I am in two minds about posting this here for research behind the S&O1 exercises and assignment.
The course so far feels incredibly focused on UK-based class discourse and aimed at narrative document-photography, and I am deliberately trying to move away from that and head in a direction that works for me, taking my interests and prior experiences into account. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in the peculiar, rigid class system that permeates everything in this part of the world, nor the history that comes with it. I am extremely interested and my work has looked at social injustice, human values, and the cost-benefits ratio we as a group weigh-up; but I think I am trying to look at things that are perhaps more universal and all-encompassing than merely honing in on the very strange class system in the UK, maybe because I didn’t grow up here and/or because I am heavily influenced by things outside the realm of photography.
At times I’ve continued to wonder if I’m on the right module or even pathway. But that may well be a habit of mine that has nothing to do with education or photography, just the way I perceive things.
Anyway, back to the original point: at the weekend I went on a collaborative drawing workshop which lasted two hours in central London run by the Antiuniversity. The underlying objective of the organisation is, as stated on its website front page:
ANTIUNIVERSITY NOW IS A COLLABORATIVE EXPERIMENT TO REVISIT AND REIMAGINE THE 1968 ANTIUNIVERSITY OF LONDON IN AN ONGOING PROGRAMME OF FREE AND INCLUSIVE SELF-ORGANISED RADICAL LEARNING EVENTS.
ANTIUNIVERSITY NOW CHALLENGES ACADEMIC AND CLASS HIERARCHY THROUGH AN OPEN INVITATION TO TEACH AND LEARN ANY SUBJECT, IN ANY FORM, ANYWHERE.
The workshop, as it says above, was free in the monetary sense and also freeing in the sense of what was expected, how it was approached, delivered and experienced. (By me at any rate – I can’t talk for anyone else). It was a breath of fresh air as I have been thinking about the limits and restrictions of academia, at the very least in terms of financial cost, but in relation to other aspects too. And the limits of photography. The experience really triggered some thoughts in me, especially as I think about the very privileged way in which higher education is structured and accessed.
Another wonderful aspect was simply getting involved in drawing. I don’t tend to draw, think I’m rubbish at it, and haven’t done so for years. However, I used to when I was a child but personal circumstances far beyond my control prevented me from doing A’ level art, where I might have forged ahead with any number of arty interested in my late teens. This weekend I was also surrounded by non-students and other students (some of whom are on OCA Drawing 1) who felt they weren’t great at drawing either. Yet, whatever one thinks about our efforts, the fact is we created something out of drawing and had fun doing so, plus we all learned things. I was happy to report this to my middle son who loves drawing but feels he’s rubbish at it too – hopefully I can now do my best to alleviate the effects of a conventional system which perhaps stipulates what is good and what is bad drawing in his eyes (and remind myself to do the same when thinking about photography in relation to whatever I imagine or fantasise about re. OCA expectations).
The reason I went on this workshop is because I would like to include collaborative drawing in my work at some point or at the very least use drawing as a tool to access unconscious ideas and connections, and to reveal surprising and relationships between (iconic) signifiers, as Robert Lepage does in his process. I had hoped to do so with A1 but I’ve honed in on a more manageable way of working for now which I will explain when I submit the assignment work. It does include some drawing but not in the way I initially imagined. However, I will certainly, after having gone on the workshop (and I will keep a look out for more examples of such sessions) like to make use of this approach in the future.
The other thing that was underlined by attending is that there are plenty of ways of exploring the structural systems which exist in our society without resorting to photographing ‘others’ in documentary images (and which may or may not end up looking like so many other photographers’ work). Exploring alternative ways to approach art or any aspect of life can be a political statement in its own right.
The reason I was hesitant about writing about this experience here, rather than on my Sketchbook part of the blog (a separate non-OCA record of work and process) is because the module feels so incredibly focused in one direction at the moment. Perhaps that will change as we move forward but it has made me a feel a little concerned. The words Self & Other are intrinsic to our western-centric psychology which began with Freud, Jung and Adler (and according to the Szondi forum website might include him due to his work with drives – The Szondi Test – 2012). Our language is teeming with words from psychology and it informs so much of how we relate to each other and see ourselves. That is what I am deeply interested in and it is what I signed up for. Although I do see that the UK class system is mired in some ancient (perhaps semiconscious) perception that a few in society have a god-given right to rule while the rest suck it up beneath those in power, I do not want to be limited to focusing in a very narrow way on that paradigm – I want instead to look at the way language perpetuates it, if indeed it does. And I do wonder to myself if I might find that photography isn’t what I thought it was, that one can’t create stories which explore these themes with a more universal approach. Then I think about some of the photographers who I have been looking at in the Tate, Performing for the Camera book and consider Yves Klein, Francesca Woodman, and the incredibly strange Boris Mikhailhov’s I Am Not I. And I think of my own tutor’s work which also seems fairly universally human and related to current technology-langauge development. i.e changing realities. And I know photography is capable of a more universal approach. And when I look at the photographers we are asked to take inspiration from I know this too – for instance, Sally Mann, Tina Barney (who will be an influence as I document a young ballet dancer – not in terms of the wealth Barney looks at but in other aspects) and Larry Sultan who is perhaps a photographer whose I work I love more than most.
To sum up – I’m in a state of uncertainty about the module and photography in general. And I very much enjoyed the drawing workshop and meeting people from the antiuniversity.
Refs:
Click to access The%20Szondi%20Test%20-%202012.pdf
http://www.antiuniversity.org/filter/Workshop
Tate, 2016. Performing for the Camera, Tate Enterprises, London
SJFSelf&Other 
Sounds really interesting! Keep going your way SJ, you clearly have a sense of direction and that’s what matters. The course is one thing, but you can also evolve in reaction to it, that’s an engagement with it too!
Thanks for your positive comments. I need it at the moment 🙂