Bitef

The question is: why is education becoming so important (or popular?) in thè arts today? A provocative hypothesis is that art, by declaring itself as a production of knowledge, is trying to obtain a new legitimacy in thè world of market logie, mass media and internet, in which it has lost its previous position.Therefore, if education is important, thè question is whether it could be detoured?

In parallel with thè tendencies of large art-educational Systems, and even before them, numerous independent criticai projeets bave appeared: free universities - London, Copenhagen, Vienna, Mobile Academy, East Dance Academy, Nomade Dance Academy, s-o-s-project, RAF self-learning program, Institute for Distributed Creativity, etc, etc. Many of them are not literal educational programs, but research and experimental artistic groups and projeets that investigate education as thè topic of art today. On one hand, new media and new artistic demands - especially Ínter- and trans-disciplinarity and thè need for research work- are slowly finding their way into curricula of thè officiai educational institutions. On thè other hand, thè Bologna convention poses as much threat as it provides benefits - in thè sense of fast production of qualified workforce whose knowledge would be easier to place on thè market and used within thè paid working hours. The artists today, as they bave been doing since thè avant-garde, and especially since thè conceptual art, are taking over education into their hands, while understanding thè criticai potential of knowledge in thè upcoming "society of knowledge". In that way we understand Self-education - as learning that is not focused on specialization that will be charged/paid for, but has thè criticai potential of multitude of "other usages". One of thè focuses is self-education as collective act. In arts, especially performing arts, collectives are almost necessary and well known through thè long history. But self-education collectives offer opportunities for de-hierarchization and building of new models of collaboration, and also exchange, by demanding new working protocols and procedures from thè participants.

issues in focus:

- How is thè knowledge production model inscribed into knowledge management models - Self-education as artistic disobedience

Detouring (officiai) education code, its premises and expectations

- Emancipation: equality in educational Situation - instead ofthe hierarchy teacher-student - Potential of art as production of knowledge: learning through artistic work, and not for work - Purposes of unprofitable education - instead ofthe clear"pay to learn, teach to earn" - Collective self-educational models: what after thè workshops and laboratories?

Ana Vujanovic