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DS_RK_au09.mov |
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Answer: I did teach, well I have been involved with students all my life, from being a student myself to being a teacher, to being Head of Department, to being an Assessor and I have worked and so and so and I still talk to schools, I no longer like teaching but I like talking students because I talk to them philosophically now and they like that because the teachers in colleges, the art teachers in the colleges where they study, whether its Central or Wimbledon or the Rose Bruford, they don't talk the way I talk because they tell them it should be like this or like that and so on, so forth. I speak more philosophically about the profession and explain things in a way, maybe a little bit partially, some things that I say to you know which don't come out in the course in the school, you know. so I like that but I am very distressed or disturbed I should say not distressed, disturbed, by the number of young people who are being trained in this discipline now. There are far far too many being trained and there isn't a chance that they can all make a career out of it because Central St. Martins takes in 45 students a year, well even allowing for a drop-out in the course of a 3 year course, it still likely to be 100 after 3 years, well that leaves out Nottingham, Wimbledon, Birmingham, so you have 300/400 young people coming out into the profession only imagining they are going to be designers. I get letters literally without exaggeration, one and two a week now from young people who say they would like to show me their work and the usual thing, you know, how much they admire me, blah blah, all that, you know, and probably they send the same letter to 10 other colleagues as well, because they cannot see where the opening is for them and that has increased hugely. The number of those letters has escalated enormously in the last year or so and the reason for that is simply there are more of them and more young people who don't know where to go next and are trying to make a career out of the subject that they got themselves into and finding that the competition is their own classmates, they are all in competition with each other. Now when I look at their work and I do as much as I can, I am really more interested, yes of course I look through their portfolios, but they all look more or less the same, they are all sort of a standard, there are no amazing geniuses that you suddenly discover coming at you out of the paper but I talk to them and I look at them and I judge their personality. I assess their future on the basis of what they are like. 'Answer Contd: The pretty 22 year old just out of college, be it a boy or a girl who has a bit of talent, doesn't have to be amazing but whose work looks okay, yes, she or he will be alright up to 32 and then gets overtaken by the next lot of 22 year olds because that is the reality. It's a reality because you mustn't assume that the people who employ you are amazingly knowledgeable and understanding of quality. 90% of people and that includes directors, actually can't judge quality, what they can judge is whether they enjoy having coffee with you and providing you don't make a terrible mess out of the piece of work, which of course most young people don't', they have had good training, there is a standard and especially in this country we produce some really good people, it will be alright, it will be okay. But when I say about judging quality and so on so forth I mean the most cynical thing that has come my way just recently, and I won't mention names because I can't because it's quite topical, and that is they have planned a new production of Voytec at Covent Garden and the designer who has been asked to design the sets for Voytec is called Damien Hirst. Now, because Damien Hirst obviously is quite the right person for designing Voytec? No but he is quite the right person for bringing people into the theatre and when it comes to the notices and the press afterwards, he will be getting the notices never mind whether it's suitable for Voytec, I am not saying it's not going to be suitable, maybe it's not going to be wonderful, I am not going to pre-judge the man, he is a good artist in his own way but the fact that he has been invited to do that, I can't help thinking that it's somewhat cynical, right? |
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DS_20_06_01 (mini DV tape) |
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Quicktime Progressive (audio) |
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Resource Audio |
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This clip may be used for educational purposes only, any commercial use of this material requires permission from the copyright holders. Misuse or misrepresentation may result in legal action. Copyright holder: Christie Carson, COMPH, Royal Holloway University of London. |
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5 minutes 57.22 seconds |
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Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Copyright 2003-5.