Slide

Knowledge Should Be Priceless
知識無價

Interview with Paul Stewart
專訪保羅·斯圖爾特
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Paul Stewart is an artist and researcher focusing on themes of alternative learning and critical pedagogy. He has a BA (Hons) Fine Art from the University of Lincoln (2011) and also completed an MA in Art and Politics at Goldsmiths (2012). He is the Learning Research Assistant at Tate and the creator and Co-producer of The Alternative Art College.

保羅·斯圖爾特是一位藝術家同時也是一位研究員,他的工作重心是研究可替代性的學習方法和批判性教育學。他于2011年獲得英國林肯大學榮譽學士學位,并在2012年獲得了倫敦金史密斯學院藝術與政治專業的碩士學位,他是另類藝術學院的創始人和聯合出品人,現在他供職于泰特美術館從事助理教育調研工作。


 

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ART.ZIP: Would you please give us an introduction of your project, the Alternative Art College (AAC)? How did it start and what triggers the establishment of AAC?

PS: The Alternative Art College is a non-profit education facility, an online creative platform to critique higher education which I developed whilst studying for my Undergraduate (BA Fine Art). In 2010 the government begin to dismantle the higher education system, home students’ tuition fee increased to £9000 per year. The response to this was in the form of mass demonstration; this often was unsatisfactory because of the reaction of the authorities. In response to these events I set up the Alternative Art College in the tradition of protest art, as a proactive form of protest that was an alternative both to the prospect of an increasingly expensive education system and also to the existing forms of protest that were being used in 2010.

In short, the reason for the start up of the AAC is as a response to the current educational system, to question aspects of learning aimed to produce consumers of knowledge rather than participators in a grander scheme. The aim is to get students to question how they learn as well as what they learn and allow them to become active agents in a participatory learning experience.

The initial rationale behind the idea of the Alternative Art College in 2010 was to show that you could gain the same, if not a better understanding of a topic, than you could if you were to pay £9,000 to study at an education institution. Why is Higher education something that is only financially accessible? Knowledge should be priceless.

ART.ZIP: 可不可以給我們介紹一下你的“另類藝術學院(Alternative Art College,以下簡稱AAC)”項目?AAC是怎麼開始的,為什麼要建立一個這樣的學院呢?

PS: “另類藝術學院(AAC)”是一個非盈利的教育項目,通過網絡平臺來搭建一個質疑英國高等教育體制的平臺,建立它的時候我正在林肯大學讀我的純藝術專業本科。在2010年的時候,英國政府開始大刀闊斧的改革和破壞高等教育系統,本地學生的每學年學費漲到9000英鎊(約9萬人民幣),加之當局對民眾的呼聲沒有做出滿意回覆,由此引發了大規模的遊行抗議活動。對於這個事件,我成立了AAC來表達我的態度,這也是一種傳統上的通過藝術行為來進行抗議,這是一種主動的抗議形式,同時對上漲的昂貴的學費和既有的高等教育體制提出抗議。

簡而言之,建立AAC是為了對現在的教育體系做出質疑,現在的體系是為了培養“知識”的消費群體,而不是在宏觀上促進教育和鼓勵對教育的參與。我們的目的是讓學生們思考他們如何學習、學習什麼,從而使他們更好地,更積極地參與到學習的體驗中來。

在2010年,AAC想要表達的態度是,從教育的本質上來說,花費9000英鎊才能得到的教育資源也許在不花錢的情況下依舊可以實現,為什麼獲得高等教育是要有“金錢准入”原則的呢?知識本該是無價的。

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ART.ZIP: How would you describe this project, political activity or art practice?

PS: It’s really a good question. I would say that it is both and both elements are intrinsic in to how the Alternative Art College functions. The AAC attempts to question the dominant power, and then producing a space with a selection of shared experiences that can develop learning practices in a more open and discursive form. At the same time the Alternative Art College is my art practice, so I am constantly combating that relationship you have between making work and producing an open space. My commitment to the concept may not always be represented by the work as commitment is not a category of art. I do feel very protective of the AAC as it is my ‘making’ process but this alongside the values of the AAC to be collective and open produce to opposing positions. To combat this,I have found ways of dealing with that by the making process focus on the production of posters, and publications, and I was able to release that relationship through those, and then keeping the context and ideas open.

I would say the AAC is a politically active art practice, maybe.

ART.ZIP: 你怎麼定義AAC這個項目呢?是一個政治行為還是一次藝術實踐呢?

PS: 這是一個很好的問題。我想說這兩方面都有,而且這兩方面是根植于AAC的功能層面的。AAC是對主流的聲音提出質疑,並且開發出一個共享體驗的區間,來開發更開放更具有交流性的學習和教育實踐。同時,AAC是我個人的藝術實踐,因此我必須協調我自己的藝術創作和AAC這個開放空間之間的關係。我對觀念的信守往往不能通過作品來呈現,因為這種“對觀念的堅守”並不是藝術的範疇。作為我“生產”的一部份,AAC是具有保護性的,同時它的意義在於,在兼容并包的開放性之下對對立的系統產生影響。為了協調這些問題,我不得不找出方法來解決,通過製作海報和出版物我可以同時保持AAC的理念和開放性,同時完成我的個人創作。

或許我可以說AAC是一個政治行為的藝術實踐項目吧。

lowlivesposteraac

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ART.ZIP: How does AAC run? What kind of practice is it like?

PS: At present the Alternative Art College does not have a constant physicality and our events and projects happen sporadically. When I started the AAC I wasn’t really aware what was happening. It started as a protest as an undergraduate university project in itself where we turned five students accommodation houses into our ‘university’ campuses. We lifted our practice out of our art college and moved them into students’ houses, and used that as a navigation to relocate a space where we could remove the power relation of higher education. So its the home that creates a different atmosphere, a more personal context , more informal space for learning. At the start, there were talks, common assemblies, art exhibitions in these spaces and all bits of pieces for a period of three months, basically. And then I think there’s a dramatic shift where the AAC went from rather than trying to offer learning classes or whatever they were as the practice in a move onto questioning what is education, treating learning as an experiment. This form is looking into pedagogical approaches, and moving back into questioning those processes and creating work from that. I guess that’s what a lot of our work has been for the last couple of years and now it’s kind of move on to not so much of a physical happening but a series of conversations using the blogs and tweeter feeds as dissemination points.

I think in this way, the AAC bridges digital media with grass root activities and creative platforms, focusing specifically on the development of alternative education discourses.

ART.ZIP: AAC是如何運作的呢,它到底是怎樣的一種實踐?

PS: 現在AAC並沒有一個實體或者物理空間,我們組織的活動和項目都是比較鬆散的。我創立AAC的時候還並沒有意識到到底發生了什麼。開始的時候就是一個大學本科期間的抗議活動,我們將5間學生宿舍改造為我們“大學”的校園。我們把自己的實踐從藝術學院轉移到學生宿舍,通過這種形式,我們解構了高等教育和學校空間之間的關係。在那裡,我們開創了不一樣的氛圍,更個人化的上下文關係和更隨意的學習空間。在開始的時候,我們在這裡舉辦講座、討論、集會以及藝術展覽,基本上在那三個月時間裏就是這樣,各種各樣的事情。後來,AAC項目的發展發生了戲劇性的變化,它從嘗試提供學習空間和課程轉變為探討和質疑什麼是“教育”的本質。“將學習作為一種實驗來對待。” 這種形式開始進入到教育學研究的範疇,而且返回到對過程的反思並且開始就這個問題進行藝術創作。我猜這也是近些年來我們很多工作的重心,而且這也是為什麼我們並沒有舉辦太多實打實的活動而是舉辦了一系列的討論,并很多運用博客和推特等手段的原因。

通過這種方式,我覺得AAC建構了一個根植于基層的創意平臺,來着眼於對可替代性教育問題的討論和發展。

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ART.ZIP: What kind of feedback did you get till now?

PS: When we started, we had a lot of interest from local and national press, such as news articles we have with the BBC and the local ITV news in response from that way. And then as we developed a more mature approach within our art practice,we moved on to collectively communicating experience of the events and how we can develop them collectively. This allowed us to have a core openness, and we are able to have conversations that people could both take from and give to. So that’s nice and what we received back.

I get some interesting emails from individuals. It depends on the content of the event. And I think we keep everything as open as possible. I set a reading group recently that was open to all, and it brings in different ages, different backgrounds and different context. I think what the key thing could be taken from it is that process of doing, so not taking a piece of knowledge and disseminating it from a point of authority but brining different perspectives to the table to learn collectively. This allows space to have an open discussion about how to engage socially, how to create critical events, and how to develop those that kind of situations. When people emailed me asking to be students of the AAC, I find it really flattering. A lovely lovely question. Then I quickly say to them, I don’t have an accommodation, and it is a house. It’s normal spaces where we accommodate, it’s a process of happening and then I would tell them a list of how to start their own AAC. Most recent case is a Lithuanian student, who has decided to go to Holland for studying an art degree, and then she gave up because of the financial situation, and then she turned to our AAC. I thought it was lovely, I hope what I have given her, a series of things that could help her start her own form of practice there. And I think that is a real creative sharing.

ART.ZIP: 目前為止,AAC項目獲得了哪些反饋?

PS: 在開始的時候,有很多地方和國家級媒體都對我們的項目非常感興趣,BBC和ITV的新聞都報導了這個項目。隨後,我們的想法更為成熟,逐漸將實踐重點轉移到將整個事件過程中的溝通和交流的經驗進行整合,并探討如何更深入的發展和挖掘這些材料。這讓我們能夠保持一個開放的核心態度,我們可以提供一個有意義的討論,讓人們可以各自貢獻,同時也可以各取所需,我覺得這就是我們收到的回饋,我覺得這挺不錯的。

我也收到很多來自四面八方的有意思的郵件。我想我們一直都堅持最開放的態度,最近我成立了一個讀書興趣小組,對所有人開放,將不同年齡、不同背景和不同語境之中的人都彙聚一堂。我覺得這件事最重要的一個收穫就是在“做”的過程中,教育并不是學習一小塊知識或者從當權者的角度去做某種宣傳,它應該是縱橫捭闔地馳騁和以一種開放態度去汲取和吸收養分。這樣,我們可以以一個開放的態度來探討我們如何來和這個社會相契合,如何舉辦批評活動,如何將現有的情況進行拓展。當人們給我發信,說希望成為AAC的學生的時候,我真的覺得受寵若驚。真的是很可愛的來信,後來我會給他們回復,說我們並沒有真正的住宿條件,這裡只是普通的民宅而已。雖然如此,但這是一個開端,我會告訴他們如何開始他們自己的“可替代性”學習。就在前不久,一位立陶宛的學生打算去荷蘭學習藝術課程,後來因為經濟原因未能實現,她便來聯繫我們的AAC。我覺得這件事很有愛,我希望我給她的建議可以幫助她開始建立自己的學習實踐,我覺得這樣的互動是非常有創作力的分享體驗。

 

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ART.ZIP: Many of your co-workers are working for the universities, what do they think about this different way of doing education?

PS: What you find is that, if I was to generalise, many academics have critiqued their institution they’ve worked in for years. Normally they dislike the structure, which is controlled by the QAA, Quality Assurance Agency, dictates how learning outcome should be formed, which is one of the bodies to find and decide how learning is justified. And those kinds of situation question are to find out how you teach. For instance, a lecturer might want to teach how socratically as an approach through learning, and you can’t justify because you can’t quantify an outcome through that for the Quality Assurance Agency, ‘where are your learning outcomes?’ There are no learning outcomes. You know that kind of process. And a lot them have already started up their own projects, such as Mike Neary at the university of lincoln. There are a lot of shifts and also you have to be aware that with high education in general, to generalise it as well, it is part of a commodity, it’s a value system of Capitalism.

To paraphrase Walter Benjamin, a man makes shoes for another’s needs rather than needs of his own. It’s about finding a point where we can be part of a system but get equal participation in response.

ART.ZIP: AAC的很多同仁都是在大學裡面供職的,他們是如何看待這種不容方式的教育行為的呢?

PS: 總體說來,多年來他們都對自己供職的教育機構有很大的意見。一般來說,他們不喜歡現有的系統結構,整個教育系統被教育質量評估機構(Quality Assurance Agency)所控制,它規定了教育的成果是應該如何評定的,他們擁有評估教育機構成敗的權利。這類機構的問題就是,他們會影響教育機構的教學實踐。比如,一位老師想要教給大家如何通過蘇格拉底式的思維來學習,但是教育評估機構會覺得你的教學沒有實際的結果,也沒有方法可以評估,所以你的教學是失敗的,我想你能想像這樣的過程。很多在學術領域的老師都已經開始建立他們自己的項目,比如林肯大學的邁克·內亞里(Mike Neary)。現在在教育界有很多的轉變,而且你要認識到,在資本主義的價值系統之中,教育是商品社會的一個組成部份。

套用本雅明(Walter Benjamin)的一句話,鞋匠做鞋是為了顧客量身定做,而不是為了給自己穿。我們是處在整個系統中的一員,但我們同樣處在一個可以同等參與其中并給出反應的位置。

ART.ZIP: What is your attitude towards the current education system?

PS: I think rather than waiting for something to happen, do it yourself! Having interesting chats at a coffee or shop, or creating, starting political approaches, taking actions, this does not have to be direct action, they can be an art practice, it can be in any form, I have met a lot of people that have different ways of doing it.

ART.ZIP: Do you think AAC has changed something?

PS: I would say so. It was definitely a moment when I think about it. We realized that a collective could do something, there’s shift and change of when it happened. I remember when the AAC did its first TV interview, and they are asking me how I was going to fund the AAC, I was thinking in my head, it’s an art practice, I don’t know how I’m going to fund the AAC, I have to think of something, so I said if you could tax football transfers by 2.5%, you could pay for everyone in the UK to go to higher education. And at that point, I thought they are going to catch me out, but they accepted it and they put it on the news. No way of backing this fact! And in some way you deal with humour to combat the current context. You play with the current context. To avoid positioning yourself as a victim of the commodity system humour allows a space to use capitalisms tools against itself. And I think digital media and digital platforms are the space to reunite this common ground. I think that’s something which might reach the search for something else, it’s moving and hopefully collectively we can produce a learning space that is open in both its practice and separate from a commodity system quantified by values and outcomes. .

 

AAC-campus

AAC-campus

 

ART.ZIP: 對於當下的整個英國教育體系,你是怎麼看的呢?

PS: 我覺得,與其等待整個系統發生改變,不如去改變它,通過每個人的行動!在商店裡或咖啡館進行有趣的聊天,或者開始一些政治行動、不一定採取直接的行動,可以是藝術實踐,可以是任何形式,我遇到過很多人,他們都用各種方式和途徑來表達和實踐他們的想法。

ART.ZIP: 你覺得AAC的出現對現在的系統有所改變麼?

PS: 我覺得可以這麼說。每當我思考這個問題的時候,我都覺得AAC出現的那一刻是有巨大象徵意義的。我們認識到開放和協作可以成就很多事情,從開始到現在,AAC有了很大的轉變。我記得在AAC第一次接受電視臺採訪的時候,他們問我如何能夠保證AAC運作的資金來源,當時我腦子里想“這是個藝術項目,我不知道怎麼能為AAC籌集資金。”但當時我必須說些什麼,所以我說“如果可以徵收英超球隊每位轉會隊員轉會費用的2.5%作為稅收,那麼就可以讓英國所有人都獲得高等教育了。”當時我覺得這段肯定被切掉了,誰知後來他們不僅沒切還放到了新聞里。很多事情其實就是這麼簡單,赤裸裸的直白!也正是因為這樣,你不得不用幽默的手段來平衡當下的語境,或者說“玩轉現實”。為了不把自己置於一個商品社會中受害者的角色,幽默感是一個用資本主義反對資本主義的偉大武器。我覺得數碼媒體和網絡平臺都具有這樣的共同點,我想它們可能會將研究的重點引入別的方向,不過不管怎樣,這種變化而且希望是我們可以開闢出一片開放的、脫離以功利為價值取向的商品社會系統的實踐空間。

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Find out more:

http://alternativeartcollege.co.uk
http://artvoidart.com

 

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Artists Statement

As the battle to stop the rise in fees exploded into the political imaginary of the student body, so did an extended period of experimentation with autonomous pedagogies. This shift in consciousness prompted Paul to begin his project The Alternative Art College in 2011, which created an experimental platform to question pedagogical processes, albeit temporarily.

I would like to open this by discussing how my art practice evolved to form my current research practices. I come directly from an art (creative) background where I create work that holds political connotations and implements social statements, as the aim is to create politically informative pieces. The main body of my practice is trying to find subtle ways to depict reactions to situations in the political sphere; an example of this is the Alternative Art College that is a website based piece of work but also works as an actual college. The art is the documentation, the protest is the action.

Theorists such as Jacques Ranciere, Pierre Bourdieu, Walter Benjamin and Max Weber have influenced the theory behind the work that has and will continue to be created. Han Haacke is an artist who has influenced my work to take on political connotations. His work has made me realise that to create a piece of art that has a politically charged reference you need to take in to account three things, site specifics, aesthetic value and ephemeral practice. This is to insure it is in the right place, in the perfect form and how to judge how long you have with that piece before it becomes obsolete.

My art practice is the Alternative Art College. In response to these events I set up the Alternative Art College in the tradition of protest art, as a proactive form of protest that was an alternative both to the prospect of an increasingly expensive education system and also to the existing form of protest. For this research project I will reflect critically on this initiative, drawing on the experience of other alternative education organisations.

I have two main research streams. The first focuses on whether the ‘alternative’ learning space can operate autonomously and if this is beneficial to their policy of informal learning. To achieve this, my work focuses on understanding the relevance of the creation of an ‘alternative’ learning space and how they tackle the topic of knowledge production. The autonomous nature of the ‘alternative’ learning space is considered in both political and artistic terms, referring to the conclusions of Adorno, Castoriadis and Benjamin. Castoriadis’ definition of autonomy is adopted due to his interest in autonomy’s function towards social change and the imaginary of change.

The second research stream is concentrated on the role of the ‘alternative’ learning space towards supplementing formal modes of learning. This is carried out by analysing four ‘alternative’ learning spaces to observe what their form offers towards learning and knowledge production.

Alternative learning spaces are spaces that function as an education facility to question learning practices in an informal method, in most cases as a critique to the current higher education system. My project and research aims to analyse these approaches taken towards knowledge production from a selection of ‘alternative’ learning spaces in comparison with the current HE and art and gallery education systems in both the UK and the US. I position the ‘alternative’ as a positive shift towards knowledge production that does not rely on historical, architectural or economical forms. Do these ‘alternatives’ supplement the current HE systems formal focus with informal and semi- formal modes of learning?

I have been situated as both a student and an employee in HE alongside being an artist whose work is located in the free university movement; I feel it is a position that is beneficial to the development of this project. To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, ‘debt neutralises critical thinking, disciplining students into efficient components of the consumer economy’. As the university lies in ruins how will the next generation learn to resist?

A UNIVERSITY dean has praised the foundation of an “Alternative Art College” in Lincoln. “Third-year fine artist Paul Stewart set up the “college of ideas” less than two weeks ago – but already, guest speakers are clamouring to give talks in the living room of his student house.”

Ross Cummings, 22, a “pupil” of the college, said: “The college is a proactive way of doing something without going and causing a riot. “We’re here and we’re actually learning something.”

sun paper

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艺术家自述

當對於反對學費上漲的鬥爭演變成一個學生主體的政治性象徵,在這個活動展開和延續的時期,正好是一個適合做自主教育實驗項目的階段。在意識上的這種轉變促使保羅·斯圖爾特在2011年開始了“另類藝術學院”項目,這個項目創立了一個平台來質疑現有的教育過程,雖然只是一個短期的項目。

作為開頭,我想說一下我的藝術實踐是如何介入并構成了我目前的研究實踐的。我的背景是做藝術創作的,我的作品都與政治和社會實踐緊密聯繫,我希望通過我的作品能夠創造出大量具有豐富政治含義的作品。我的藝術實踐的主體是要嘗試以一種微妙的形式來描繪對當下政治問題和實踐的一種反饋,我的“另類藝術學院(AAC)”就是這樣一個例子,這是一個基於網絡的作品,同時它也真正像一個實際的學院一樣運作。基於此的文本和記錄都是藝術作品,所有的行為和活動都是抗議。

很多理論家比如雅克·朗西埃(Jacques Ranciere),皮埃爾·布迪厄(Pierre Bourdieu),本雅明(Walter Benjamin)和馬克斯·韋伯(Max Weber)的論述都深刻地影響了我的創作。韓·哈克(Han Haacke)對我的影響也很大,在他的影響下我開始圍繞政治問題和相關事件進行創作。他的作品讓我認識到,在創作一件政治性題材作品的時候,需要考慮和關照三件事情:特定的場景;美學價值;曇花一現的時效性。這些都是確保作品能夠在正確的地方、以完美的方式、並在議題被遺忘以前將作品製作出來。

我的藝術實踐是“另類藝術學院”,一方面這是延續了一種以藝術方式來對政治問題進行抗議的傳統, 另一方面也是對上漲的高昂學費以及現有教育系統的一種反抗。對於這個研究項目,我結合了其他替代性教育機構的經驗,對我們的實踐進行了很認真的反思。

我主要有兩個主要的研究方向:

一個重點是我們的“另類”學習空間是否能夠自主運行,而且這種形式是否可以助力于他們的“非正式”學習政策,為了實現以上兩點,我的主要工作是去理解創造“另類”學習空間和知識生產之間的相關性。“另類”學習空間的自治性特質是關照了政治和藝術兩個領域的專有概念,比如參照了阿多諾(Adorno)、卡斯托里亞迪(Castoriadis)和本雅明(Benjamin)等人的論述。卡斯托里亞迪對“自治性”的定義是基於他感興趣于“自主性”在社會變革和對變化產生的假想之中所起的作用。

另一個研究重點是“另類”學習空間對于常規學習模式的促進和補充功能上所扮演的角色。我分析了四個“另類”學習空間的并觀察他們是如何建構并如何作用於學習過程和知識生產的。

“另類”學習空間是以教育機構的形式,用一種非正式的形式來質疑學習實踐,大多數情況下這些教育機構都是在批評現有的高等教育體系。我的項目和研究目的是通過挑選一些特定的“另類”學習空間并分析他們的知識生產手段從而對比他們在英美現有高等教育體系和畫廊教育體系之間的異同。我認為“另類”學習空間對於知識生產來說是一個很積極的轉變,它們不限于歷史、建築或者是經濟結構等各種形式的束縛。這些“另類”的學習手段是不是能夠促進現有的高等教育體系開始關注這樣的非正式或者半正式學習模式的發展?

我在大學做過學生,也曾經在高等教育機構任職,同時我也是一位為當地“免費大學運動”工作的藝術家;我覺得我所處的位置和狀態有助於我的項目的發展。套用諾姆·喬姆斯基(Noam Chomsky)的話,“個人債務抵消了批判性思維,這將學生們打造成為了商品經濟中的零件。”當現在的大學成為了一片廢墟,那我們的後代如何才能學會反抗?

林肯大學的一位院長曾稱讚了“另類藝術學院”的成立,“大學三年級的藝術學生保羅·斯圖爾特設立的‘思想的大學’不到兩個星期,但是很多客座嘉賓已經開始在那裡做講座了,就在學生宿舍的起居室裡。”

22歲的“學生” 羅斯·明斯(Ross Cummings)說:“這個學院提供了一個積極的解決方案,我們不用到大街上去,也不會引起暴動,我們在這裡確實學到了很多東西。”

 

                   

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