Abstract :
There is a perception in British universities and art
colleges that art students are not very good at writing,
that they don’t want to write, and furthermore,
that writing gets in the way of the real business of
making art. These perceptions are reinforced in
much of the literature that has been produced
about, and in support of, undergraduate art education
in the last few decades.
This paper will examine the tensions, both
historical and contemporary, between academic
practices (such as the academic essay, the dissertation)
and fine art studio practices. This translative
gap both produces, and perpetuates, a set of binaries:
visual/textual, art/literature, words/images,
Studio/Art History, making/writing. The net result
of which is a resistance to writing from many Art
students in Higher Education.
I will outline subject specific multidisciplinary
strategies used with undergraduate and postgraduate
students to harness, and develop, this
resistance as both transformational and inventive.
