustainability Task Force.  I was bothered by the fact that Margo Flood had no one from FAH on this possibly influential group--now there are two!

I've been involved in two other areas that are not exclusively FAH-related (although both could be):

1)  I'm officially Chair of Integrative Studies.  There are now only three people on that committee:  Lucy Lawrence, John Casey, and me (Mallory McDuff is helping).  There's general agreement that the program much change if it is to continue.  I'll be organizing a conversation to that end.  Meanwhile, students keep talking to us about proposing an Integrative Studies Major.  The program is currently under the Social Sciences Division, but Ben Feinberg and I are talking about bringing it under FAH.

2)  I'm becoming more and more involved in an effort to support service learning and the SLO by promoting community-based research, even to the point of brainstorming about a Center for Community Based Learning, perhaps in partnership with UNCA (my immediate connection is through an interest in the community-based arts movement--particularly regarding performance).  Some of us will be going to a workshop at Maryville College next month--they've got what could be a good model for us.  Recent developments in the Natural Sciences regarding this kind of thing (there are two orphan programs that deal with water quality and lead poisoning issues in the area--and the college might help) could result in interdepartmental initiatives.  I'm an advocate for even greater involvement by faculty and students in helping solve problems in the area, as long as the needs are coming out of the communities themselves--which is what community-based research is all about.  This is something that Franklin Tate--to whom we bid farewell on Friday (though he'll still be in the area)--has been advocating for years.  If anyone in FAH is interested and wants to know more, let me know.

That's all for now.  Too long as it is.  Must make more posts more frequently--and shorter!

Graham

FAH Division Meeting: FAH Space Program!

Dear FAH Colleagues,

Thanks so much for making the FAH Division Meeting held Friday 8/14 such an exciting, energized, productive event.  There was a palpable sense of excitement and purpose in the room, created around the issue of making our voice heard loud and clear, particularly in the context of the development of the new College Strategic Plan and most prominently (but not exclusively) concerning OUR NEEDS FOR SPACE--hence my calling for a FAH Space Program! 

But of course we can't wait and just hope that we have a real voice in that plan; we need to make sure that our needs are addressed in the short run as well as the long run.  That's a big part of my job.  Your job is to make me do it!  You made a great start at the meeting by holding the shortest department meetings in history and then reporting back to the group on your needs.  Now I'm getting those needs we listed at the meeting out in front of us all so we can look at them.  I've also emailed department chairs so we can find a time to meet together soon.

(Department Chairs, please let us all know via comments to this blog posting if your departments have changes to make to the notes below, and please let us know as soon as possible which need is most urgent in the eyes of your department.)

Here's the breakdown according to my notes, by department.  Following this list (or in another post if I run out of time), I'll include other notes from the meeting.

FAH Departmental Needs:

ART:  1 doz. computer stations; metalworking area for safe cutting and welding; offices for five faculty; Holden major repair/renovation, including making Holden Auditorium "smart"; more storage space; conference room; structural improvements to tie three Art buildings together.

ENGLISH:  More space!  Smart classrooms! faculty development funds (or new position?) to work with new MAT (Master of Teacher Ed.) Program; eventually a 6th faculty position.

HISTORY/POLITICAL SCIENCE:  Right-sized classrooms!  Smart classrooms!  Support for working with MAT Program.

MODERN LANGUAGES:  More classrooms!  Smart classrooms!  Restore language lab; Gen. Ed. language requirement, with additional position(s) such a change would make necessary; support for working with MAT Program.

MUSIC:  Additional music rehearsal space (immediate: long-delayed conversion of storage space!); renovate Recital Hall and make "smart"; make K16 classroom "smart"; three additional faculty offices; general renovation of entire Music Wing, most urgently new chairs, tables, carpet; campus web-radio station facility (?).

PHILOSOPHY:  Real office for faculty--with a window!  Upgrade 2/3 position to full-time; right-sized classrooms!  Smart classrooms!  support (time & $$) for curriculum development;

THEATRE:  Space beyond Kitt. stage for instruction, rehearsal, performance (Real dance studio, performance/rehearsal studio, design lab/classroom, smart classroom); 2-3 faculty offices; storage spaces; funds & support for post-graduate internship with local professional theatre + Theatre Dept.

WRITING:  NEW FICTION POSITION!  Smart classrooms!  Unified departmental space.

DIVISION-WIDE NEEDS: 
The "Big Fire" (in Casey's words) seems to be the need for classrooms/studios sized according to pedagogical needs and provided with appropriate technology, but not far behind:
Renovation of Jensen public spaces; serious improvement of entire Jensen environment; Arts communal gathering space (with café); PROFESSIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANTS!  Money for FAH January Retreat.
(I could list other FAH needs such as informations website, crew support, etc., but these are the items from my notes in the meeting.)

These are the needs I recorded from the meeting.  Chairs, please let us know your department's most crucial priority.  I'll add other meeting notes in another post.

Thank you all for good work.  Please, let's not let the momentum slow. 

Submitted by:
Yr hmbl & ever-vigilent Chair,
Graham Paul

Trying to summarize summer

Hello, FAH folks--

Well, I re-started the "New" FAH Blog as a conduit for information about what I'm doing as FAH Chair and then--of course--added nothing.  Okay, here goes:

What I Did On My Summer Vacation by Graham Paul

Mid-May:  After reviewing files and ARSEs at hand, I meet with Paula to advise her as she makes decisions on merit raises and salary inequities (she asked all division chairs to do this).  Not very much in the way of big bucks to work with, but something.  Presumably, this task will become routine, so make sure you put all your many achievements in your ARSEs (if you know what I mean).
        Soon after Commencement, I join many of you for a workshop for department chairs.  We discuss leadership philosophy and qualities, the many tasks of the department chair, assessment, adjunct issues, division ideas, legal issues, department chair compensation, etc.  A good day.

End of May:  Warren Gaughan and I travel to lovely Boston, MA (rain & gray weather, but not bad) for a jam-packed three-day Workshop for Department and Division Chairs (hosted by the CIC) at the lovely Cambridge Hyatt Regency.  An amazing amount of information, conversation, and stimulation (of the intellectual kind only, of course).  Terrific presentations.  I scribble furiously, and I eventually transcribe about half of those scribbles into a document-in-progress which can be found HERE.  I can't tell you department chairs and potential chairs (and potential division chairs hey-hey!) how beneficial these annual workshops can be.  I strongly, strongly urge you to go to the next one.  Paula will pay, and it doesn't come out of your personal faculty development kitty.  For someone like me, who still considers administration something of a foreign country, it was quite a trip.  Three of the thousands of thoughts I came away with:  1)  It is wonderfully illuminating to learn to "think like a dean", if only a little bit, and can take you a long way toward getting the resources a department may need;  2)  it's vitally important that faculty receive all the information they need to improve their programs; and 3)  don't ever lose sight of the main thing in making decisions:  It's what's best for the students that counts; and 3)  Warren and I and a couple of other folks we've met have an amazing night of theatre when we attend Jerry Springer: The Opera.


Sometime in June:  I get more deeply involved in the issues around who and what Bryson Gym will be for when it finally re-opens (if ever).  A couple of meetings reveal that Outdoor Leadership needs the space desperately, as does Wellness for their classes, and of course the Old Farmers Ball (contra dancing), but We Can All Get Along.  Some of us get excited about possible inexpensive renovations beyond what's planned to make the space suitable for performances, rehearsals, and maybe offices--as well as classes (I know, this sounds like Theatre business exclusively, but more FAH departments could find a use for it, too, perhaps).  However, visions come crashing down in the face of some building code questions.  What Will Happen?  We still don't know.  Stay tuned.

May-June-July:  I read again and with care lots and lots of Annual Reports and Self Evaluations, as well as cv's, and draft lots and lots of responses, which I eventually send to you and to your file (still finishing up two, truth be told).  I try to make the responses substantial--moreso that in the future, perhaps--because this is the first time in a long time you've gotten some kind of written responses.  I'm hugely impressed by the amount of work that you all do.  Just amazing and humbling.  (Of course, I'm still lacking a very few of these exciting documents: You Know Who You Are.)  And be ready:  the new deadline for Annual Reports & Self Evaluations is January 15!  I hope the new, streamlined format Ben Feinberg and I developed makes them easier to write.
    Also in this time, I give Paula my own self-evaluation as FAH Chair and goals for the future.  Thanks to those of you who responded to the questionnaire about my, ahem, performance.  After I look over the goals I listed for the coming year (and perhaps thin them out a bit), I'll post it on the FAH Faculty Website.

In June, I meet with the former president of the board of ArtSpace, the charter school just down the road.  Looks like I might possibly be on their board of advisors, and serve as a kind of liaison between ArtSpace and WWC (or at least FAH).  We'll see.

At the end of June, I join some of you for breakfast with a bunch of traveling high school guidance counselors.  Interesting conversations!  I'll have lots more to say about recruiting strong students soon.  Speaking of which...

July:  I join many of you at the Admission Open House, talk to several students and their parents.  Many students are rising seniors in high school, and one student (at least) is a rising junior!  Bears out what I learned at the CIC workshop:  We need to start working with students earlier than we might think if we want them to come to Wilson.
      Later in July, I meet with Paul Braese, head of FMTS, to try to understand what keeps projects like the Music Department's request that a storage area be turned into a band practice room, what keeps these projects in limbo for as long as ten years(!!!).  I learn a good deal but there's still a good deal of mystery.  We clearly need to develop a clear, simple way for projects to be proposed and then approved by PAC and then started and completed within our lifetimes!   I will keep pushing with the projects that I'm aware of (two for Art, one for Music, maybe one for Theatre; other chairs, talk to me), and I'll keep pushing for a more efficient system.
     During the month, I also put together the FAH Faculty Website (see the link above and also on the side of this blog), which I intend to serve as an information and resource conduit for all of you and a way for me to keep track of all the projects and issues that I need to work on.
     And during this month, I also learn that Luis Arévalo will not be returning in the fall.  I wish him the best of luck, and also wish the members of our Modern Languages Department encouragement--and my assistance--as they deal with the sudden situation.  Luis will be missed.  Thank goodness for Alberto!

    At the end of July I participate in a walk-through of Mitchell, the stone duplex behind the Amphitheatre, half of which will become offices for some Writing faculty who got kicked out of Sunderland basement--and perhaps others).  The other half of Mitchell is slated to become more space for academics after this year.  At last.

     Later that day, Paula's Executive Committee which is made up of Paula, Carol, and Ben/Paul/Graham/Chris as division chairs, has a half-day retreat at which we discuss broad visions for academics at WWC, our goals for the coming year, and numerous more specific issues.   We talk about the need for all of us to clarify and articulate what "liberal arts" means at Warren Wilson.  What do we want it to mean?  What is strong and distinctive about what we do?  What needs to be made stronger?
     As division chairs, we all pretty well agreed that last year we were spending much of our time developing the new academic structure and figuring out what we were trying to accomplish; this year, more of our time needs to be spend working with and supporting departments and department chairs.  For my own part, I feel that I clearly need to work with all departments more--but especially those in the humanities, who got less of my time last year that the fine arts departments.  To that end, I have moved my office from Kittredge Music Wing to the [very happening] second floor of Jensen.  Hopefully, familiarity won't breed contempt.  And don't worry, arts folks:  I'll still be in Kittredge a good deal of the time, as well as in your hair.

On the last night of July, I attended John Crutchfield's performance of his The Songs of Robert at the BeBe Theatre, a fundraiser to help pay for him to take it to the New York Fringe Festival, where he has been invited.  A great night.

August:  Here we are.  I find myself having attended two meetings about efforts to digitize and make accessible course evaluations and eventually much of our personnel files--how to do it, how to make sure nothing gets lost, how to preserve confidentiality, and how to make sure that files are complete in one form or another--especially important when we come up for extended contract reviews, of course.
      I also find myself moving into a new office, preparing syllabi for two new courses, and preparing to direct A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Steve Williams.
      And I make plans for our FAH Division meeting on Friday, Aug. 14 in Kittredge Music Wing.  I'll work on an agenda as well as on some kind of refreshments.  I'll communicate again with some agenda ideas, but please email me with what you think should be on that agenda.  It's a time to get focused and excited rather than meeting'd out, so let's have a lively, productive and not-too-long meeting. 

Don't know if you made it this far, but if you did:  Thanks.  Subsequent posts will be shorter!

Cheers,

Yr Hmbl & Ob't FAH Servant,

Graham

The new blog

Dear FAH Colleagues,

I've revamped this blog into a site where you can find out what your fearless FAH Chair has been up to in meetings (and there are plenty of them, believe me).  It's my aim to make communication between us as clear and effortless as possible, so that you may find out what decisions are being discussed and what actions are being taken that might well affect your professional lives.  AND where, in your comments on these posts, you can tell me and each other what you think about said discussions and decisions.  And if you don't feel like posting a comment for all to see, please email me.

This blog is intended to work in tandom with THE FAH FACULTY AND CHAIRS WEBSITE (just published!)  Check it out if you haven't already done so.

I'm hoping that, not only will this be a way for you to stay informed, but it will also provide a means by which you can tell me just what you think about what I'm doing--or what I should be doing.

This post is by way of explanation.  My next post will report on meetings this summer (yes, there have been meetings . . . there will always be meetings . . . meetings and more meetings . . .)

Fine Art & Humanity as opposed to Sciences Hard & Soft

School Mode
(L. Schola: "leisure-time")

Anyway: I like the idea of
"school"
qualifying as a "theatron"--
maybe thinking that way helps
distinguish between what aids
Liberal Art and what doesn't.
Graham P__

Theatricality
Dramatizing the Dialectic
(Mission Impossible)




Aesthetic: to view, see
Anesthetic: not.

My role, could I choose to fake it
(hypocrite): to put Aunty Thesis
into play, antagonistic of course,
adversarial, diabolical & therefore
worthy opposition among the
symbolists in any court of law:
accusatory & satanic: clown, jester,
joker, trickster juggling BB Wolf
AND the 3 little pigs, Hermes
Mercurious & the Bi-Polarities.

Dirty work: fundamental. studies
and leadership programs.

Talking about In “School Mode”
of course: leisure-time where

Question Every Thing

is M.O. & not to be collapsed,
conflated, and confused with

“Church Mode”

Question No Thing & be
praising god crying out loud
or what’s a worship for or

“State Mode”

Question the other Team & pity the poor student who
can’t tell the differences &
relationships.

(Indoor Education: always
an internal challenge event.)

“School” on the one hand;.
“Church” & “State” on the other
& a box on both houses when
we’re in School Mode, yes?

Need we argue? How else
put IT in play? Play &
Be Played? School
& Be Schooled?

xxxooo, Sam

Theatre Was Religious: Seeing

Theater was religious,
originally, true?

Catharsis: the purgation
of fear AND pity--both,
so as to be able to see
without those 2 interferring
as they naturally do?

Purgatory: a purification.
Washed in the blood of the
spam.

The Play's the thing.

I agree with you: "coherence"
(and consistency) are words that
mean one think among logicians,
radically different and
incommensurate among artists.

And yet: the same words.

No wonder we confuse each other,
collapsing and conflating
realms of activity, yet using/
abusing the same words across
the curriculum.

Can't be helped. But maybe
seen--factored inn? Talked
about a lot so as to at least
be able to track the confusion?

Dramatize?

Best, Sam

more strange-making

Sam,

Got to be a sealed-off PLACE for this kind of activity,
thinking, converse- action and art-going-on.
 
Not in the marketplace. 
 
School qualifies, but even there: got to differentiate between
the  Get R Done  agenda and  the liberal art: between
scissors, paper, and rock.   

This morning as I was walking up on Sunset Mtn, I was thinking (for a moment) about the theatre as a place where it was safe to really see (theatron, right?), where we go to really attend to what is happening, because usually we have to filter out so much noise that we end up filtering out the important signals as well.  Also thinking about the notion of "coherence" in art and how that quality might aid in seeing (I don't think "coherence" in this case is quite the same as we might use it to describe, say, a logical system of thought--though, frankly, I'm not sure how to define "coherence" in art).

Anyway.

I like the idea of "school" qualifying as a "theatron"--maybe thinking that way helps to distinguish between what aids Liberal Art and what doesn't.

Graham

Room for Making the Strange familiar & versa vice?

ARTARTARTARTART
ARTARTARTARTART
ARTARTARTARTART

Dear Graham,

Be making the strange familiar,
the familiar strange.

I don’t know where Shelly said this.
It’s possible Wordsworth said it or
something like. It looks like Shlovsky
is saying it and Tolstoy too. The more
ways of saying it the better, maybe the
merrier depending on the context,
depending on the environment,
on the local food supply.

Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture,
one's wife, and the fear of war. "If the whole complex
lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such
lives are as if they had never been." And art exists that
one may recover the sensation of life

It’s an anti-habitat-for-for humanity kind of notion, true?

Ertia knocking on the doors of Inertia, aiming to blow the
house down, set this intellective (& affective) flame on fire.

Got to be a sealed-off PLACE for this kind of activity,
thinking, converse- action and art-going-on.

Not in the marketplace.

School qualifies, but even there: got to differentiate between
the Get R Done agenda and the liberal art: between
scissors, paper, and rock.

The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as
they are perceived and not as they are known. The
technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make
forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of
perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic
end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of
experiencing the artfulness of an object:
the object is not important.

(Schlovsky quoting Tolstoy .)

The object is not important. Some must beg to differ.
This kind of talk is an offense to the Social Scientist
and ludicrous to the Hard. Differences must be preserved:
turn them up. Put them in play.
The play’s the thing.

xxxooo, Sam

Speaking of "making strange..."

Hey, Sam--

P.B. Shelly suggests the challenge
in making strange familiar &
familiar strange.

Where does Shelly say that?  Do you know Victor Shlovsky's "Art as Technique"?  In it, he says:

Habitualization devours works, clothes, furniture, one's wife, and the fear of war. "If the whole complex lives of many people go on unconsciously, then such lives are as if they had never been." And art exists that one may recover the sensation of life; it exists to make one feel things, to make the stone stony. The purpose of art is to impart the sensation of things as they are perceived and not as they are known. The technique of art is to make objects 'unfamiliar,' to make forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of an object: the object is not important. [This key statement has been translated different ways; Robert Scholes, for instance, renders it as: In art, it is our experience of the process of construction that counts, not the finished product.] 

(The note is from the editor of the website I stole this from; early in this excerpt, Shlovsky's quoting Tolstoy)

Or:   ARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTARTART

Or call it The Ludic Mode, then

Seriously: the Play's the Thing


Dear Graham (again),

This summer’s heat is grotesque.
And drought. I’m an old dog
“barking at both ends.”
Prefer winter.

P.B. Shelly suggests the challenge
in making strange familiar &
familiar strange.

That performance where only 8
showed up to see has been on
my mind. (You: ushering)

Both crushingly pathetic
and wonderfully heroic.

A sand mandala: exquisite in
execution one moment & then
blowing in the wind. .

“making”
(poema)
uber
alles.

How to frame IT?

Turn up both Pathos &
Heroism to put them in
play—in a play where
neither never triumphs
but wrestle with the
Angel Art.

Agon & Agony

aa
ahh
ai
aiii

Imagine a PLAY
about a play where
only 8 show up.

(thea: aesthetes = viewers)

Characters in search of
characters in search of
audience & spectator
sports: howard cosells
when we need them.

So as to support the arts.

I can imagine, in my zero
gravity deck chair: me the
playwright and director,
leading man & supporting
cast, plus I am the audience
of 8 as well as the audience
in the play of the play of
The-Audience-of-8, plus
whatever Other Audience
arrives to validate my
theatrics—histrionics.

In my room: Image-I-nation.
I can immaculately conceive
of this production, what it
takes to put it on,
bring it off:

unilateral effort
necessary yet
insufficient &
cooperating to
stage & put
in play all the
indeterminate
gritty devilish
details emerging
to generate our
collaborative
genius—ludic
spirit of play &
un-postponed joy:
writing the script
about writing the
script directing
the directing of
ushering-in the
original 8 viewers
(aesthetes)
and so it goes
and goes writing
and writing-in
the opening night.

Priceless.

Kinds of Talk

Kinds of Talk

The kinds of talking that EngMajors
talk about is incommensurately different
from the kinds of talking that BioMajors
or Physics, Social Scientists & Psych
Majors talk about, or Administrators
and Institutional Infra-Structuralists:
the ways & ways they talk. Diversity.

Listen for the difference.
It makes a difference
that makes a difference.

Compare VOICE.

Voice is all people in writing &
MFA programs will declare
across the country..
Content’s galore.

Hear for your self.

EngMajors talk about
people who
talk this
way:

Service Project

Just as our Fathers
invented new ways
of service—each a
new service according
his own character:
one—the service of love
two—of stern justice
a third—of beauty,
so each one of us
in his own way should
devise something new
in the light of the
teaching of service,
and do what has not
yet been done.

Martin Buber, “The Ring of Service,”

Work Program (local food)

Reproached by a rich
Brahman Farmer for
begging alms as an idler,
Buddha replied that he
was engaged in even more
important forms of tillage
than that of the soil.

“Faith” is the seed
“Penance,” the rain
“Understanding”—my yoke and plough
“Modesty,” like the pole of the plough
“Thoughtfulness”: my ploughshare and goad.
“Exertion”—my beast of burden.

As a result of this spiritual
husbandry, he achieves the
fruit of immortality, everything
indeed hinging upon the quality
of one’s working, whether one
sets out to be a carpenter, king,
or saint or hedge fund manipulator.

Academics.

“It is only by remaining collected,
and refusing to lend himself to the
point of view of the practical man
that the critic can do the practical
man any service; and it is only by
the greatest sincerity in pursuing
his own course, and by at last
convincing even the practical man
of his sincerity, that he can escape
misunderstandings which perpetually
threaten him.
Matthew Arnold “Function of Criticism.”

“Where there is much desire to learn, there
of necessity will be much arguing, much
writing, many opinions; for opinion in
but knowledge in the making.

Under these fantastic terrors of sect
and schism—fear of dissent, differences
in viewpoint: we wrong the earnest
and zealous thirst after knowledge
and understanding which God hath
stirred up in this city.” Milton, “Areopagitica.”

Liberal Art kind of talk as opposed to (not
to be conflated, collapsed, confused with)
liberal arts.

Sure: any one can boil IT down
to claims, objections, &
assessment—collapse
the differences &
sum IT up in
a course:

Integrating the Triad
call it.



Make it all one: building a
stairway to paradise, another
way of talking--the more
the merrier.

fine art

Serving the Muse



The guitarist is back, open-
tuning outside my office door:
hallway work on her tremolos
& redundant vibrato-resonance
hammering on & pulling off
pieces of a whole song,
getting parts right.

Listening: practicing her work
program so that in performance
she’ll be swept away, lost in a
service project to the whole muse
& when the song is over, melody
lingers on a very fine art.

Sacred Cow Consideration (or what's a FAH! for?)

To Sustainability Club

“The senses interfere everywhere
and mix their own structure with
all they report of.” (R.W.E.)

Common Sense can’t cut it.
Common Sense covers up,
in denial, illusion: pandering
to itself.

Just describing. How could
Common Sense not validate
itself, verify & confirm its
common sensibilities: always
getting what it preys for in
some form or other—like it
or not?

Sealed-in & salved: our collective
Directional Navigational Algorithms,
what we could call solipsism and
narcissistic if common sense
didn’t object. Deny.

Who’s a solipsist?
Raise your hand.
Narcissist?
We’ll talk.

Confessions of
an EngMajor:

Gong Show of My Self,
Leaves of Clanging Brass

How Hard & Social Science majors
talk about these things: that’s a course
of another color. This is FINE ARTS
& ah! Humanities Kind of Talk.

Diversity. Turn up our differences and
Put Us in Play.
Other wise we’re all simply Courses:
Aims & Objectives & Outcome
Assessments

We rightly accuse
the critic who
destroys too
many illusions.

Society does not
love its un-maskers.
(R.W.Emerson: EngMajor)

Sustain Ability


The challenge is to find decent description
without disturbing too much the sensibilities
of The Common Sense. Have to build an
Environment for it: frame-work & context—
a shared attitude willing willfully to suspend
common sense belief and disbelief so that
Sustainability Issues don’t merely sustain
our seductive un-sustainable sustainables so
seemingly sustain-able they got us into the
sustainability pickle in the first place.

In public I salute sustainability,
admire Al Gore, support the local
food initiative, view The Dark
Knight as tragic tribute to one of
our most promising actors, prefer
Obama to John McPain—though
I understand his arthritis and
appreciate his heroism.

In private (“idios”): always besieged
by pressing personal issues not even
close to greening or polar bears, off-
shore drilling, plug-in automobiles,
Virgin flights to outer space, runs on
banks, Freddie & Fannie, universal
health care, terrorism, axes of evil, 4
dollar gas, stay-cations, earthquakes
and fire in California, on-line degree
programs…the pour I have with
me always.

Beyond me, I say.
IT’s beyond me.
Does this make me a bad person?

My eyes & ears occlude truth-of-the-
whole, my terms of desire, my good
& evil, my likes & dislikes, my
privileging & under privileging,
discrimination & explanation,
reasons why, interpretations,
escape-goating: all block,
pre-vene, prevent & seal
me in my cave, culture,
convention, market
place, theater &
I am powerless
to prevent it:
addicted
to me.

If you accuse me of this,
I’ll deny. Cover. Pander.
Makes good common sense:

Save the Appearances.

To sustain as I am sustained.

Fine Art: to unsustain the sustainabilites

Teach us how to think
how to think.

It’s got to be as “ cool” as cocaine.
Deadly rather than dead and
deadening. Powder over
groomed slopes.
X-treme.

Does global warning wake me in
the middle of the night? Sustain
ability? Maybe. Mountain slope
ordinances, plastic bags and
trans-fats: sure, in the day time
when I’ve got my suit on, properly
appalled. Sunday school all around
and gold stars for appropriate
shared concerns.

An enemy is as good as a “christ.”
Does grad-school prepare me
to kill the Buddha on the
road, if I meet him?

To unsustain my
sustainablities?


xxxooo, Sam.

Sustainable Anxiety

Dear Colleagues,

Anxiety faces new classes like
Jone’s Mt. katy-dids: cranking
all night short circuiting the
manic mockingbird braying
unceasingly since May.

Irrational, of course: my fears.
Beyond reason; primordial.
Viscerally: millions of small
legs rub against each other
fiddle-de-de nd no cracking
morning yawns breaking
the tension.

A class full of students
stunned stupid, yearning
to study what I got to give,
missives impossible—
liberal art of language
and fiction.

All that already knowing
experience, wit, savvy,
juggling calculus & bio.
art & women’s studies,
physics & Appalachian
culture, philosophy &
the psychology of creativity:
acting in plays, pursuing
piano, statistics & environ-
mental economics knowing
much more than I do &
young—negotiating relation
ships: status & strokes &
ah! sustainability.

I’m boss.
Sustain THAT!

They do what I say.
Come to class. Listen (obey).
Some take notes. Prepare them
selves to identify random quotes
from various texts & tell the
textual significance of
parts to wholes.

They will remember titles
and characters and themes
related to ah, humania:
its fine arts.

And adopt the terms of
linguistics & literary
criticism so as to be
able to talk like an
Egyptian.

“Privilege” for example: to prefer
one side of a binary pair.
Good over Evil, say
Order over Random.

Just like it always was.

I throw a black plastic sheet over
them so to speak: holes in it allow
only talk-about-literature-&-language
going on and nothing about all that
other stuff they study from them
other COURSES.

I got this idea walking thru
the garden: our local food
source. A strawberry patch
covers up and denies any
thing but strawberries.
NBS: other wise a weedy
riot of uncontrolled growth
and random noise.

Thank god for the grade-gun
& its ex-officio institutional
authority. Hard balls & mallets
croquet. Totalitarian. Benevolent.
Enlightened: this spot!

My personality?
Enthusiasm,
Charisma,
Sparking wit &
flaming intelligence?
Vox de Auctoritas.
Would that attract them
otherwise like moths to a
back porch light jamming
old-timy fiddle tunes with
an intellective gleam: the
love of yearning & a
Swannanoa gathering?

Lasso Fair.

I have to compete against
the common rigor. This
makes me anxious once
katy-dids start cranking,
Bele Chere, & the end of
another summer.

Sustainable?

Sam

Dear Sam: Noooo!

Dear Sam,

So my first response is NO! Making a play "about sustainability" is not a productive way to make good art. I'm not even sure it's a way to make "inert" art. If a play is a story, or a collection of visual and auditory impressions, or a collective ritual or event of some kind, then pick-a-theme-and-develop-it sure ain't the way to go. I guess Brecht got away with it to a degree, with play-as-demonstration. But don't most writers/composers/artist (Brecht included) start with a quick image, moment, glimpse of memory, sequence of notes, color or line, and begin to play with it? Art as a process of painting yourself into a corner and then figuring a way out? (Or just busting out.) Getting into trouble? Then you guys come along and tell us what it's about.

But I know that's not really what you're talking about. And I think the distinction between "inert" and "ert" art is valuable--though, if we're categorizing, then your point that "in-ert" literally means "un-art" says to me that "inert" art is the opposite of art, which is never comfortable, which is always transgressive in some way--but I guess that's my bias showing.

Back to sustainability:

how to distinguish sustainability
that is unsustainable from unsustainable
unsustainability that is unsustainable

(sounds like a line from Rosencranz & Guildenstern Are Dead--or Donald Rumsfeld)

There's definitely a play or dance or something in that question. So maybe I'm wrong, and you can go from an idea to a piece of art (you can do anything, for crying out loud--no rules). But it has to spark an image. Then you can begin. Then you've got a place to jump away from. As long as the final piece doesn't have to be consistent or obvious or have one clear point of view ("transparent" in the most boring sense). As long as it doesn't become propaganda (inert). As long as I can be Jane Goodall and the monky, as you say.

Got me thinking. Damn you.

Graham

Sustain Ability: A Fine Art

Dear Graham,

If you were to write a play on
Sustainability—so as to turn
UP the sustainability concern: get
people thinking and talking about
sustainability: dramatize (the play’s
the thing) sustainability across the
curriculum….

How would you proceed?

Is this a stupid question?
Or smart?
Academic?

Does IT work this way in Fine Arts:
going from a popular theme or topic
to a production? Like having a clear
thesis: saying what your going to say,
saying it and then saying what you said
as we like it in Humanities.

Art Art Art Art Art Art Art

* inert art on the one hand
* ert art on the other hand.

Is this distinction clear? Worth
polarizing so as to relate?

Inert art is “symbolical” in the original
sense: to throw IT together, get IT together,
reinforcing the ethos & demonstrating the
traditions.

Inertia (literally: un-art) sustainability as we
know it inside traditions and systems and
status quotidian.System homeostatic
self-correcting cruise control kind
of art. Ouch, ooo, damn--whenever
a tolerance is crossed.

Ert art is “dia-bolical” in the original
sense: to throw IT across and apart—
reconfiguring recalibration of tolerances,
demoralization of course (ooo myyy
gawd) and any system will resist Ert Art
like anything, naturally. You can’t blame
anyone for putting up a defense..

The question: how to distinguish sustainability
that is unsustainable from unsustainable
unsustainability that is unsustainable:
while working inside the inert
naturally self-preserving
convention? Where is
the ground for
leverage?

I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to frame
this question but it swallows my own tail
& I feel like Epimenides trying to disconnect
from Crete and make wise loving
remarks, too.

It calls for a very fine artist.

But what I’m asking: how do you DO this?
Be a Cretan and Not a Cretan Too? Like
being a monkey and a Jane Goodall TOO.
Bite the very hand that feeds you and
have them love you too? Good Dog!
Good Dog!

This is Fine Art territory. You can do it better.
You guys north of the gazebo have
responsibilities we can’t imagine
south of the border.

Can we at least talk about IT?
(IT, I said: do I have to keep
spelling IT out?)

Or is IT one of those deals where
talking about it just confuses
the issue? Stirrs IT all up.

xxxooo, Sam—Humanist among
the Jensensualists