Helmut Lemke

For the Independent Art School Conference which took place in Hull in October 2000 I was asked to contribute a talk. I was asked for this contribution mainly because the organisers of the conference knew about my resignation from my lecturer's post from The Hull School of Art and Design in protest of introducing modularity. For that talk I concentrated on explaining what I thought was wrong in Higher Education of art in general, and the failure of the introduction of modularity in particular.

Contributing to this reader I think I should go further.
Instead of only repeating the negative summary of experiences which led to my resignation I will add some points which will underline the importance of the "Independent Art School" as well as some ideas of how it should be structured and what it should stay for.
These ideas will take the form of short thesises which could form a basis for dispute.

As you will see, I can only understand Art and thus Art education as a process.
Therefore any ideas about the "IAS" can only be understood as "thoughts in process", too.
It would be contradictory to my idea of an independent art school to determine fixed rules.

Summary of my talk in Oct/00

1 Two major issues of Art are that
Art is based on PROCESSES
It is produced as a process,
Artists' development can only experienced as a process
Artists' issues are processed based, too
Art needs VISION

2 Art Eduction can only succeed in an environment that allows and supports process and vision

3 Institutionalised Art Education in England does not fulfill these essentials
Two examples:
The TQR replaces vision by accountability
The desire or need to justify the spending of tax payers money might be understandable or not; the criteria which were used during the TQR to asses the quality of teaching Art only reflected the lack of vision by hunting down the short time success of "learning input". Especially in the Arts, proof of teaching and learning does not manifest itself in accountable results. The process of becoming a successful artist (whatever that might be - another questionable aim in itself) does not show itself in any marks, assessments and in most cases not even during the short 3 years in which a student visits an Art Course.
Modularity cuts the process of studying Art, creating Art, becoming an Artist into small units under the official purpose to create more accurate, more comparable, more fair assesments.
Isn't that just the most logical result of the erroneous belief that there must be some accademic criteria for the assessment of educating artists which is, of course, inherent in the idea of 'Higher Education' ?
Any attempt of cutting the process of learning to be an artist into units does not reflect processes. Processes include standstill, jumps and even steps back.

What I criticised about the situation in English Art Colleges, of course, reflects a situation which is typical of society. Experimentation, Improvisation and Research that may include failure is not only not popular but discouraged and looked at with great distrust. (Funding policies reflect this experience.)

Following on from the conclusions that I draw from my experiences in art colleges the need for an "Independent Art School" becomes obvious.
I will now list some thoughts of what such an "institution" should be like and what it should try to achieve.

1 The IAS lives.
It can be found at any given time at any given place wherever its members are.
Members are all those who regard themselves as being involved in the Arts and understand their work as an ongoing never-ending process of creative activity.

2 The IAS lives through the activities and desires of its members.

3 The special interest of the IAS is to live and promote a different understanding of how art can be learned and taught.
Members take the role of student and lecturer as it is appropriate to the question for which an answer is sought.
The IAS provides the platform for exchange and learning through organisiing workshops, conferences etc. These gatherings are staged by those members who feel that there is a need for them.
The IAS exists and works through the net.

4 The IAS lives without boundaries.
It is international and open to all media.

5 The IAS avoids hierachical structures.
This is especially true for the internal organisation of the IAS as well as for the understanding of the IAS of Art Education.
- Although there will always be the need for members to be more active than others and their special efforts have to be acknowledged their role will not be different to everybody elses role.
- Although there will always be members with greater experience or knowledge of certain issues than others they only take the role of "lecturers" as long as these particular issues are dealt with.

6 The IAS avoids centralisation.

7 The IAS avoids bureaucratic structures.

8 The IAS avoids instituationalisation.
In October we have already discussed the implications of the term 'school' and how problematic it is. However, since it has been choosen by now let's stick to it and be conscious and careful of avoiding the negative associations and meanings it carries.

9 The IAS is INDEPENDENT
The IAS is only responsible and accountable to its ideas of process-based development of creativity and vision.
If there is the need to look for funding the organisation of the IAS itself or special events then care has to be taken whether or not the funding bodies will try to influence the goal of the IAS or to endanger independence through their funding criteria.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Helmut Lemke is a German Sound-Artist who lived in Sheffield/UK from 1/96 to 9/00. During his time in England he has worked as lecturer in Phonic Art (BA) at the Hull School of Art & Design in Hull and for the Visual Art Course of the University of Salford. He was Research Fellow at Manchester Metropolitain University and Visiting lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
Of course, he also showed his work and played concerts of improvised music while he lived in the UK. In October 2000 he moved back to Germany where he is now based in Bielefeld.