But we don’t know that’s what happened. When you get an MFA, you don’t just say, “Look at my brilliant art!” and grab a sheepskin; you have to go in front of a committee of professors and defend your creation. They grill you with questions about meaning, and form, and influence, and medium, and so on, and you have to stand there in front of a group of experts and defend yourself. If this gal’s got her MFA, she’s obviously been able to make a strong enough case to convince people who know lots more about this than I do.
I can’t, as I admitted above. But just because I’m either not smart enough or not educated enough to see the meaning of it doesn’t mean it’s not there.
hm…sounds more like you’re trying to defend your OWN degree, rocky, as opposed to this woman’s. You are equating HER work with your own, and are therefore hardly objective in your opinion. I do not deny that what you do is useful…it is! I am simply stating that some master’s degrees are more easily obtained than they should be. With online diploma mills, this problem has become more pronounced.
Who was it that said “If you can sell yourself, you can sell anything.”? It’s true. Some people thrive under that intense scrutiny, and are able to confidently sell whatever they may have come up with. That doesn’t mean I have to buy into it.
I notice the artist linked in the OP got her Masters from a SUNY school (State University of New York at Purchase to be specific). That might explain a lot right there.
Her degree is very much equal with mine. I’m just curious as to why hers is being scrutinized so critically. The process from concept through delivery through defense in a critique is the same. I spent plenty of time in school with art students pursuing their MFA, and I have seen the paths they take and the hours they spend. The project critique and defense can be very, very intense, and is quite often make-it-or-break-it. I don’t believe that she could have obtained her degree easily. I’m just saying, as is jackelope, that I believe there is much more behind the piece than what is immediately visible.
It isn’t being scrutinized so critically, rocky. It’s being mocked. I generally do laugh at things I find ridiculous. And being offended on her behalf is not going to change my opinion, much as I do respect yours.
I suppose we shall agree to disagree here then. But I know that all this discussion is secondary. Your true desire is to find out just how many batteries it takes and where you can purchase one. Am I right?
For some reason, a lot of people seem deeply offended at the idea of art about fire hydrants. Can photos of skyscrapers be art? How about a painting of a country home? If so, then why not a sculpture of a fire hydrant? What’s the difference?
Personally, I think fire hydrants are kind of awe-inspiring: There’s this huge network of pipes underground that we never think about. They’re full of water at very, very high pressure. And every so often there’s a nozzle jutting up from the sidewalk with supertight caps on it, ready at any moment to shoot water out at high enough velocity to put out a rooftop fire. They’re representatives of unwavering strength, holding back that trembling power 24/7/365, eternally ready to keep society’s edifices from combusting. And yet our most common reaction to them is “Damn! I can’t park here!”
There. I would never have thought that if I hadn’t seen that photo of Ran Young Kim’s artwork. I’m now convinced that it is art, because it’s led me to a new and deeper understanding of one seemingly unimportant part of the world.
I’m the PC police because I know something about this stuff? I’m just trying to expand upon a fairly complex topic in which I have some experience; I’ll stop if I’m ruining everyone’s fun.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be outside staring at the fire hydrants.
wow, melodramatic much? Jack, I don’t question whether or not it’s art. I question whether or not it’s worthy of a master’s degree. I try to keep an open mind, but not so open that my brain leaks out.
If y’all are going to bring in the PC police… and I have been SSSOOOOOOO resisting saying this all night… How many WASPs were denied a chance at a Master’s Degree so that this asian woman could get one?
Ok, I actually see some merit in the fire hydrant piece, although I am hoping there was supposed to be some humor to it. The fact that she is standing behind it looking so somber, does add to my giggle factor.
As to the question of the state of the Masters degree, I think they are handing them out far faster then they once were. Both of my parents are graduate level professors (in creative writing), and both have complained to me on numerous occasions about the fact that the unwritten word for the thesis review boards is that anyone who shows up passes and gets their masters. Perhaps this is not true at all schools but it has been true in the three universities my father has worked at in the last 10 years.
I am not saying that these students do not work hard, but for better or worse passing your masters is not supposed to be about how hard you worked but the quality of your work. In high school even as an undergrad you can get a certain amount of credit for effort, but at the graduate level, effort is not what is supposed to be judged, but rather the final product.
My father was teaching a creative writing workshop last summer that he has taught for the past 20 or so years. He has always started the class off explaining that of the 100 or so people in the class perhaps one would actually publish something. This was not said to discourage them, but simply to be straight forward about the business these kids are trying to get into. This summer he was told, for the 1st time that he was not allowed to say this, that he was there to be supportive. Supportive is all well and good but is it not leading the lambs to the slaughter just a bit.
Sorry if this is a bit of a hijack, but the OP seemed as much about the state of the graduate programs today as about the fire hydrant. Which I think is funny, and in my mind, being funny does not disqualify it from being art (not that anyone said it did).
6 Probably none, possibly one. Affirmative action has far less of a role in graduate programs then in undergrad programs. If the wasp in question is truly an artist they will find their outlet, if not they were probably meant for other things anyway. One less wasp adding to the world of modern art certainly does cause me to loose any sleep.
IF6 … I know all the wasps insects I’ve had to clear out of my house ain’t on their way to any degrees What So Ever!!!
Dang’d bugs, trying to get everywhere!
