“The teaching-learning relationship must be totally open and constantly reversible.” (Beuys)
- The way I see it, people are people, and everyone can teach someone something. In this case, every person is, essentially, a teacher AND a learner at any given time. So, I like to think that Beuys is encouraging people to be open minded about learning and teaching. A teacher can always learn from others, which means that the traditional class room model (A teacher and his students) disagrees with Beuys statement. It disagrees because in a learning environment Beuys argues that every one is there to teach and to learn from each other, it may be that the designated teacher has more expertise in the field, but it does not mean that a student cannot learn from his or her peers, or that a teacher cannot learn from his students. The roles of teacher and student are "constantly reversible."
- From experience and observation in a community possessed by music and constantly obsessed with creation I can agree with Griffin, "emptiness always precedes creation." Ask any songwriter how they came up with lyrics, ask them what time they were working on them. They will almost always respond "I don't work on them over a period of time, they just come to me." Others may respond that they are most creative in their sleep; "I don't know man, it just came to me in a dream," that's why most songwriters sleep with a pad of paper and a pen on their night stand. I don't really know how any one else feels about this matter, but it seems to me that if one were to feel most empty, it would be during sleep, therefore, emptiness must precede creation. It works the same with visual art; I used to do lots of work with charcoal and photography. When I do a photo shoot, there is no period of emptiness before I start snapping pictures, or creating prints. This must be because I am not exactly creating, i'm reproducing, but when I'm working on a drawing I have to sit for at least an hour and listen to music or just do nothing, until a subject comes to me, then I can create.
“A text is made up of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation.” (Barthes)
- This reminds me of a conversation that was had during class today. I agree with my classmate and with Barthes, that all text is an amalgamation of, a parody of, or an argument against parts from other texts and cultures. It's like what Bartholomae and Petrosky encourage their readers to do, they encourage readers to extract the relationship between the author and one's self, this quote seems to be encouraging writers to create that conversation for readers, make it easier for them the relate to the text.
“If there’s a lesson here it’s: get busy copying. That’s not a popular notion today, not when we are all instructed to find our own way, admonished to be original and find our own voice at all cost! But it’s sound advice. Traveling the paths of greatness, even in someone else’s footprints, is a vital means to acquiring skill.” (Tharp)
- Instruction today is based a lot on the americanization of western culture, that is, teaching today is all about enforcing hyper-individualization. "Unusual" teaching, as Bartholomae and Petrosky would say, is trying to re-condition learners by encouraging them to be inspired by or borrow pieces from others. It is okay to "travel in the [same] paths... even in someone else's footprints," because at least you know they lead to "greatness." Imitation is a way to learn.
“A teacher is someone who makes himself progressively unnecessary.” (Carruthers)
- This is a wonderful quotation. I think it should be the goal of every teacher to wean his students off of his instruction. I always thought the goal of teaching was to guide others on a path of learning that would eventually lead to discovery and independence, to create a community of educated people conversant and stand-alone in their knowledge. The goal of teaching should be to create a community of peers, and if this is the goal then Carruthers quote would be the foundation of all pedagogy.
"Emphasizing concept and process over end product, collage has brought the incongruous into meaningful congress with the ordinary. With its capacity for change, speed, immediacy, and ephemerality, collage is ideally suited to the demands of this and the prior century. It is a medium of materiality, a record of our civilization, a document of the timely and the transitory. It is no wonder that today’s artists continue to use collage as a way of giving expression to the unorthodox, both in art and life." (Waldman)
“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” (Eliot)
- I see this from a very artistic point of view. Let's go back to my charcoal drawing I mentioned earlier; we are looking at a blank canvas, and we have one of two choices. Choice number one would be the Griffin route; we can sit for an hour rolling around inspiration until we find a subject, and then through careful planning execute our drawing, probably having blocked out the drawing with an end product in mind. Choice number two is the Eliot route, and the Jackson Pollock route, let's just start. Start drawing lines and exploring the negative space of the paper, explore the spaces created by new lines, keep exploring... eventually, we will finish, and stop. Once we have stopped, we'll step back and admire out creation for the first time, even though it is the same piece of paper with which we started. It works the same with music, you have the same two choices Griffin's piece probably comes out as a complicated and complex fugue, Eliot's piece end up like an Uri Cane avant garde concerto. And, you guessed it! It works the same with writing, a writer can either plan an end product and work towards that product, or focus more on the processes and eventually create an end product that they will see for the first time when they have completed its parts.
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