Broken Time : On the Fragmentation of the Experience of Art School and the Impact on Identity Formation and Transformation

Abstract

This paper explores how increases in modularisation, elements of professional practice and even our relationship to screens and social media are amongst the factors that have changed the way time is experienced in higher fine art education. I draw upon my experience as a student, educator and pedagogical researcher to propose that identity formation and/or transformation are amongst the key functions of higher education in fine art in the West; that becoming an artist involves complex process of socialisation and individuation; and that these processes take time. I speculate that time is something which was once experienced comparatively smoothly but has been striated and fragmented by various factors including an increased focus on employability, the presence of social media, and not least various post Bologna interpretations at national or local level of the introduction of units and modules to comply with standardised credit systems. I propose that the combined effect of these factors amongst others distracts students from the middle by focusing them on micro destinations that deflect from developing a practice and impacts on these potentials.