EDUCATION AS POLITICAL STRATEGY Tim Ivison & Tom Vandeputte.

. In recent years there has been a distinct renewal of interest in education as a means of experimentation and as a mode of organisation. Artists have engaged in a broad range of self-initiated projects, varying from informal reading groups and seminars, to alternative schools, community-based pedagogical experiments, and online learning platforms. Some of these projects might at first glance appear to merely carry over the general interest in education and the art school that we have become familiar with in the artistic production of the past decade. However, in their emphasis on autonomy and self-organisation, recent artists experiments in education seem better understood as political strategies: as creative responses to the general social and economic conditions of today or as alternatives to established art schools and university programmes. The distinct premise of the projects that take this approach to education is that the process and space of learning becomes a political experiment in and of itself. The organisation of schools, seminars, and workshops are seen as a way to build discourses, to identify and cultivate communities, to develop a critical awareness of contemporary problems and possibilities, and to learn how to respond to them. While sharing an understanding of education as a political question, calling for creative and critical involvement, the form of such practices varies depending on context as does their specific agenda. Some of these practices specifically employ experimental modes of learning in order to raise consciousness and facilitate self-organisation. Ultra-red, a group of international artists and activists, experiment with such strategies through collective listening workshops they have been calling the School of Echoes. The London-based Carrot Workers Collective develops workshops and guidebooks for interns in the art world, informing current and future interns of their rights and pointing out common ways in which institutions exploit their labour. Jakob Jakobsen, formerly of the Copenhagen Free University, is now involved in a year-long research project re-examining the materials of the counter-cultural Anti-University of 1968, organising workshops, publications, and teach-ins as part of Documenta 13. In this and many of the other projects, there is a distinct interest in experimental forms of education that have the potential to shape politics and empower local communities, building on ideas about radical pedagogy first popularised in such books as Paolo Freires Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970) and Ivan Illich Deschooling Society (1971). Other experiments assume the form of relatively autonomous spaces where it becomes possible to experiment with forms of learning and knowledge exchange. The New York-based 16 Beaver Group have hosted independent reading groups, presentations, discussions and other events from their space at 16 Beaver Street. Their weekly programme reads as an ongoing attempt to grasp the urgent and complex questions of today, to imagine possibilities for intervention and response, and to learn about strategies of organisation. In contrast to academic institutions and established art spaces, the curriculum of the self-organised schools and seminars often appears able to respond swiftly to current issues and can be uncompromised in its political commitment. In these cases, self-organised programmes manage to create a platform for the discussion of issues that remain outside of the scope of existing institutions. Given their potential political effectiveness, it is not surprising that the protests of the last years have triggered a new proliferation of autonomous education initiatives, some supported by pre-existing networks. Indeed, the 16 Beaver reading groups assumed an active role in the Occupy Wall Street protests alongside other self-run seminars, workshops and free schools, in New York and abroad, critically reflecting on and informing the protests. These projects have allowed artists to harness their creativity for political ends: they function as platforms for developing and disseminating alternative forms of resistance, re-imagining how meetings can be organised, how decisions can be made collectively, or how publics can be mobilised. Besides functioning as a direct political strategy, many of the recent critical experiments in education have responded in some way as alternatives to the existing educational institutions, both inside and outside of the art world. On the one hand, some of the self-organised education programmes can be understood as a pragmatic response to economic factors: funding withdrawal, increasing costs and a contracting job market. On the other hand, todays artists-run experiments are also genuine attempts to provide an alternative to the universities and academies, that are considered to be increasingly instrumentalised by governments and corporations. The Public School, set up by Telic Arts Exchange founders Sean Dockray and Fiona Whitton, is an example of a project that should be understood in this context, addressing both economic and institutional questions. Conceived as a school with no curriculum, its classes are collectively proposed and administered by the public via the organisations website, thereby doing away with the superstructure of institutions, degrees, and the fixed distinction between teachers and students. Although emerging directly from the interests and concerns of a contemporary art gallery in Los Angeles, the potential platform for The Public School is relatively open. A project like this shows an emphasis on providing access to learning and facilitating a general form of engagement independent from institutional concerns.

ENGLISH SECTION

pragmatic resp on se t o eco nom ic factors : fundi ng withd rawa l, inc rea sing costs and a contracting jo b market. O n th e othe r hand, today's artists run exp er iments are also ge nu ine attempts to prov ide an alternative to the un ive rsit ies and academies , whic h are cons idered t o be inc reasingly instrumen tals by governments and corporations . The Public School, set up by Telic Arts Exchange founders Sean Dockray and Fiona Wh itton , is an examp le of a project t hat shou ld be understood in t his context , addressi ng both economi c and institu tional qu estions . Co nceived as a 'sc hoo l w it h no c urric ulum', its c lasses are collectively propos ed and adm inis tered by t he pub lic via t he o rgan izat io n's website , ther eby do ing away wi t h th e superst ructu re of insti t uti o ns, degrees, and th e fi xed disti nct ion bet ween t eac her s an d students. Alt hough eme rg ing d irec t ly fr o m the int erests and co ncerns of a contem por ar y ar t gallery in Los Angeles , the potential platform for The Public School is relatively open . A proje ct like t his sho ws an emphasis on providing access to learn ing and facilitating a general form of engagement independent from instituti on al co ncerns. If the Public Sc hool responds to a general academic context, other init iat ives amongst artists have responded specifically (and critically) to t he state of art schools and pos tgraduate programmes, wh ich have bec ome inc reas ingly instit utionalized, expen sive, and integ rate d in t he art ma rket - a t end en cy exemp lified by the growing amount of classes foc using on networking an d ma rket ing skills. Artists are increasingly foregoing or pos tpon ing t heir pos t gra duate educat ions in f avo ur of resi denci es and summer schools, self-i nstituti ons and no n-deg ree, alte rnative prog ram mes . At one regist er, t his inclu des high ly rega rded prog rammes such as t he Wh itney Independent Study Programme, Skowhegan Summe r School and the Rijksakademie programmes that have always been popular but perhaps supplemental t o the normal postgraduate path . At another regist er, however, there have been a number of semi -institu tional and sem i-casual educational projects run by art ists that t ake an imp licit pol it ical stance against the

co nvent io nal prog rammes , artic ulating a par ticular irreverence for fo rmal ed ucation that pe rhap s better capt ures the c urrent t e ndency to wa rds self-organizat io n. Th is group would ce rtainly include the Mounta in Schoo l of Arts , a programme run from the Moun ta in Bar in Los Angele s' Chinatown. Co-founded by artists Piero Golia and Eric Wesley , the tuition -free school offers a curricu lum that inc ludes lectures on philosophy, law, dance, and art , but also hosts live music and interviews with an eclect ic ar ray of art and non-art personalitie s. In th is context , discussing theo retical essays and argu ing over politics are found to be on a hori zontal plane with the straightforward process of meetin g well-k nown art ists and hav ing a barbeq ue . Even mo re recently , Bruce High Qua lity Foundati on University began offering co urses through t heir website in 'Extr eme Perfor mance Art ', 'Co brac lass', and "The Language of Lo ve: Int ro Ita lian ', for artists see king t o escape wha t they ref er to as an 'unt enable' art sc hool model. Their sol ution is simple: to get the art school they alw ays wanted by making it up fo r th emse lves . As t hey say in their man ifesto , 'This is the premise of BHQFU : that artists can figure t his thing out. ' Such art programmes become an increasingly viable substitute for expensive aca dem ic postgraduate programmes. However, even t hough their strategies off er potentia l deviati o ns fro m t he debt- laden norm , it remains unc lear whet her t hese pr ojects ca n actually manage t o provide a genuine critical alt ernative to the estab lishe d syst em of art educat io n. W hil e un der mi ning t he traditi o ns of t he ar t schoo l, one m igh t wo nder if t hese groups pot entially cr eate yet ano ther kind of accreditati on and exc lusion - a re -tri ba lizati on aro und different for ms of value. In this case it is poss ible tha t , rat her than avo iding the influence of the ma rket on edu cation prog rammes , they provide a direct line to it . The critique of art schools and the projects emerging from sub-cultural and activist circles have not remained unnoticed and now coincide with a number of larger instituti onal projects . Initiatives like t he Hayward Gallery's 'W ide Open School', a te mporary
111

'summer sc hool' t aught by a var iety of intern ational co ntemporary art ists, or the 'Maybe Education and Pub lic Prog ram s' platfo rm at dOCUM ENTA (13), whic h involves a coll ab orat ion with t he Art Academies Network, signal a conscious recognitio n of the issue of education by int ernat ional art organizations . The question will be whether these large-scale event s manage to put f o rward a coherent agenda beyond the convention s of eclectic pub lic programming . Both as forms of organ izing po liti cal engagement and as specific res ponses t o t he condition of universit ies and art schools, self-or ganized experiments in educat ion ac quire a specific relevance in turbulent ti mes. The econom ic c risis , th e Occ upy protests, and t he ongoing cut s to education and soc ial prog ram ming have given a specific goa l - or an edge - to an invo lvem ent by artists in education t hat would otherwise have taken place at a distan ce from cur rent social and polit ical questi ons. If earlie r experiments with education work ed around th e idea of education as artis t ic medium or of the exhib iti on as a school, cur rent experiments show the pressing need to make specif ic demands. As the auste rit y measures and the political decision s that underlie them deeply affect societies at large and the art wor ld in particu lar, self -organ ized spaces of learning might allow us to add ress a sp ecific set of urgent questions : How ca n we organ ize ourselves ; what are th e relevant st rateg ies of dissem ination and disc uss ion ; an d how to articulate a co mmo n pro ject ?
Tim Ivison and Tom Vandepulte are researchers at the London Con sor t ium. They are working on a boo k about crit ica l experi ments in education, which will be published by Bedford Press in t he fall.