Comments | extemporanea: like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken

extemporanea

like some watcher of the skies when a new planet swims into his ken

Oct 28, 2009 11:07

Good lord, this job has its weird moments. I've just spent 45 minutes digging through a university handbook from 1970, trying to work out whether the Anatomy class taken by Fine Arts diploma students in 1970 is the Med school one, or their own art-based version. The 1970 handbook is... quaint. And somehow far more Oxbridge than the current snappy, ( Read more... )

dubious, this work thing, danger pay, paranoid conspiracy, boom!, films

Comments 6

Anatomy: Art or Science? wolverine_nun October 28 2009, 10:31:24 UTC

Well?

Re: Anatomy: Art or Science? extemporanea October 28 2009, 10:40:24 UTC

Apparently it's a drawing class which just happens to be called "Anatomy". As far as we can tell, because there's no info in the handbook and no-one whose institutional memory goes back that far. This institution needs some elephants, stat.

Re: Anatomy: Art or Science? veratiny October 28 2009, 23:32:32 UTC

Most Arts schools don't offer anatomy any more and it is a damn shame--in fact most of them don't even offer good old fashioned drawing which is even worse. An artist needs to know what the muscles are doing under the skin if they have any hope of actually drawing a human that doesn't look like a manga character.

Sadly, conceptual art has seen actual skill developing classes being removed from the curriculum in the favour of all conceptual curriculum. An idea without the technical means to express it is just crap.

My personal gripe with "art" education.

Re: Anatomy: Art or Science? wolverine_nun October 29 2009, 08:44:15 UTC

You're describing exactly the situation in a lot of maths ed. Teach them conceptual stuff or teach them algorithms. The correct reply is, of course: both. There are even papers called things like "The Math Wars" going on about this. I used to be more on the conceptual side, but I'm getting all stern and schoolmarm-ey in my old age and am tending towards "learn your #&*@$% times table!" etc.

khoi_boi October 28 2009, 14:13:30 UTC

The Bad Astronomer (or Phil to his friends) used to post on the Straight Dope MB. He does a much-needed(sadly) job.

wolverine_nun October 29 2009, 08:41:15 UTC

Yup. Except for the fact that the dude markets himself ALL THE TIME, I love his blog and read it daily.