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"I know what kind of schools I wanted to avoid. They were MFA programs which worked essentially on the model of therapy. An artist was left to his small studio with a large and anxious group of colleagues to dwell- he would produce out of anxiety and could not avoid seeking approval of an adviser who would show up once a month and would often withhold or further problematize what it took to get that approval."iv
Haseeb Ahmed
MFA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Science and Visual Studies, 20101. Are there new or different skills and areas of knowledge that students require now?
I believe the most important skill has become ‘learning how to learn’. When I was in undergrad at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago I would classify most of my professors in the sculpture department where I was focused as post-conceptul.
The classes were thematic and not based on skill sets or materials. At the time this was very frustrating to some. They felt they were not getting their moneys worth. It may have been the case if the professors did not teach students where and how to find out how to do what they wanted to do.
This does require some degree of technical knowledge however. Research methodologies are important to producing an artwork if one can see what connects
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different was of fabricating and their potential implications socially.
This became very clear to me from nearly 180 degrees while I was doing my Masters of Science in Visual Studies while at the MIT- Program in Art Culture in Technology. It was a small program of 9 people.
There I took a course in the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Media Lab. Each week we attempted to learn a new skill set from PCB micro-controller fabrication to 3D scanning to basic programming. No way anyone understood all of what was being taught but years later now I know where to place things I encounter when making my work in relationship to what I do know and then narrow down how to deal with and value a particular question.
2. Within an academic environment, how does visual-art training relate to other disciplines?
I work across different scientific disciplines in the academic setting as part of my practice. Scientists and engineers must believe that the image holds a concrete fidelity to reality and that they can understand it through the image. It’s a secret that I must keep that visual form in art almost always forms the inverse image of what this typical truth-relation that so many have to the image. Once you give something a visual form as an artwork there is no way that it can ever have a truthful relationship to reality ever again. It is the prevalence of this presupposed truth-content of the visual world that artists look to manipulate must if there work is going to be meaningful as art- as something other than what already exists.
3. What are your feelings about the relationship of MFA programs to the art market?
I don’t know if I can answer that based on my experience. I've heard of MFA programs like Yale, Columbia, and UCLA having privileged relationships to gallerists and collectors however I was not willing to rely on an MFA program, gallerists or collectors to continue my practice or shape my education so I purposefully avoided these programs and in turn the art market per say. That is not to say I am opposed to it in general I just don’t want it to characterize my work without any guarantee it will contribute to it.
4. Should collectors and dealers be given access to students? Should students be encouraged to make contact with galleries as soon as possible, even before graduation? In general, what role should issues of profession and career play in MFA programs?
I think I address my opinion on this above. However I think the issue of how artists are supposed to sustain their practices should be addressed much earlier on in education then it is. There is a general taboo in leading art academies where students are paying through the nose to talk about money. Whereas in other studies money is talked about openly. Shouldn’t artists be allowed to have expectations of quality of life? The fact that they do not know how to price their work, or to price their labor when helping to build another artist work means that academies and academics often are ashamed that their education will not get students anywhere after their studies and for this reason would rather not discuss it. However, as we know there are ways to support practices in this world. They may or may not relate or depend on collectors or gallerists who remain mythical for most.
5. What, if any, are the significant differences among schools within the US.? What makes for a successful art school/MFA program? What kinds of
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things most often stand in the way of a program becoming successful? And what are the criteria of success?
I can only speak about this in relationship to my own practice as there are many forms of art and art education. However, in my opinion art should address something outside of itself. Art schools should do their best to allow artists access to the worlds that they wish to be inspired from, critique, or appropriate. This is what an institutional setting can offer beyond what an individual might be capable of. I know what kind of schools I wanted to avoid. They were MFA programs which worked essentially on the model of therapy. An artist was left to his small studio with a large and anxious group of colleagues to dwell- he would produce out of anxiety and could not avoid seeking approval of an adviser who would show up once a month and would often withhold or further problematize what it took to get that approval. In this way the MFA student was kept in a carthartic loophole however it is not proven if this type of catharsis actually resolves itself and improves the work of he student. The MFA program or advisers that participate in this type of program better be sure that after two years they can leave the student feeling better about their practice then when they entered or they have done damage instead.
In an MFA program, as in reality, it is not approval that one is seeking by producing artwork. Rather it is something much much more related to the fundamental meaning of why humans produce.
"I know what kind of schools I wanted to avoid. They were MFA programs which worked essentially on the model of therapy. An artist was left to his small studio with a large and anxious group of colleagues to dwell- he would produce out of
anxiety and could not avoid seeking approval of an adviser who would show up once a month and would often withhold or further problematize what it took to get that approval." ⊗
