Rebuilding the Walls of an Art institute
By Sharon Kahanoff

Artists and designers are visionaries; not in
the soothsayer sense, but instead they are
conduits of the future with their proverbial
“finger-on-the-pulse.” Emily Carr Institute
of Art and Design as a teaching institute,
responsible in part for shaping those con-
duits, needs also to possess this vision. But |
think particular archaic notions of education
are acting as a thick layer of skin that pre-
vents us from accessing our lifeline to the
future. It's time to loofah the excess and go
in search of the vein.

The future of art is an interdisciplinary
approach. This is not to say that all artists
and designers must use multi-media in their
work in order to be contemporary. But rather
that connections, relationships and gaps are
made and found in the collision of ideas, dis-
ciplines, and practices. Douglas Rushkoff, a
media culture critic,
believes that a cultural
shift is coming, and
we need.- .=to step
back from our seem-
ingly disjointed and
conflicting experiences, and to see them
instead in the context of the new, chaotic
landscape on which we will be conducting
human affairs." According to Rushkoff, our
generation specializes in skimming on top of
the surface of chaos, the multitude of ideas.
Our position in relation to this chaotic land-
scape is one which maintains (at least partial-
ly) a critical distance that is far enough
removed to allow us to find patterns in the
blur.

Applied to education, these thoughts sug-
gest to me that to be contemporary artists,
students need to be surrounded and influ-
enced by thoughts and media from across the
board, and from various sources. According
to Rushkoff, the skill of the coming century
will not be a long attention span, but a broad
attention range. In education's terms, this is
the equivalent of an interdisciplinary
approach.

PROBLEMS
Semantics

One of the biggest obstacles preventing
ECIAD from being truly interdisciplinary is its
infrastructure. The very language it uses to
define and organize this infrastructure con-
notes an anti-interdisciplinary attitude.
Many post-secondary institutions are broken
up into “faculties” or “departments.” These
are labels which make reference to being part
of a larger whole. But ECIAD is broken up
into “schools.” (Does anyone else hear the
echo of the period at the end of that word?)
This language suggests independent systems,
not interdependent working parts, and has
the effect of drawing big black lines between
them.

Struetural>Cracks

The organizing mechanism, (like the 80
year old, modernist Bauhaus model that
ECIAD is based on), is THE MEDIUM. The
institute is carved up along boundaries
defined by medium and the result of this is
more black lines:

Design
Communication/Industrial

Media
Film/Video/Digital/Intermedia/Photography/Animation

Visual Arts
Drawing/Painting/Sculpture/Ceramics/Print-Making

“Put Down your pens

The future of art is an
interdisciplinary approach... isterested in film.

Courses are labeled by medium,
entrance into the courses is deter-
mined by experience in the medium,
courses are taught by experts of
that medium. But categorizing and
organizing by medium today is arbi-
trary! In the contemporary art
world, how can one say that two
paintings have more in common
with each other merely because
they are paintings, than a print and
an animation that both deal with
the same subject?! This kind of
classification system, relatively
speaking, is virtually meaningless.
But at ECIAD the painters are one
group, the print-makers are another
and the animators yet another.
(Black line, black line...my felt pen
is drying out.) Our peers are our
greatest resource for learning, but
the number of peers | have is being
determined by the number of peo-
ple interested in the medium of
film. Of course |
need to be with
students who are

We share a need to

learn the same tech-
nical skills. But what about the
content, the context, the process
etc., are these medium-specific? |
look around my classes and see the
mute ghosts of the sculptors and
industrial designers from whom |
could also be learning. But the
only time | see sculptors and
designers is when we remove our
medium-designated hats to put on
our generic academic ones - three
hours, once a week. (In fact, the
opportunity to be with designers is
even less than that of the sculptors
since design students take design
history classes to fulfill their
requirements, while the rest of us
take art history classes to do the
same.)

Academic Integration

Another obstacle preventing the
school from being interdisciplinary
is the academic dis-integration that
is so prevalent. If | had a penny
for the number of times | have
heard friends say they are having
trouble juggling their academics
with “the rest of their classes...
Not only are academics not inte-
grated, ECIAD facilitates this divi-
sion by offering a special deal - a
fifth year where you can cram all
your academic requirements into
one block, after your study of “the
medium" is finished. Academic
learning could be (dare | say should
be?) informing students’ work. But
instead they have been separated
out into a stop-over city on the way
to Artistville. The reason that stu-
dents separate them is because the
system separates them. (Sadly, |
lick the tip of my pen and draw yet
another black
line.)

PROBLEMATIC EXCEPTIONS
The Institute's Response
Interschool Courses

There are exceptions to the pre-
dominant model existing at ECIAD,
that leads me to believe that there
is a genuine recognition of the
problem and interest in being inter-
disciplinary. The interschool cours-

photos by Chris Sauve |

Put Down your pens

Rebuilding the Walls of an Art institute

By Sharon Kahanoff

Artists and designers are visionaries; not in
the soothsayer sense, but instead they are
conduits of the future with their proverbial
“finger-on-the-pulse.” Emily Carr Institute
of Art and Design as a teaching institute,
responsible in part for shaping those con-
duits, needs also to possess this vision. But |
think particular archaic notions of education
are acting as a thick layer of skin that pre-
vents us from accessing our lifeline to the
future. It's time to loofah the excess and go
in search of the vein.

The future of art is an interdisciplinary
approach. This is not to say that all artists
and designers must use multi-media in their
work in order to be contemporary. But rather
that connections, relationships and gaps are
made and found in the collision of ideas, dis-
ciplines, and practices. Douglas Rushkoff, a
media culture critic,
believes that a cultural
shift is coming, and
we need “...to step
back from our seem-
ingly disjointed and
conflicting experiences, and to see them
instead in the context of the new, chaotic
landscape on which we will be conducting
human affairs.” According to Rushkoff, our
generation specializes in skimming on top of
the surface of chaos, the multitude of ideas.
Our position in relation to this chaotic land-
scape is one which maintains (at least partial-
ly) a critical distance that is far enough
removed to allow us to find patterns in the
blur.

Applied to education, these thoughts sug-
gest to me that to be contemporary artists,
students need to be surrounded and influ-
enced by thoughts and media from across the
board, and from various sources. According
to Rushkoff, the skill of the coming century
will not be a long attention span, but a broad
attention range. In education's terms, this is
the equivalent of an interdisciplinary
approach.

PROBLEMS
Semantics

One of the biggest obstacles preventing
ECIAD from being truly interdisciplinary is its
infrastructure. The very language it uses to
define and organize this infrastructure con-
notes an anti-interdisciplinary attitude.
Many post-secondary institutions are broken
up into “faculties” or “departments.” These
are labels which make reference to being part
of a larger whole. But ECIAD is broken up
into “schools.” (Does anyone else hear the
echo of the period at the end of that word?)
This language suggests independent systems,
not interdependent working parts, and has
the effect of drawing big biack lines between
them

Structural Cracks

The organizing mechanism, (like the 80
year old, modernist Bauhaus model that
ECIAD is based on), is THE MEDIUM. The
institute is carved up along boundaries
defined by medium and the result of this is
more black lines.

[Design

|Communication/Industrial

[Media
Filmm/Video/Digital/Intermedia/Photography/Animation|

Visual Arts
[Drawing/Painting/Sculpture/Ceramics/Print-Making

The future of art is an
interdisciplinary approach

Courses are labeled by medium,
entrance into the courses is deter-
mined by experience in the medium,
courses are taught by experts of
that medium. But categorizing and
organizing by medium today is arbi-
trary! In the contemporary art

world, how can one say that two
paintings have more in common
with each other merely because

they are paintings, than a print and
an animation that both deal with
the same subject?! This kind of
classification system, relatively
speaking, is virtually meaningless
But at ECIAD the painters are one.
group, the print-makers are another
and the animators yet another.
(Black line, black line...my felt pen
is drying out.) Our peers are our
greatest resource for learning, but
the number of peers | have is being
determined by the number of peo-
ple interested in the medium of
film. Of course |
need to be with
students who are
interested in film.
We share a need to
learn the same tech-
nical skills. But what about the
content, the context, the process
etc., are these medium-specific? 1
look around my classes and see the
mute ghosts of the sculptors and
industrial designers from whom |
could also be learning. But the
only time I see sculptors and
designers is when we remove our
medium-designated hats to put on
our generic academic ones - three
hours, once a week. (In fact, the
opportunity to be with designers is
even less than that of the sculptors
since design students take design
history classes to fulfill their
requirements, while the rest of us.
take art history classes to do the
same.)

Academic Integration
Another obstacle preventing the
school from being interdisciplinary
is the academic dis-integration that
is so prevalent. If | had a penny
for the number of times | have
heard friends say they are having
trouble juggling their academics
with “the rest of their classes.
Not only are academics not inte-
grated, ECIAD facilitates this divi-
sion by offering a special deal - a
fifth year where you can cram all
your academic requirements into
‘one block, after your study of “the
medium” is finished. Academic
learning could be (dare | say should
be?) informing students’ work. But
instead they have been separated
‘out into a stop-over city on the way|
to Artistville. The reason that stu-
dents separate them is because the
system separates them. (Sadly, |
lick the tip of my pen and draw yet J
another black
line.)

PROBLEMATIC EXCEPTIONS
The Institute's Response
Interschool

There are exceptions to the pre-
dominant model existing at ECIAD,
that leads me to believe that there
is a genuine recognition of the
problem and interest in being inter-
disciplinary. The interschool cours-