The ‘Alternative’ Learning Space: Art, Autonomy and the Institution.

This is a collection of ideas presented in a much longer essay called The ‘Alternative’ Learning Space: Art, Autonomy and the Institution.What is the Legitimacy of the Learning environments formed by the Free University Movement In regards to Knowledge Production?

If you would like a copy of the full version please contact paulstewart.art@gmail.com to request a PDF.
Below is the abstract followed by a selection of paragraphs from the paper.

ABSTRACT

This paper concentrates on the creation of the ‘alternative’ learning space from the free university movement. The rationale is to question if the ‘alternative’ offers a legitimate concept that can supplement formal modes of learning focusing on four case studies, The Alternative Art College, the Copenhagen Free University, Manoa Free University and the Social Science Centre Lincoln. It will discuss if the spaces in the free university movement can function autonomously, with definitions from Castoriadis and Adorno. To balance the placement of the ‘alternative’ in the world, it will be compared with the current UK HE sector and gallery and museum education. From this it will also discuss how the institution(s) (HE university, gallery and museums) function through writings from Gerard Raunig and Eilean Hooper –Greenhill. Alongside this the essay will reference Jacques Rancière and Paulo Freire’ for their interpretations of pedagogical practices. There will also be an element of practice based research due to the inclusion of my own art practice, the AAC. Finally this essay is not aiming to create a blueprint for a future HE sector but will argue the legitimacy of informal learning put forward by the free university movement.
“Our practical conclusion is the following: we are abandoning all efforts at pedagogical action and moving toward experimental activity” Asger Jorn: ‘Notes on the Formation of the Imaginist Bauhaus,’ 1957.

This is a collection of ideas presented in a much longer essay called The