Essentially a conversation with myself and
anyone else who has come along and joined
in from time to time.
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When starting to pull one's thoughts together in attempting to make sense of the world you dredge your memories for anything that ever made sense. Quite quickly in Dickens you can discover that the opening paragraph in his 'Tale of Two Cities' (1859) that still resonates in the here and the now ... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we ...."
Watch the news on TV and Dickens' opening resonates loudly in 2024 with dystopia raining down upon people in far away places and in ways that should give everyone cause to reconsider their relative comfortableness and then there is the spectre of Climate Change. Then there is that cliche that goes 'it is what it is'.
Then one comes to the crux of 'placedness'. Places shape culture; it's sensitivities a sensibilities; and cultures shape places. Wilderness in the end is a cultural imagining [Link] and as it has turned out, so too was Terra Nulius [ Link] and its an imagining that still lurks in some AUSTRALIANmindsets.
Culturally and geographically, in Mittagong, Sturt's 'placedness' is in one sense a cultural imagining. Winifred West's planting of what might be imagined as a 'cultural flag' in amongst all the dystopia raining down upon the world in 1941 is worth a thought. It is something that resonate still. The cultural 'wilderness' ... wilderness for the lack of a better word ... was there and all around her. Suffice to say, she got about experimenting [Link] in the space that surrounded her in 1941 and she came to it with a mind to make her Sturt 'a place' where change could be imagined. It turns out that she was a quintessential PLACEmaker. And, fundamentally Winifred West was a 'maker'!
After all that, then comes the WORDstruggle as 'spoken' language and 'visual' language need to find resonances in each other and in ways that make sense relative to 'making's' haptic experiences. If we imagine 'object makers' as having, fundamentally, an audience of 'just one' it soon puts them at odds with the status quo relative to marketing in many cultural landscapes. Again, it is what it is.
Against this backdrop how does one interrogate 'making' and 'utopia'? Should it be 'utopia and making' or 'utopia's making' or what? Well it turns out to be an open question in the here and now. Yet in indigenous CULTURALrealities there is a growing sense of awareness that this is a matters that has been well understood for eons.
In 1945 Winifred West said "Each generation has its dreams of what the world might be... you are needed, your integrity is needed, your vitality is needed, and your dreams are needed." Her values and educational ethos was based on the philosophical position that our moral purpose in life is to develop our talents and use them for the common good – to make a meaningful contribution to the world. Clearly, she recognised that through 'making' that ethos can be realised. Indeed it was her mission.
And, then there is a Croatian proverb that goes "We are all born knowing nothing, we all go on trying to acquire wisdom, yet we all die idiots knowing nothing". Again, it is what it is.
PLACEmaking
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Thinking about STURTmittagong as a 'made place' in a CULTURALlandscape, metaphorically at least, it was made in a space rendered vacant by fire. It's a place made to facilitate 'making' in a CULTURALlandscape, that in 1941 existed in a dystopian world caught up in a raging world conflict albeit that the military action was going on far away. Nonetheless, that action was having an impact very close to home almost everywhere in Australia. In Mittagong, and elsewhere, people at the time were finishing their education very young and with large gaps in the preparation for the life that lay ahead.
Post WW2 the Western World changed systematically with the background aspiration being to create wealth in the wake of war. The consequent industrialisation of manufacture led to the rise of industrial design, a resurgence of mass production, and a prototypical mindset that all too often led to a dependance upon 'planned obsolescence' [Link]. Arguably, this might well be imagined as ia somewhat dystopic CULTURALlandscape.
Nonetheless, memories of the 'Arts and Crafts Movement' [Link] post the European Industrial Revolution had not faded albeit that the movement had its critics.
Winifred West never lived in an intellectual desert or in isolation and without all that much doubt she would, at least subliminally, have been aware of Robert Ashbee's [Link] Chipping Campden 'experiment' [Link-item6] in the Cotswolds that in one sense faltered but in another lives on to this day.
Looking elsewhere with 'the taking of tea' in mind, a STOREbought mass produced cup and a TEAmaster's 'Chawan' the differences are stark. The china tea cup is branded, replaceable but durable and marketed as being serviceable. However, Hamada's chawan comes as an exemplar of the mingei – folk-art – movement, and almost anonymous and arguably is irreplaceable. The two 'vessels' are hardly equivalent, yet both hold tea. Their 'placedness' in a CULTURALlandscape divides them. That a MAKINGplace came to be in Mittagong, STURTmittagong has become an exemplar 'place' that has been emulated elsewhere and for the most part serendipitously .
Arguably, bespoke wedding rings and mingei chawans have two things in common:
- Their investment in their audience of ONE and ONEother; and
- The CULTURALlandscapes they evolved within.
In every CULTURALlandscape there are needs for things that hold and tell stories for that audience of ONE and ONEother. The making of things and places are intrinsically bound together across all CULTURALrealities. It is deeply embedded in our humanity and it finds expression in our 'placedness'. Indeed we celebrate all this and we might well do so more overtly
All too often a Community of Ownership and Interest's (COI) shared ownerships and interests are down played and may even be denied –particularly when contentious or complex issues are involved. However, recognising that in regard to 'making' and MAKINGplaces there are layerings of makers and MAKINGplaces, each with their own layerings of ownerships and interests that ideally overlap and interface.
In the social cum cultural dynamics involved, when it comes to strategically including a COI in planning process knowing who they are, where they are and why they are who they are, in turn can offer a way forward that otherwise might be ignored. It is especially so in dispute resolution plus 'the knowledge' will enable better, and more inclusive, understandings of 'place and placedness'.
If we listed makers' places that had a COI we would include people and locations that had a COI such things as resources, people with skill sets, an institution/organisation, a STORYplace, a structure, an event/festival, a musingplace, a gathering place, a workshop, a material supply, a ritual etc are to be found. So, clearly such lists are as endless as the kinds of attachments people have for places, making skills, things and events.
To be blithely unaware of them would be a folly.To attempt to initiate a plan to make anything or structure a 'place' to facilitate making and makers without paying attention to the COI factor would be a folly albeit that it is a common mistake if you like. Nevertheless, if mistakes are not being made nothing of significance is being attempted.
Research is all about making mistakes and learning from them. Searching for and gathering up evidence - AKA Hunting & Gathering – of this or that might well offer a more intense knowledge base to build upon. However MISTAKEmaking typically leads to better and new understandings and quite often to new knowledge systems.
Here it is worth quoting Ronald Reagan who is reported as saying ... " the status quo you know is simply Latin for the mess we are in.". All too often 'the mess' that is not recognised and that a COI is there and that it surround everything, all the time and all at once.
The speculative MINDmap for a STURTentity POSTreview might well look like IF the WWSgovernors deem that a STURTentity might have a place as a standalone 'place' .
That is a place within the corporatised and fundamentally 'singular' FRENSHAMentity
Up to now clearly the WWSgovernors did not imagine that there was anything like a STURTentity with a COI that existed and where what they imagined as 'stakeholders' constituted a layer in COI's multidimensional layering. Prudent 'planning and marketing' ideally should include an audit of who it is and why it is that they make up a COI.
Sadly, in 'governance' generally where the 'status quo' defines management's processes there tends to be an antithetic attitude towards the concept of there being a COI given that it challenges the 'rankism' that is all too often invested in corporatised managerialism.
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Here a sense of history is useful in gaining a perspective on what happened when, and why. In Australia, in the education and training of artists and trades people alike 'history' was paid scant attention. Generally by the 1950s the history one was exposed to in your secondary education was seen as being sufficient albeit that informally students and apprentices did satisfy their curiosities in piecemeal ways.
As an aside, it is worth noting here that in Australia there remains a relatively large cohort of people who learnt at school that it was explorers like James Cook, Abel Tasman and Dirk Hartog who discovered 'Australia' – AKA The Great South Land – and the consequences of that has been something more than unfortunate.
In THEarts in the 1960s/1970s that changed somewhat with the advent colleges of technical and further education – AKA Art Schools – later to transition into 'university programs' but the focus was on the Fine Arts. Enter STAGEleft the ART CRAFT debate.
All too often these stouches end in unedifying name calling – Fine Arts vs Thick Crafts for example. However, the 'history' for the most part focused on painting and sculpture and with 'painting' claiming the high ground and ‘Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting.’ – Ad Reinhardt
In any event, the 15th C English poet, Chaucer, noted that "There is nothing new except what has become antiquated," And, 500 years on Marie-Antoinette is reported as saying "Nothing is new but what has been forgotten" and a great deal has been.
Suffice to say that currently there is a lack of a meaningful understanding of the DEEPhistories that by-and-large subliminally inform contemporaneous cultural production. Moreover, the critical discourses that came out of the Western World's so-called International Crafts Movement, in retrospect it was relatively shallow and homogenising. There were CULTURALlandscapes that are given scant attention – for example, those behind the IRONcurtain, Indigenous cultural realities and China.
Suffice to say that currently there is a lack of a meaningful understanding of the DEEPhistories that by-and-large subliminally inform contemporaneous cultural production. Moreover, the critical discourses that came out of the Western World's so-called International Crafts Movement, in retrospect it was relatively shallow and homogenising. There were CULTURALlandscapes that are given scant attention – for example, those behind the IRONcurtain, Indigenous cultural realities and China.
In the late1970s/1980 the World Crafts Council and UNESCO (?) sponsored a conference in Sydney tasked to define a universal apprenticeship model. A somewhat heroic enterprise!
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It was a contentious event given the diversity of CULTURALrealities represented ithe room. At one point one group of delegates, all from the Eurocentric West, became quite distressed at a proposition proffered by the PNG delegate. He was a traditional carver and at the time was he was Director of PNG's National Museum. – his name 'Geofery'(?) seems to have vanished from the records. When he said that his 'apprenticeship' commenced when he was a baby and when his father "whispered in his ear", the conference was incredulous, albeit that his purpose for being there was simply to make that very point. He had a university education but that hadn't diminished his cultural sensibilities or his CULTURALreality one bit.
In FIRSTnations communities 'making practices' are passed on in what has been coined as the EIGHTways of learning which describes the following processes:
• Learning through narrative
• Planning and visualising explicit processes
• Working non-verbally with self-reflective, hands-on methods
• Learning through images, symbols and metaphors
• Learning through place-responsive, environmental practice
• Using indirect, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches
• Modelling and scaffolding by working from wholes to parts
• Connecting learning to local values, needs and knowledge
• Learning through narrative
• Planning and visualising explicit processes
• Working non-verbally with self-reflective, hands-on methods
• Learning through images, symbols and metaphors
• Learning through place-responsive, environmental practice
• Using indirect, innovative and interdisciplinary approaches
• Modelling and scaffolding by working from wholes to parts
• Connecting learning to local values, needs and knowledge
While vestiges of this linger in 'modern' enlightened CULTURALrealities far too much has been blighted by the CULTURALarrogance of the Eurocentric colonisers whose sensibilities pervade the CULTURALlandscapes that followed on in the wake of their exploits in nfar away places.
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All that said the 2014 'Mapping of the Australian Crafts Sector' in 1i 2024 makes for some salutary reading. As it is with such reports there are people outside the writing room who will take issue with assertions made and that is as it should be. What is of particular interest is that the people in the room specking on behalf of those outside it characterising the 'sector' under scrutiny as it having an "ecology." It is a metaphor that opens up a discussion that might well lead to some interesting imaginings.
Notably, in this characterisation of THEarts Bernard Smith makes no reference to the 'crafts sector' but he did elsewhere and somewhat contentiously. Paraphrased, he put up the proposition that the output of designer craftsmen was more 'durable' essentially because it was cared for. Put another way, there was no inbuilt obsolescence.However, Bernard Smith remained stedfast in his vision of HIGHculture that encompasses any cultural object that is considered of aesthetic value, i.e. which a society collectively esteem as exemplary art. And this includes intellectual works of philosophy, history, art and literature, etc., that is anything that a society consider representative of their culture.
Nevertheless, he did explain his position in regard to 'Science of Crafts' ... "Why have I also included the science of crafts? Simply because I feel that there was potentially little differences between the early artist and the early craftsman (who was different from a simple manual worker). Both the artist and the craftsman had to be familiar with the materials of their craft, particularly in terms of suitability and workability. They had to master the techniques and become skilled in the use of tools in working, jointing, fixing and finishing materials. They worked to become knowledgeable in practical processes relating to the materials of choice (e.g. mining, refining, working, etc.), and as necessary knew the science of calculations and geometry. It was important that they were familiar with related crafts, and could learn how to transfer that knowledge to new practices. They did not ignore what others wanted from them, and they must have been resourceful, determined, and able to respond intelligently to constantly changing circumstances in the work as it proceeded." ... This class of thinking enflamed the 'ART v's CRAFT Debate' albeit that in a way he acknowledged the 'porosity of cultural practice' here and elsewhere in his critics.
The proposition that the 'Crafts Sector' has an ecology and is porous misses the point somewhat but at the same time it makes a very good point. In a 21st C imagining that there is binary at work in Western CULTURALlandscapes is/was an invention of those promoting the 'International Crafts Movement'. Basically, its adherents wanted 'DESIGNERmakers (AKA Craftsmen collective plural Proper noun) to have the same HEROstatus as painters, sculptors et al (AKA FINEartists) that by-and-large was to do with FAME, money and wealth. and not much else.
Bernard Smith's appreciation of Cellini and the eTYPE Jaguar in almost the same breath is more than interesting given that he was subliminally omnipresent in the ART v's CRAFT debate [LINK], somewhat vacuous as it was/is.
From an Australian perspective the goings on in the UK's Guilds was more than obscure but via Graham Hughes the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths (WCG) appeared on the scene breaking rules and conventions. In the 1960s under his direction the WCG
Graham Hughes was a modernist, rule breaker and trail blazer. He used his position as art director, of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, in London, from 1951 until 1981 to publish and build a collection that laid down a foundation for important innovations in the practice of gold and silversmithing that predated the International Crafts Movement. Importantly he advocated the porousity between practitioners in the European CULTURALlandscape .... [ 1 ] - [ 2 ] - [ 3 ] ... There is a rich row to hoe in the interrogation cultural producers' practice porosity. It not within the scope of this conversation to do any more than note it. \Nevertheless it is an idea that might well launch a PhD thesis sometime in the future.
In any event, and as valways, tackling big issues is like eating an elephant or an apple even, one chunk at a time ... as Desmond Tutu told the world.
PLEASE CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Since we are talking about SILOEDthinking, well I am, it has to be said that it has become THEdefault thing to do because it is supposed to be logical and perhaps it is BUT it shuts down too many alternatives. Nonetheless, the image set above is an example of siloism and that needs to be said in order to move beyond all that.
For instance, clay and metal in some conditions are PLASTIC and both will BURN – AKA oxidise – and MELT depending on a range of factors. interestingly for both, the things we make with them can be glazed with glass if needs be. Yes, each material has its idiosyncrasies but it is often more useful to test their limits and especially so if PRACTICEporosity is on the agenda as it well might be increasingly. Clearaly knowing the properties, the characteristics of, a material enables useful manipulations often times in extraordinary ways.
Nonetheless, siloed imaginings of materials and their 'realities' is limiting rather than liberating. Likewise siloed making practices need to be porous enough to exploit the. a material's realities and the realities of networked making in a CULTURALlandscape.
Something that is well stolen has a new 'owner' who has won it by valuable experience that in time will be stolen again – adding to its value.
By-and-large the Industrial Revolution and the Social Revolutions in Europe and the advance of colonialism disrupted the traditional systematic methodologies whereby 'makers' acquired their:
- Requisite technical knowledge relevant to the 'materiality' of the materials which they; and
- Requisite haptic and dexterity skills won with time and the ability to coordinate 'head & hand'; and
- Requisite life skills that enabled them to survive in the world and ideally thrive in their community; and
- Develop relationships with other makers in other 'guilds' that enabled them to expand the scope of their practices.
Yes, yes we all know all this as we were taught history within our schooling. Well maybe, but was that a catalogue of events or was it delivered with a critical interrogation of the events and how they have influenced this or that. Indeed, just how much of our primary and secondary education pays attention to understanding cultural issues and our placedness? That is the places we belong to.
When it comes it institutions/ organisations/operations makers need 'places' to belong to rather than places that belong to them. That is mutual support operations tthat are networks of networks [LINK] etc. Already, and currently, makers have established support networks but they are not working in quite the way as say the Medieval Guilds did given the intervening histories.
Since WW2 the apprenticeship system has essentially been transformed from its original purpose sometimes being a source for cheap labour source with 'training and skills development' being a secondary issue. With the unionisation of workplaces employers became less and less inclined to take on 'apprentices'. More and more inclined to employ skilled migrant labour as markets globalised.
In large part currently makers are required to become autodidacts supported to some extent by institutions. Increasingly, that has become more and more possible with more digital platforms becoming available to glean technical information online. Often, generally does not come with TIMEbased experiences - albeit that it might do yet ... in time.
Nevertheless, what remains missing for makers-in-training are those somewhat formalise opportunities for the one-on-one MENTORmoments and that are accompanied by haptic experiences that enable materiality confidence and competence to evolve over time. It needs to be said that there is no single way to experience 'materiality' even if there are teachers/trainers/mentors who may imagine that there might be a PROPERway ... and that they posses that wisdom.
In a recent conversation with a 'maker' it came up that there were makers out there with whom you knew that you agreed furiously with. That is in what they write and say but when in the same room somehow there was nothing to say or share. After musing upon this dilemma, somehow it seemed to be to do with one's placedness in a CULTURALlandscape. Making and placedness do matter, as does a makers' understandings of 'materiality' matters. Both are to do with cultural sensibilities and sensitivities.
In that conversation there was quite a bit about who had picked THEtools again, who was doing this or doing that, who was living here or there and it was a conversation makers tend to have when they meet up at home or when out and about. It is a matter of networking and a quintessential exchange that makers tend to have.
Indeed, it seems that the period when the European makers who undertook a journeyman they made a commitment to invest in themselves. Indeed, one of the important aspects of their journey was/is to intentionally experience first hand a diversity of cultural sensibilities and sensitivities – indeed different cultural realities.
As for the porosity of makers' practices there is, and there always has been, a myriad of ways that are to be seen whereby makers garner their life experiences and have won paid employment and all are equally significant. That said, gender often plays a part and the makers in various fields will be more likely to gravitate to particular ancillary employment opportunities. It is interesting to note the European 'journeymen' on 'the walz' were generally required to gain a range of experiences. For example, a 'carpenter' on the walz, for three years and a day, the expectation was/is that the journeyman broadened their workplace experience along with their life experience.Notably, contemporary makers generally adopt a lifestyle in their early careers where they move around gleaning experiences and qualifications to support them in their 'practice' long term. Nonetheless, many would welcome some form of mentored 'walz' , or in Australia it might well win a colloquial name like 'on the walkabout' winning experience – and sometimes building savings as well.
The German artist and cultural activist Joesph Beuys was in a way famous for saying, “Every human being is an artist” and he was not making any distinction between 'artist' ... 'craftsperson' ... 'crafter' ... 'maker' ... 'designer maker'. The WORDstruggle of the time is palpable!
Bueys also said that “To be a teacher is my greatest work of art” and at the time he was saying this and advocating change post WW2 the vacuous ART V's CRAFT [Link] debate raged on. In the world of 'making' almost no attention given to Beuys et al, despite the fact that their 'work' has changed CULTURAL landscapesˆ. Bueys' work, and in particular his 7,000 Oaks Project in Kassel set change in progress and it is an exemplar placemaking with international significance.
However, the ICM by-and-large became embroiled in winning the kind of recognition 'artists' were seen to receive – the status, the wealth etc. Also, somewhat like the 'Modernists' ICM was involved in eclectic cultural appropriation with inspiration drawn from beyond the assumed homologous, blended, and blanded Western FREEworld – most often from exotic-and-other cultures plus indigenous cultural realities.
The status quoists and the preservationists are now confronted with a critical discourse that challenges once fundamental and comfortable 'givens'. By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we might well arrive at truth's door. Long ago The Buddha realised that there were just three things that couldn't be hidden ... The Sun, The Moon, and The Truth.
The decision made by Winifred West Schools' Board of Governors to "pause Sturt" comes loaded with subtexts to do with 'making' in a 21st Context. Superficially at least the decision bears all the hallmarks of managerialism, corporatisation and economic rationalism and it is what it is.
Mostly, and when thinking about 'making', the action is reflective of much of what has been evolving in regard to 'the world of makers' over almost half a century. The apprenticeship system has become somewhat moribund; technical and further education has been rationalised; universities have become increasingly vocation oriented; arts funding has been rationalised; and in the light of all this industry has trended towards claiming the high ground. Culturally, there is at the very least a layer of dystopia in evidence in all this not that utopia was ever there in reality.
That said, for over 80 years Sturt has been a 'place' where a kind of utopia might be imagined: that is a society with perfection. Anyway what’s the best kind of utopianism? So is such of current future thinking and it can be concluded that our system is run by dreamers who call themselves realists – and that is an argument that's too big for this conversation.
Suffice to say that Thomas More’s Utopia, written 500 years ago is astonishingly radical stuff. Not many people in government have denounced private property, advocated a form of communism and described the current social order as a “conspiracy of the rich”. In More’s Utopia, some noblemen were denounced as “greedy, unscrupulous and useless”. He complains, that they lived like drones on the labour of others. Monarchs, governments now, he argued, would do well to swear at their inauguration never to have more than a limited amount of gold in their coffers. To be sure More’s Utopia, is not bedside reading in Buckingham Palace or at the bedside of many of Australia's corporate giants – if any at all. Instead of being worshipped, gold and silver should be, as More suggests, used to make chamber pots. More denounced war as being only fit only for beasts, and thus he suggested that standing armies should be disbanded. He also suggests that labour should be reduced to a minimum, and that workers – makers among them perhaps – would use some of their leisure time to attend public lectures etc.
If Thomas More were to be restored to life and to be found in an Australian parliament as the Member for Xplace, his world view would no doubt float like a LEADballoon. With that in mind 'Making Utopia' or 'Making in Utopia' might well be something to work towards without any real expectation of an arrival.
In so many ways the Winifred West Schools Governors' (AKA Frensham Governors') STURTdecision is dystopic. Made as it has been in the shadow of a utopian endeavour it is a saddening outcome but in some ways it is not all that surprising given all that has led up to it. Yet it is what it is.
At this point it is worth noting that Prof Brian Schmidt, Nobel Laureate in Physics & past ANU Vice Chancellor, some time ago made the point that, paraphrased, 'universities ceased to be the GATEkeepers and the curators of knowledge since the late 1980s'. By extension he was speaking subliminally for museums and other research institutions. Subliminally this understanding has arguably influenced universities exiting studio programs for 'makers' in the arts and all too often in architecture as well.
Albeit a tongue twisting proposition, making, making work, 'work/workable' in a 21st C context requires something more than tweaking the status quo. Makers are currently operating in a somewhat hostile CULTURALlandscape and the STURTdecision is repeated and repeatable elsewhere. What is so concerning is the diminishing OXEGENsupply in the bureaucratic atmosphere within which such decision making goes on. Having once been the recipient of advice from a CIVICplanner that CULTURALlandscaping "is a noun, not a doing word" it was astonishing advice. It is/was edifying advice too in the context of cultural geography to say the least. It speaks rather loudly about status quoism, managerialism and bureaucratic mindsets and what is invested in all of it one way or another.CULTURALlandscapers, researchers, critical thinkers, and indeed makers too need to know that such distorted thinking is entertained in the corridors of managerialism. Around the executive's water coolers is where subliminal message making goes on in preparation for the bureaucratic PLACEshaping in hand. It is where the purposefulness of strategic planning is massaged. All too often it turns out that purposeful visions are lost sight of or just fade away almost silently.
It is concerning that one of the consequences of the corporatisation institutions and organisation is that their managements tend to loose sight of their purposefulness. Their governing bodies may well have articulated a vision, objectives, and strategic imperatives. However, the managers are as likely as not to invoke pragmatic imperatives that run counter to the operation's purposefulness. Test this, and as often as not the response will be that there are insufficient resources to achieve this or that and maintain recurrent expenditure with salaries being a significant component.
With the pragmatic rationalisation of CULTURALlandscapes makers needs and aspirations become consumed by pragmatic managerial imperatives careless of such things as cultural sensitivities, sensibilities and placedness. All too often the bathwater is discarded expediently before checking for babies and the loses are incrementally devastating.
Given that HEADtoHAND sensibilities are anthropologically fundamental considerations, managerialism can, and sometimes is, a destructive factor . When management structures are self-serving and 'governance' looks away, an extra amount of lubricant is poured onto the SLIPPERYslope. Whatever, tools and TOOLmaking are fundamental to human existence. Again, it is what it is!
Arguably the STURTdecision bears all the hallmarks of managerialism in an industrialised society and in this case governance has essentially looked away for whatever reason. Indeed, what is the FRENSHAMpurpose here? At its most extreme errant managerialism it is an outrage in much the same way as intolerable and overt discrimination and grand larceny are.
It is worth going back to 'taws' from time to time to consider the FOURfundamentals that determine and define our humanity.
- Firstly, it is human imperative to sustain life ... oxygen, water, food, shelter;
- Secondly, it is human imperative to identify within the group one belongs to;
- Thirdly, it is human imperative procreate ... genetically and intellectually;
- Fourthly, it is human imperative is to establish a safe and secure HOMEplace.
"Ubuntu" is sometimes translated as "I am because we are" (also "I am because you are"), or "humanity towards others" (Zulu umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu). In Xhosa, the latter term is used, but is often meant in a more philosophical sense to mean "the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity".
Taking all this into account, it is culturally diminishing to bear witness to the downplaying of making and its cultural significance within the institutionalised and corporatised operational realities where 'profit taking' is now seemingly a key driver within operations that supposedly are there to deliver 'social goods' and cultural benefits. Utopia indeed!
In the corporate world cultural considerations just do not seem figure within their reason for being albeit that the 'corporate sector' does posses the means. In Australia there are too few incentives for the corporate world to seriously patronise cultural entities. Despite that there are some corporate entities that do offer philanthropic support. Cultural patronage can provide marketing benefits for corporations but in financial downturns pragmatics generally demand budget cuts and 'pauses'.
In any event cultural patronage is left to government for the most part.
The conversation here has come to that DICKENSmoment where that the opening paragraph in his 'Tale of Two Cities' resonates again and right now ... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of ...... How indeed do you in the wake of a DYSTOPICevent lay down the foundations for making utopia? In one sense it is 'the best of times' albeit an exemplar of 'the worst of times'. Clearly in regard to the STURTdecision, FRENSHAM'Sgovernance erred albeit haplessly on the evidence. It is, sadly, unsurprising given that it is the sort of thing that goes on with corporatisation.
In one sense the STURTdecision is analogous to that canary down the coal mine gasping for oxygen as a indicator that the immediate environment has turned toxic. Sadly, it is the case elsewhere – if not right now, then soonish. The STURTdecision is not unique and neither is the DYSTOPICparadigm that affords it's expression elsewhere. What is disheartening is that subliminally UTOPIANhope seems to under attack as if it poses a threat to the comforts enjoyed via managerialism and the STATUSquoism it supports.
The STURTdecision is but a ' tiny blip' on the screen of social planners' radar screens but it turns out that there is a Community of Ownership and Interest COI who see it as being something more than that. OH YES. COI rather than 'stakeholders' because stakeholders qualify IF they have MONEY invested or 'at stake'. The corporate world is typically disinclined to acknowledge a COI as their mindset is MONEYoriented and anything other than that is beyond comprehension.
Divergent thinking is also called 'lateral thinking'. It is a thought process of coming up with varied creative ideas to overcome a problem and generate a solution. Divergent thinking is often a non-restricted, non-linear, and free-flowing chain of thoughts to let new ideas come as and when they occur. Whereas convergent thinking focuses on finding one well-defined solution to a problem. Divergent thinking is the opposite of convergent thinking and involves more creativity. In this piece, we’ll explain the differences between convergent and divergent thinking in the problem-solving process. Whatever, both types of thinking can improve your decision making.
In 'LAW' there is a system of rules which a community regulates the actions of its membership and which are enforceable by imposition of penalties. Whereas, in 'LORE' there are traditions and knowledge on various subjects and held by particular groups, that are typically passed from person to person by word of mouth and that invoke mutual cooperation and collaboration.
However, this might well be a time for audacity and DIVERGENToriented rhizomatic modelling to be given some consideration. If not the FRENSHAMfiefdom's aspirations whatever they reveal themselves to will be tested. In this space LAW & LORE might also be teated as has recently been the case with a judicial determination made against cultural audacity. MONA is yet to play its hand but whatever the outcome there will be much to be gleaned in regard to audacity, divergent thinking and PLACEmaking. it turns out that whatever else David Walsh might be has proven himself to be a quintessential PLACEmaker and CULTURALlandscaper.
Since this 'place' is a school 'pedagogically' through making within a DIVERGENTcontext offers opportunities that otherwise may not exist. Researchers have alerted teachers to the fact that until the age of 5 92% of children are divergent thinkers. By the time we reach our 20s only 2% of us are predisposed to divergent thinking. However, that was sung about by Harry Chapin in the 1970s...[LINK] Chapin fought to end world hunger and he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Moreover, his divergent disposition in his own time won him accolades as lateral thinker. Interestingly, he did not graduate from university.
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
Stephen Fry
When thinking about the STURTdecision and the MINDset that brought it about the evidence seems to point to a predisposition to convergent thinking. Given that Winifred West Schools (WWS) has been transformed from a SCHOOLSnetwork and ancillary enterprises into a SCHOOLsingular with COSTcentres it is ever likely that a DIVERGENToriented operation might be imagined as surplus-to-needs - unless it can be transformed.
Frensham 'the school' has evolved into the FRENSHAMfiefdom and the STURTentity given its networks and its Community of Ownership & Interest being a DIVERGENToriented rhizomatic operation, and thus its transformation difficult to achieve, its disposal might well be imagined as an imperative.
Therefore, when thinking about the STURTdecision and the STURTreview that follows on, there is utility in putting the perceived schism in some kind perspective. There is no purpose whatsoever in downplaying the dilemma and debacle IF a way forward for the Community of Ownership & Interest is being sought or for there to be a MARKETABLEoutcome within the wider community . The circumstance is hardly audacious in its status quoism but it is what it is!
If the FRENSHAMfiefdom's aspirations are to prevail and the STURTentity gives way to a COVERGENToriented MINDset the entity may well leave a gap in the CILTURALlandscape that it was a part of ultimately the gap will close and Winifred West's possible PHUTmoment. Nonetheless for the FRENSHAMfiefdom there will be consequences – some/many unanticipated or anticipatable.
However, this might well be a time for audacity and DIVERGENToriented rhizomatic modelling to be given some consideration. If not the FRENSHAMfiefdom's aspirations whatever they reveal themselves to will be tested. In this space LAW & LORE might also be teated as has recently been the case with a judicial determination made against cultural audacity. MONA is yet to play its hand but whatever the outcome there will be much to be gleaned in regard to audacity, divergent thinking and PLACEmaking. it turns out that whatever else David Walsh might be has proven himself to be a quintessential PLACEmaker and CULTURALlandscaper.In March 2024, Jason Lau, a visitor from New South Wales, filed a lawsuit against the museum, saying that it engaged in illegal discrimination by barring him from seeing its "Ladies Lounge" exhibition, which its creators had intended to provide a safe place for women to enjoy each other's company and to highlight the exclusion faced by women for decades. The museum's legal counsel acknowledged that he had been discriminated against, but added that it was part of the intended experience of the artwork. Artist Kirsha Kaechele, who is also David Walsh's wife, defended the exhibition in court, saying that "It excludes men, and I would be lying if I were to say I didn't find it titillating." In April 2024, a court ordered MONA to cease denying persons not identifying as women into the Ladies Lounge. As is often the case when a community is confronted such audacity, to say the least it will be instructive to 'watch this space'!
There is a strong case to be put that given the somewhat subliminal schism that has evolved between the FRENSHAMfiefdom and the STURTentity there may well be much to be gained in its resolution. Given their relative networks and Communities of Ownership & Interest being COVERGENToriented and DIVERGENToriented a dynamic rhizomatic operation might well evolve. In fact Kirsha Kaechele might well be invited to the table in some way or another given her informal education with travel over land to more than fifty countries in seven years, and her hands-on investigation of the idea that life designs itself.
Since this 'place' is a school 'pedagogically' through making within a DIVERGENTcontext offers opportunities that otherwise may not exist. Researchers have alerted teachers to the fact that until the age of 5 92% of children are divergent thinkers. By the time we reach our 20s only 2% of us are predisposed to divergent thinking. However, that was sung about by Harry Chapin in the 1970s...[LINK] Chapin fought to end world hunger and he was a key participant in the creation of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger in 1977. In 1987, He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his humanitarian work. Moreover, his divergent disposition in his own time won him accolades as lateral thinker. Interestingly, he did not graduate from university.What Harry Chapin was alerting the world to in his song is how crippling to the intellect it is when that blanded and blended convergent lowest common denominator is the goal. It is especially so when children are required to march to the beat of the same drum always. It sends intellectual cripples on life's journey in the service of that self-serving cohort of drummers seeking to protect their fiefdoms from lateral thinking and divergent thinkers.
Convergent CORPORATEfiefdoms falter and are sometimes resurrected. On the other hand divergent COOPERATIVES tend to reform and PHOENIXlike rise from their ashes somewhere. Our creative thinkers, poets often tell us such things.
Corporatised management structures tend to be convergent and RULEbased in order to maintain fiscal control plus assert 'authority'. When they fail all too often it is because RULEcompliance becomes stiffing and it inhibits timely and necessary change.
While RULEcompliant operations might well be designed to be less vulnerable to DESTRUCTIVEexplosions, they are nonetheless at risk of failure through DESTRUCTIVEimplosions.
While change in an organisation might be more easily achieve through divergent and lateral thinking, they are operations that are open to making mistakes – and always at risk of exploding. However, when the status quo is unsustainable it is most likely it will be divergent and experimental thinking that will restore a sustainable balance. As Albert Einstein so rightly pointed out ...“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”
Sadly, educational curriculum have tended to evolve into standardised convergent RULEbased methodologies that are basically antithetic to divergent and outside-the-box thinking. Making, 'making' an element in educational criteria again would a worthwhile 'experiment'. Indeed that is what Harry Chapin sang about in the 1970s so as our cultural realities might well be afforded opportunities to not only 'look' but also to experience the joy of 'seeing rainbows' wherever they turn up while we are making stuff ... sometimes places ... HOMEplaces.
| LISTEN HERE /www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8-BT6y_wYg |
The birds they sang ... At the break of day ...Start again I heard them say ... Don't dwell on what ... Has passed away ... Or what is yet to be
Yeah, the wars ... They will be fought again ... The holy dove ... She will be caught again ... Bought and sold ... And bought again ... The dove is never free
[Chorus]Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
"We are verbs and never nouns"
Stephen Fry
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