strickland distribution

Life drawing research- posing myself as a life model

I have decided to investigate further, the issues of life drawing in Edinburgh College of Art by becoming a life drawing model myself. 

This way, I may be able to orchestrate my situation that I wish to create as myself being the model/posing questions. 

Myself being the model was one of the first things Annette queried in our first tutorial together. She was right in thinking that by placing myself as the model- i will bring many more levels meaning the pieces that may convoluted the real aspiration of the project, which is to discuss issues of the art school from the point of view of students and tutors. The first, being the presence/absence of life drawing.

email correspondance between myself and the organiser of life drawing at the art college:

Hi Sherry,

here are the forms all filled out (and my CV) attached. I couldn't sign them as I filled them out on the computer. However, perhaps I could sign then when we meet up?

Hope this is OK. And please let me know if there is anything else you require from me for the job!

I look forward to hearing back form you soon.

Best, Jessica

> From: s.landles@ed.ac.uk
> To: jessicadunleavy@hotmail.com
> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2012 12:08:46 +0100
> Subject: Application forms - Life Model
>
> Hi Jessica. The forms are attached here. You would be working at Grade 3 with an hourly rate of 8.41. Do let me know if you have any problems printing these off. They can come back to me via internal mail. See you soon.
>
> Best wishes,
> Sherrey Landles
> Administrator (Art and Design Studies )
> Office of Lifelong Learning
> Paterson's Land
> Holyrood Road
> Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ
> 0131 650 4400
> www.ed.ac.uk/short-courses/art
>
>
>
>
> --
> The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
>

Transcript from my interview with Gregory Steckelmacher, Edinburgh College of Art School Representative

Meeting took place on Thursday 4th October in my studio space, on the issues of life drawing at Edinburgh College of Art...

 

G- the problem as I perceive it, as lots of others do too, is that although life drawing is included in the design curriculum…

J- What is it you study?

G- Costume design.

J- OK

G- It isn’t included in the art curriculum. And I find that an incredibly big problem because personally I think you don’t wan to do something that is figurative- if your interests are more abstract or in sculpture- whatever you like, I think if you still want to do life drawing, which I think a lot of people do, then they should have access to it.

J- ACCESS

G- I mean, at the moment, the access to it is very limited. If there is no life drawing on your course, then you have to speak to any friend that you know who has it, and  say “Can I come along to your lessons?”. And of course that doesn’t always work, because it might be that those lessons are already full and so forth. And also there is not a strong facility there. It’s all about who you know and how you happen to know them.

J- Yes

G- So I have spoken to Christ about it and he seems quite positive

J- What are his thoughts on life drawing?

G- He thinks that there should be ways to get it back.

J- So is it something that we have lost?

G- I am not quite sure how it was

J- Sure

G- I’ll tell you that my impression is, that generally, life drawing has been taken out art school teaching because it is considered as quite old-fashioned. Which is something I disagree with.

J- Why?

G- Because I think it trains the eye. But I don’t want to push it as a mandatory part of the curriculum because then you get the equivalent, but in reverse, when people say: ‘We don’t want to do life drawing’, and complain and then it becomes a waste.

J- So it’s about having the option?

G- Yeah, it’s about having the option. What one of the things that Chris has said, is that he gets asked about life drawing a lot outside of the university. People will ask why it is not allowed. And he will say that it is allowed, but only in design. What’s your opinion on it? Do you want life drawing?

J- Yeah, I’m interesting on life drawing as a space to work but also to discuss. Whenever I do life drawing, I find it very meditative and I think that it would be a nice environment where some feels inclined to talk as they work- I’m always conscious about how quiet the life drawing room is. I am not sure if that’s an issue regarding the model and making them feel more relaxed, rather than having people around them talking the whole time. I am interested, as an experiment, to tie-in my concerns in my contemporary art practice with an exercise that is so basic and fundamental to art- life drawing.

G- I’m not sure there’d be much I’d be able to help you there with.

J- Yeah sure. But, am I right in thinking that surely the Fine Art department has a budget for life models.

G- I have no idea. All I know is that it isn’t on the curriculum. People that are painting, sculpture, intermedia and photography do not have life drawing as part of their courses throughout their four years. I may be wrong, but I am under the understanding that that is the case. My friends in second year painting and photography have complained because they find it ridiculous that it’s in design but not in Fine Art. I think the money is there, it’s just a case of how there is access to it.

J- The money must be there, it’s not a huge expenditure.

G- I agree. I think there is a way to do it, its just a way of finding out the way to do it. And I am going to push for it.

J- And how envisage these classes? Would they be just for the Fine Art School, or mixed with, say, the design department?

G- As I imagine now, they would be a series of drop-in life drawing classes held every week.

J- OK

G- It would depend on the demand. Also, finding a tutor and a model every week for a class that would have 15 drop in places every week, sign up the week before, or the day before.

J- I think you may have an issue of numbers early on, but then later on, you’ll probably even out and you’ll only have about that many people turning up anyway. I did an exchange in Munich and there was also ways a life model room and they had various types of life modeling going on every day. All day, they would have a model in. For example, Monday would be drawing, Tuesday would be painting, Wednesday would be something else. People could come in as they pleased. A constant room of modeling that people could go to. Because, it is a nice starting point for people to go to, if you’re having a tough time knowing where to start with an idea.

G- Yeah, exactly. I love life drawing because I just love drawing the body. J- And it’s so bizarre that it’s so split up into different departments. It would be nice to have a drop-in situation where any one from any department could come in and use the facility.

G- Because also, people outside ECA, in the wider university are interested too. There is a demand for life drawing.

J- Yeah. So you would have a tutor in there leading the class?

G- I feel I am at the stage where I don’t like so much the tutored stuff. I love having a tutor there because they can see things that you can’t, but I also love having a model and drawing a pose for 5 hours- just developing it how I want.

J- Yeah

G- The university Art Society organized their own life drawing classes, and they’re always over-subscribed. I think they have too many in their tutor classes there. They could probably run two sessions a week and make more than enough money back.

J- So you’re talking about starting an initiative where people pay? Don’t you think it’s something that should be free?

G- No I think it should be something that’s free. Or even a nominal £1.50 to pay for materials. But as an artist, you would probably have your own materials anyway.

J- I think there are ways to do it, and I’m going to push for it. I think the reason why it is not provided, is because our culture has developed within art teaching that is a bit traditional and elitist and I think there are people who don’t care about life drawing, that the feel that its not necessarily. I’m not saying that its right or wrong. If they don’t want to do it, I would feel equally bad in enforcing them to do it.

framing spaces- double framing

Can i use already existing furniture for another use?

 

Double framing

Public have to take into account the frame_ do go around or through

 

Pieces of the past and the present has the potential to create an interesting future?

Judge existing structures in a new context- new meanings? At the same time, old ones are preserved.

 

Framing tight spaces, unnoticed spaces, non-spaces, gaps

 

With those empty book shelves and that empty framed space, what could happen? What could the empty book shelves offer the empty space- what could the empty space offer the empty bookshelf?

 

Forgotten materials. Should they be in the frame? should they be collected into a new space? In a transitional or temporary space? to be reconsidered perhaps...

 

assuming the objects contained within the frame.

Forget the other spaces that exist outside of the  frame? No, built a connective space, not an isolated. Let the framed space be the epicenter of production

Take on the surrounding spaces, objects, meanings

 

A kind of pastiche, art works amalgamate. So do all other objects. Objects remove their original function or are experimented with

 

Transitional-moving space

 

Functional 

 

create a library in this space

 

its ascent

 

the potential of a flat/closed space. Open it up 

conference room set up

Roland Barthes- To the seminar

Is this a real site or an imaginary one? Neither. An institution is treated in the utopian mode: I outline a space and call it: seminar. It is quite true that the gathering in question is held weekly in Paris, i.e. here and now; but these adverbs are also those of fantasy. Thus, no guarantee of reality, but also nothing gratuitous about the anecdote. One might put things differently: that the (real) seminar is for me the object of a (minor) delirium, and that my relations with this object are, literally, amorous.

Roundtable discussion... personal thoughts

The roundtable discussion went well. Naturally, it took a while for it to get started, for people to be comfortable enough to speak up.

 

Time was spent discussing individual roles and the logistics of the project as oppose to a critical analysis of it.

However, some interesting questions came up regarding the documentation of the project, and how we envisaging packaging the project up to the residents of Slateford Green, the Resident's Association, our tutors and an art gallery. That each different audience would require a different presentation of the project according to their interests in art and social engagement work.

It was suggested that we made publications, like a book, with some of the money left over £600

It was also suggested that we speak to the children themselves to gain their feedback and opinions of the project. This is a very valid response and something Alyssa and I had already considered. 

There was a little dispute as to whether our roles were as 'artists' or not. I believe our roles were as artists, Alyssa thinks otherwise.

I will make a full transcription of the discussion to recall specific issues up more clearly

----

From a personal standpoint, what I really enjoyed and took from the discussion was the physical space of the conference room, that is never used for crits, but for far more corporate events. Initially, i think it gave a particularly serious and stiff atmosphere to the discussion, which was slightly ridiculous because I have never placed myself or my work up in that domain- it felt quite stiff-lipped and professional. This impression however was not permanent and people did feel comfortable- it was a purely superficial observation. It is surprising how easily one can assume another role of facade within a professional environment.  Professionalism is easily adopted or performed.

It is also interesting that that space, the conference room, is always there and probably hardly ever used. I am interested with my framing to continue to find spaces like this in the college to cultivate idea and exchange between people. Not only at the art school, but also from the wider public, as yesterday demonstrated.