[iDC] Mutual aid

[Trebor Scholz]

It's that time of the year when blogs and lists get quiet for a few days.
The situation in most of academia in Germany is well marked by Miriam's
words. The focus is on making it in the art market. The artist model of the
auratic exemplary sufferer or social outcast is alive and well. Much of the
German art school system is dominated by professors whose ego exceeds the
height of a house. While this currently changes- many faculty positions are
still immediately for life, which gives many artists in these positions the
feeling of a god-like status. Students are the young adoring nothings. The
profs are the established know-it-alls who google themselves to see if they
are among the hundred most best-selling artists. The worst case examples may
sit in the pub smoking fat cigars, comparing how much money they make and
how far their power reaches. This is, of course, a provocation. Many counter
examples could be easily listed! But much is still to be done when an
educational system has not overcome the hierarchical master-apprentice
relationship build on brand recognition of the professor's name. And
technology is still glanced at with distrust. In such a world concept build
on social Darwinism instead of Kropotkin's mutual aid- there is no space for
considerations about art's relationship to politics.

Best,
Trebor