'Money' & 'Identity' writing assignments

“Money” writing assignment Aldous George

Extracts of Rationale/Aims/Intentions from:

The Expansion of Claybus: Business Plan

Breaking Down the Barriers (of Access) For Art in Communities

Claybus was born in the summer of 2019 after 4 years of studying Contemporary Art and a PGCE. Teacher training has led me to believe that the national curriculum up to and sometimes beyond level 3 is based more on an industrial ideology focusing on the end result rather than the journey. The main aim of the end result seems to be more about profit margins than the emancipation of individuals and Further and Higher Educational Institutions are becoming serious business(es).

The UK’s Governments Department for Education (DfE), the highest of curriculum authorities is domineering not just the shape of education but fundamental life steering ideas that over time saturate into all levels of societies consciousness to the point that they are taken for granted. They are simply not questioned, because people believe that this is just the way it is. A set of ideas about reality that holds the social order in place. A true hegemonic ruling that once analysed and deeply considered can only in my opinion dangle the carrot of social anarchy in front of the eyes of revolutionaries’ worldwide to bring about radical change not just socially but economically and help global society to consist of more equal and balanced communities.

In my opinion a more process and praxis led educational program consisting of a more liberal humanistic approach would facilitate a more focused progression of the intellectual, personal and social development of an individual or indeed a community. The late Ken Livingston, a sincere, caring educationalist, with a more humanist viewpoint, asks the question, “How do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st Century?” and he goes on to conclude that, “the product instrumentalist approach needs to be regarded as a myth and that most great learning happens with collaboration and that this must include a respect for culture” (YouTube, Livingston, 2010).

A respect for culture, community bonding, collaboration, submergence into a journey of creative process experience, focusing on the practice of involvement and breaking down the barriers of access for art to be available to all, is at the heart of what Claybus stands for. Delivering a more socially engaged practice element to workshops is also at the forefront of the Claybus ethos.

There are many aspects to socially engaged practice, also referred to as social practice or socially engaged art, and these can include any art form which involves people and communities in debate, collaboration or social interaction.

Individuals taking part, participants collaborating or a community becoming involved in socially engaged practice, is fundamental, with the artworks created (if any) often holding equal or less importance to the combined synergy that created them. Tom Finkelpearl suggests in his book What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation, that social practice is art that’s socially engaged, where the social interaction is at some level the art (Finkelpearl). Claybus will endeavour to allow people to experience a level of therapy that raises questions of social cohesion and bring people together in a combined mental consciousness of strength.

2020, Covid-19 and the subsequent National Lockdown has created a new world, the extent of which is still to be discovered. Observations would indicate that in some respect’s communities in the UK have come together, with the more able helping the vulnerable and the acknowledgment of key workers and so on. Lockdown has also had a dramatic affect on the economy both Nationally and locally with unemployment rising and businesses having to close. Some businesses, however, have adjusted and evolved to suit the new environment. Has Lockdown produced a shift away from consumer capitalism to a more refined experience economy? Is there a sense of craving the idea of trying new things, having fun maybe and doing something creative to try and lift our moods and spirits?

This is what Claybus wants to bring to communities. An alternative to consumerism and a shift towards a collaborative free for all creative experience. Around the corner and breaking through the dead end of the ubiquitous cashing of the till. A social turn.

Social turn was first used in 2006 to describe the recent return to socially engaged art that is collaborative, often participatory and involves people as the medium or material of the work. (Tate)

Fig 1. Jeremy Deller, The Battle of Orgreave 2001 Still Frame

References:

Finkelpearl, Tom (2013) What We Made, Durham: Duke University Press

Tate, Social Turn. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/social-turn [Accessed 14 Nov. 2020].

YouTube, Livingstone. (2010). RSA ANIMATE: Changing Education Paradigms. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U [Accessed 14 Nov. 2020].

Illustration List:

Fig1: Tate, Social Turn. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/social-turn [Accessed 14 Nov. 2020].

IDENTITY writing assignment, Aldous George

Extracts from ‘The Identity/Manifesto of Claybus’

Uniting the Nation

Born in Wiltshire 2019, Claybus has already spread its wings to the far south west of Cornwall amidst a global pandemic, National Lock down and a general crumbling cohesion of world-wide affairs. Take the murder of George Floyd as a contemporary example which has brought the Black Lives Matter campaign to the forefront with an almost instant backlash of abuse from not only White supremacists but from the uneducated and ‘jump on the bandwagon sheep mentality people of society’. This discursive construct of race with the objective condition of skin colour can be witnessed here with similar constructs, moving from county to county in the Uk, one in particular through personal observation is into Cornwall, where the objective condition of difference incurs the name calling of invading tourists as ‘grockles’ or ‘emits’ which brings about the discursive construct of otherness. Otherness or othering depends on the construction of an opposition, whereby in this instance it is ‘us and them’. More specifically, this could be considered as territorial (otherness) construction ‘where material and symbolic affectation is added to linguistic, religious, ethic and other oppositions: people think that they owe their identity and superiority to those of their territory, and they ascribe to others the faults of their respective territories’ (Anderson, 1983).

Claybus seeks to: dilute the bleaching effect of discursive otherness; infiltrate the trenches of binary systems of opposition; bring about the balance of opposites, of otherness such as us and them or self and other and endeavours to unite the nation, bringing about a collective and equitable creative experience to ALL communities and thus strengthen social cohesion.

Claybus wishes to embark on a venture to simulate the rationale behind social cohesion which is to bring people together working towards the well-being of societies members, eradicating vilification, and fighting against exclusion and inequality. Other fundamental intentions of social cohesion include the creation of a sense of belonging, the promotion of trust and the opportunity of upward mobility from a lower to higher social class (social mobility).

Claybus aims to creatively connect all county roads and outline a u-turn for dead end mentality, providing viable and accessible alternatives for all social groups, avoiding an absence or the underdevelopment of connections between communities within society. A starvation of development could lead to more social fragmentation and segregation which would include the breakdown of social bonds and the discrimination and exclusion of groups based on attributes such as the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality act 2010 which are; age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation (Gov.uk, 2020). Examples of social fragmentation and segregation include the condemnation of Muslim groups because of propaganda of terrorist activity around the world. In turn this evokes increased racism and a rise in race and religious hate crimes. Equally, income inequality and limited job opportunities, particularly among young people can lead to social fragmentation and exclusion, exacerbate social tensions and ignite conflict.

Claybus will: encourage self-directed projects that create empathy and open learners’ eyes to how this can in turn educate, leading to change; help people realise their freedom of expression and how this can empower even the most vulnerable members of society; endeavour to infiltrate unconscious and conscious understanding, and that courage of expression to those who create, as well as those who appreciate and observe, will in turn arouse greater tolerance of societies and beliefs around the globe.

Full steam ahead for Claybus, for the opportunity to allow our self to help and make for the other.

References:

GOV.UK. (2020). Equality Act 2010: guidance. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/equality-act-2010-guidance [Accessed 25 Nov. 2020].

Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.