Maybe next year I'll find what I remember from OCAD
What I remember most fondly from my time at ocad was sitting at a big round table in the Village by the Grange with Phil, Palkovic, Johnny Vong and Jason, laughing and complaining about all the other integrated media students and our dumb profs.
We talked about other people's work and good work we'd seen, or stuff we wanted to make, or what's wrong with art and all the rest of it and it was grand. I felt like I was in the middle of something that could become legendary at any moment. At times I thought I knew what it was like to be in Warhol's Factory or Paris in the twenties, that sort of thing.
Eventually it all became a little too self-concious for me, but for a time it was exactly what I'd hoped for in an art college, or really any kind of college experience. There were parties and crushes and controversy and adventures and I made some of the best friends of my life.
Now I'm getting close to the end of my first year at another university, for an entirely different program, and I can't imagine bonding with anybody in the same way. There are definitely people I respect and enjoy talking to, but I haven't really connected with anyone yet and it's weird. I still feel pretty alone there like I don't quite fit in. There's the age difference but I think there's more separating us. At OCAD everyone was into art (at least by second year when the design students were in their design classes), but here I don't know who is actually into Urban Planning. Most of my classmates seem to be interested in cities and settlements and people stuff and whatnot, but I haven't gotten any sense of ambition from anybody yet.
I'm sure that will change as people become more aware of the issues and the possibilities, and like I said, I don't really sit around and gab with these folks as much as at OCAD, so we'll just have to wait and see.
One very important and positive thing to note though, is that I don't think there's anybody in my class who I would refuse to work with on a group project. We're going to have to work on a lot of group projects in the next three years but I would be perfectly happy paired up with anybody. And that means a lot.
We talked about other people's work and good work we'd seen, or stuff we wanted to make, or what's wrong with art and all the rest of it and it was grand. I felt like I was in the middle of something that could become legendary at any moment. At times I thought I knew what it was like to be in Warhol's Factory or Paris in the twenties, that sort of thing.
Eventually it all became a little too self-concious for me, but for a time it was exactly what I'd hoped for in an art college, or really any kind of college experience. There were parties and crushes and controversy and adventures and I made some of the best friends of my life.
Now I'm getting close to the end of my first year at another university, for an entirely different program, and I can't imagine bonding with anybody in the same way. There are definitely people I respect and enjoy talking to, but I haven't really connected with anyone yet and it's weird. I still feel pretty alone there like I don't quite fit in. There's the age difference but I think there's more separating us. At OCAD everyone was into art (at least by second year when the design students were in their design classes), but here I don't know who is actually into Urban Planning. Most of my classmates seem to be interested in cities and settlements and people stuff and whatnot, but I haven't gotten any sense of ambition from anybody yet.
I'm sure that will change as people become more aware of the issues and the possibilities, and like I said, I don't really sit around and gab with these folks as much as at OCAD, so we'll just have to wait and see.
One very important and positive thing to note though, is that I don't think there's anybody in my class who I would refuse to work with on a group project. We're going to have to work on a lot of group projects in the next three years but I would be perfectly happy paired up with anybody. And that means a lot.