Discussion Participants: Garth Evans, Jock Ireland, Brandt Junceau
The Locked Room, Four Years that Shook Art Education, is a book recently published by MIT Press which documents a controversial teaching program that became known at the “A” Course. The course was designed by four of the tutors, Peter Atkins, Gareth Jones, Peter Harvey and myself. It took place in the Sculpture Department at St. Martin”s School of Art between 1969 and 1973. In its 432 pages the book contains my recollections and those of many of the students, together with a rich variety of archival material and documentary photographs. The book took five years to compile and would not have been possible without the guidance and industry of its editor, Rozemin Kashvani.
–Garth Evans
Here are some excerpts from the discussion, images from the book are below:
The book is intended to be a primary source document about what actually happened. –Garth Evans
I’m the same age as the students who were part of what’s referred to as the second intake of the course. I wasn’t part of the course. I was in college in the woods in North Carolina at the time—but reading these recollections, I felt I knew each of the students. I was a very close friend. I knew exactly who they were. –Jock Ireland
You’re all being very nice, but the reason the course was controversial—and I don’t imagine the book is going to diminish that controversy—is that it was perceived by people on the outside as very authoritarian, and potentially so restrictive and authoritarian as to be harmful. –Garth
As soon as I began to think of the issues of education, I thought right away of Plato, very directly about The Republic. (Next didn’t I say something about the Locked Room being a community, and serving one, like the Republic? Might be good to put that in the blurb, even if it has to be said shorter than I did out loud) –Brandt Junceau
What’s a teacher’s responsibility? Does a teacher help you to hold a pencil correctly, whatever “correctly” might mean. Or does a teacher say, Why use a pencil? –Jock
Again, I have to disagree absolutely with you. In the first project you were given a piece of material and you were given nothing else—and you were not allowed to wander off. You were there. The obligation was to be present. –Garth
For me the “authoritarian” aspect of the Locked Room was simply the obligation to address a moment, and to refuse everything else. But reading and listening now, I’m reminded of my own limitations: I wouldn’t have been able to do it– it was all happening in public and I really depend completely on personal isolation in the visual arts. –Brandt
When it comes down to it, the whole project of education makes me shudder. And I got a real frisson from this. It’s such a profound intervention—with consequences we can’t possibly foresee. The idea of putting one’s hand on the wheel and steering a life for a day, let alone a term or a year. It’s a terrifying intervention! –Brandt
And that panic, I’ve felt it myself with this shift to Zoom. I’m completely relaxed teaching at the Studio School—in a studio with people I can touch sort of thing. In Zoom I’m overwhelmed by a sense of responsibility—and that panic or whatever informs the book. It’s behind some of Garth’s writing in the book, but it’s also behind the whole sort of mindset of the tutors. They spent however many hours/days trying to figure out, what does it mean to teach students and how do you do that. And Garth is sitting here still worried about being too authoritarian. –Jock
Sculpture Forum 