Planet of the Arts Volume Six, Issue One BAG, RAG AND SLAG like, are the stu- dents of ECCAD as unwelcome in their own school (that they are sinking themselves into se- rious debt in order to attend), as they frequently seem to be? like, SO, for openers, what’s with the hospital walls in this place? Why are we often treated like the children of abusive parents in a dys- functional family when a charcoal smudge gets on the wall of a DRAWING studio in what is supposed to be an ART College? I’m nottalking aboutthe infantile-type stu- dents who slew wet paint all over every- one’s studio space buttheirown, simply because they are geeky pigs. No. I’m referring to the ob- sessive-compulsive attitude on the part ofthe administration towards keeping this art (yes, lets remember, that ART ) college’s walls sanitary as a syringe and as de- void of signs of art student life, as they know how to do. The lack of public signs of art produc- tion (work-in- progress ) as we wander through the anal-retentive thor- oughfares of our ART college, has many of us on the brink of death from boredom. We are starved for any sense of community with our fellow stu- dents, any sense that the rest ofthem even exist and are actually producing that so unfettered creation, ART. Why aren’t ECCAD’s halls plastered with everyone's work and expression? Since when does priggish sanitation andtidiness rule at... hate to say it, an ART college? And even if all other art colleges are as much of a dead zone as this-one, why is that an ex- cuse for it? why is this the only post-secondary in- Stitution (in possibly the WORLD), that doesn’t have a stu- dent lounge where we can go and be together in a social way and feel like there are more stu- dents at the school than just the hand- ful in our own classes? Is there anxiety over student assemblage per- meating ECCAD? Is divide and con- querthe established administrative policy towards the student body? And if its not, then where the hell’s our - lounge? speaking of insecu- rity, who is telling the security guards to lock the doors to the stairwells all over the college when students are work- ing here at night? This js a FIRE HAZARD and must stop. Why are we getting hassled for bringing our bikes into the college so that they don’t get stolen, as so many of them have when left out- side? Surely an ART college has had more offensive material dragged through it than the odd student’s bike. The security guards seem to be a pretty nice group, butthere does exist some confusion as to who is here for whom . Which may very well be not their fault. However, when weird, light-fingered people are found casing the college as they have been, it seems to be time for the guards to check for student ID and start escorting those not in pos- session ofit out, and away from our ex- pensive paints and everything else that 18 none ofuscan really afford to be relieved of. Notthat students don’t steal. But why invite more of it than we have to? ok,ok. So I’m being pretty crabby. So what? What I’ve said is true anyway. We’re too often made to feel like this place isn’t what it is supposed to be-a place for us to learn about, and MAKE, artin. Too often we’ re made to believe that we’d better high-tail out of here before we piss off the Sani-freaks and the minions of tidy. Stale air man. and since, in for a penny in for a pound, | am now going to mentionthe SLEAZY over- crowding, (particu- larly of second year) at ECCAD this year. This college took ourmoney,andthen after it was too late to investigate or enrol in other insti- tutions, they in- formed a great many of us that we wouldn't be getting into the courses we needed. WHICH, need | point out, were ourreasons for coming here. It is Known that, there was a67% drop-out of foundation. stu- dents lastyear. This was in ways, god, because foundation(last year) had too many students for the fa- cilities of second year at this college, to handle. WAS good. Because what did those geniuses Barkley and Yacowar do about this? They admitted 67% more students into sec- ond year to com- pletely replace what was already too many students, PLUS they admitted another 15% ON TOP of this, to cre- ate the disgusting situation that exists ‘or uS now. The as disgusting be- cause, did the al- mighty Barkley and Yacowar hire fac- ulty, proportion- ately, ,andincrease Studio space, pro- portionately, to ac- commodate this excessive over- crowding?? HA! so what are the pri- orities, d’ya figure, of the administra- tion, based on what this enrolment _ fi- asco is suggesting? The quality of stu- dent education? Our ability to even get the education we pay here for?HA! HA HA! One can almost believe the rumour that’s been going around about our administration heads being E.S.T. cult members who believe that what they_want counts, and that the wants of anyone else are for shit. But watch out ESTies, what goes aroundcomes around. You exist here only because the students do, and if you continue to shaft us and the faculty you are go- ing to find it coming right back at you. Cheers. Lynne S. 1990 FESTIVAL OF ANIMATION Animation for me is one of the hardest mediums to give an objective view-point on. One has only to read the long list of credits that follow even a short produc- tion, to realize the level of work in- volved.. Spike and Mike’s _ travelling show, at the Ridge Theatre this month and next, represents abargain of planetary proportions. For au- diences who milk feed on Disney = and Warner Brother's gag-a-minute shorts, shaman this year’s cross- section of works from the global-mosaic, may present some difficulty. Although, | have nothing against that perennial hard- core of animation festivals - the one man laughing soundtrack, the belief that Anima- tionis primarily kiddie fodder, rather than a tool of unlimited po- tential creates a situ- ation that greatly nar- rows the range of in- terpretation avail- able.’ This year’s festival tries to cover a rain- bow of styles, with everything from per- fectly lip-synched bears to political paradigms from East- block artists. Main- taining a “something foreveryone’ attitude, festival organizers have included the now compulsory computer piece, Hi-Tech heads can get charged by watching Karl Sim’s’ “Panspermia’” a high- resolution space trip featuring soft 3-D graphics, all produced on a CM2 Thinking Machine, whatever that is. Political themes pre-dominate this year’s offerings, included is the overly long, “Grasshopper.” Italian genius “Boring Buzzeto’s” depiction of Western male his- tory, a cycle of vio- lence over and over again. In the abstract-con- cept department, Ge fm a Hey