I HATE ART SCHOOL

An Autoethnographic Investigation into The Problematics of The Neoliberalist Art School (Central Saint Martins, UAL)

Leeds Arts University 2021

ABSTRACT


Autoethnography is recognised, particularly in feminist discourses as a potentially transformative power and as a way of fostering agency by writing of ‘the self’. As Elizabeth Ettore states in Autoethnography as Feminist Method: Sensitising the Feminist ‘I’– ‘transforming personal stories into political realities by revealing power inequalities inherent in human relationships and the complex cultures of emotions embedded within these unequal relationships’ (2017, p. 2). In this dissertation I consider the power dynamics of the white-middle-class-non-native-Londoner studying at an exclusive arts institution, acknowledging my own privilege within the institution but also how this affects others from marginalised communities in the vicinity of my geographical movements. In addition to conventional academic writing, I also use subjective, playful anecdotal references. Fostering a vernacular mode of writing here rejects the traditional objective voice, similar to the writings of art critic duo White Pube. For example, the employment of text-speak abbreviations is utilised within this dissertation as a ‘rejection to hierarchal and canonical practices’ (J, Doubtfire, 2020, p.6). The abandonment of the ‘objective’ voice, in this case, acknowledges the socio-economic privileges of the white middle-class woman, a group of which I myself am a member.



This autoethnographic approach is a means by which I can construct a ‘damage assessment’ of my personal actions. Examining how I exist within geographical and institutional spaces through a critical lens, a theorisation echoed within the feminist teaching of Lucy Lippard in terms of artistic practice, approaching art through methods of ‘consciousness-raising, giving time for all speakers, criticism and self-criticism’ (Art Monthly 444, 2021, p. 12). Self-criticism, in terms of feminist modes of teaching, could be seen as a way of recognising one’s own privilege, giving space and time for those from marginalised communities to assert beliefs/thoughts/opinions.


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