Blank Canvas

Simon Strange

Description

Art school Britain in the 1960s and 1970s – a hotbed of experimental DIY creativity blurring the lines between art and music. In Blank Canvas, multi-genre musician turned university lecturer Simon Strange paints a picture of the diverse range of people who broke down the barriers between art, life and the creative self.

Tracing lines from the Bauhaus 'blank slate' through the white heat of the Velvet Underground and the cutting edge of the Slits, Blank Canvas draws on interviews with giants of the genre across music, gender and race spectrums, from Brian Eno to Pauline Black, Cabaret Voltaire to Gaye Advert. Illustrated is a picture of two decades erupting in a devastatingly diverse flow of outspoken originality as an eclectic range of musical styles and cultures fused.

Does modern day music education suffocate the soul and inhibit the impact of the bohemian artist?

This book asks questions of today's artists, musicians, and educators, looking for the essence of creativity and suggests how lessons learnt in and around art school education show a path for the cultural evolution of both musicians and artists hoping to create the future.

Audience will include university students at all levels in popular music, popular culture and creative arts education. Academics, educators and researchers working in popular culture and creativity. May also appeal to a more general reader interested in popular culture and creativity.

With a Blank Canvas, anything is possible…

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii

PREFACE ix

INTRODUCTION 1

PART I

1. THE BAUHAUS ONWARDS 29

2. UK ART SCHOOLS 47

3. CONCEPTUALLY REDEFINED 60

PART II

4. THE RISE OF THE NONMUSICIAN 77

5. CONCENTRATION ON THE PROCESS 116

6. EXPERIMENTATION 159

7. RELATIONSHIPS 192

PART III

8. BLANK CANVAS 237

GLOSSARY 265

APPENDICES 267

REFERENCES 271

INDEX 289

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 295

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Styles
• Genres
• EDUCATION
• MUSIC
• Popular music
• Popular culture
• Multiple signal classification
• New Wave
• Punk
• Cultural Studies

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 12 octobre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789386332
• Langue: English

Extrait

GLOBAL PUNK
Series editors: Russ Bestley, Mike Dines and Paula Guerra
Produced in collaboration with the Punk Scholars Network, the Global Punk series focuses on the development of contemporary global punk, reflecting upon its origins, aesthetics, identity, legacy, membership and circulation. Critical approaches draw upon the interdisciplinary areas of (amongst others) cultural studies, art and design, sociology, musicology and social sciences in order to develop a broad and inclusive picture of punk and punk-inspired subcultural developments around the globe. The series adopts an essentially analytical perspective, raising questions over the dissemination of punk scenes and subcultures and their form, structure and contemporary cultural significance in the daily lives of an increasing number of people around the world. To propose a manuscript, or for more information about the series, please contact the series co-editors Russ Bestley, [e-mail], and Mike Dines, [e-mail].
The Punk Reader: Research Transmissions from the Local and the Global
Edited by Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair Gordon and Paula Guerra
Trans-Global Punk Scenes: The Punk Reader Vol. 2
Edited by Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Alastair Gordon and Paula Guerra
Punk Identities, Punk Utopias: Global Punk and Media
Edited by Russ Bestley, Mike Dines, Matt Grimes and Paula Guerra
PUNK! Las Am ricas Edition
Edited by Olga Rodr guez-Ulloa, Rodrigo Quijano and Shane Greene
Blank Canvas: Art School Creativity From Punk to New Wave
Simon Strange

First published in the UK in 2022 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2022 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2022 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Art director: Russ Bestley
Copy editor: MPS Limited
Cover and layout designer: Russ Bestley
Production manager: Sophia Munyengeterwa
Typesetting: MPS Limited
Print (paperback) ISBN 978-1-78938-631-8
ePDF ISBN 978-1-78938-632-5
ePUB ISBN 978-1-78938-633-2
Printed and bound by Short Run
Part of the Global Punk series
ISSN 2632-8305 | ONLINE ISSN 2632-8313
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There you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our currentcatalogue and buy any titles that are in print.
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This is a peer-reviewed publication.
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
PART I
1 THE BAUHAUS ONWARDS
2 UK ART SCHOOLS
3 CONCEPTUALLY REDEFINED
PART II
4 THE RISE OF THE NONMUSICIAN
5 CONCENTRATION ON THE PROCESS
6 EXPERIMENTATION
7 RELATIONSHIPS
PART III
8 BLANK CANVAS
GLOSSARY
APPENDICES
REFERENCES
INDEX
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To all the music teachers who inspired and communicated their love for creation. Groups of musicians from Bristol, Bath, Glasgow, Paris and London scenes: on stage, in studios and everlasting road trips.
I continue to be indebted to research connections across music and culture especially through the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM), Keep it Simple Make it Fast (KISMIF) and the Punk Scholars Network (PSN). Special mention for Chris Kennett and Tom Parkinson imparting their Ph.D. knowledge and experience, whilst Lucy O'Brien supported the opening up of my research, connecting to previously underrepresented voices.
Thanks for all the amazing interviewees for all your interlocking stories and opinions: in memory of Bath artist and educator Michael Pennie who helped to lead the early stages of my journey, through inspiring art school stories.
I am continually motivated by Bath Spa University educators with an inspiring ethos: Penny Hay, Mary Stakelum, Charlotte Chadderton, Emma Hooper, Jim Dickinson, Polly Crockett-Robertson and Darren Hoad; also colleagues at BIMM and Bath College (BA1 Records) who helped to define some early explorations into more inclusive and alternative popular music education.
I am grateful to all who have been supportive within my academic roles at Bath Spa University, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and the University of the West of England;
The Easton Cowboys alongside Bristol community groups and friends – creating the Bristol hum;
The team at Intellect for the opportunity and supporting independent music writing. Russ Bestley and Mike Dines for helping me put this book together – wonderful job!
Kat and Gretch for providing a home from home;
Gillian, Terry and Richard Strange alongside my wider family, for great lifetime support.
Coming from an empty space to a multidimensional world, Blank Canvas is dedicated to Emma, Matilda and Saskia.
Preface
You may find yourself standing in silence without motion, restraining emotion, before 30 fresh popular music students, reciting composer John Cage s 4 33 (1952) silent piece whilst allowing its ambience to consume the space. It is music without sound where the instructions contain no meaning, except to do nothing across three movements for this time period. At first complete quiet but gradually there comes a murmur and a stir from the throng: confusion, strain, tension, laughter and watering eyes. A soft drink can goes flying. Glances and staring into the aether occur. Two walk out. As the Velvet Underground (1967) suggested, the first thing you learn, you always gotta wait .
I realize the power of this moment, disorientation caused by reconstituting my normalized state as a lecturer who communicates through speech; standing silently an energy of the unknown existed, creating a blank canvas onto which creative learning could be grown from a position of incubation. Student perceptions of minimalism, postmodernism, hierarchies and ambience were starting to take root.
Inspiration for this book comes from a lifetime of loving music and popular culture, connected to working within the music industry and Higher Popular Music Education (HPME). Arriving from the often-experimental rough edges I experienced within Parisian punk or Glaswegian indie, student performances seemed restrained and contained. Watching graduate showcase gigs hoping for attitude, difference and impact, there were occasional moments of unfettered abandon; generally, though, everything felt regulated and diffused, it s music school! In tune, no attitude, bland, nice, worthy, in time. Non innovative, derivative, old wave. No philosophy, soul and politics. Not post anything. These artists appeared light years away from letting go or abandoning in the spirit of arty bands I revered such as Gang of Four, Wire, Scritti Politti, Talking Heads, Cabaret Voltaire or Joy Division, who were influential, original, insecure, sometimes unlistenable and losing control. Brilliant! The most on point students were a couple of young musicians who turned up to an assessment straight from a night out, producing a carefree and wild show, performance art, owning the space and their artistic selves. The duo aced it by leaving an impression, providing innovative lived-in art, challenging the institution by channeling themselves as artist musicians. Some other students explored visual and group concepts to good effect, taking chances, writing slogans on their torsos, so utilizing themselves as the canvas, but the lure of record label interest curtailed this, short circuited.
Through managing university level popular music departments, I trialed concepts connected to my preconceptions of art school education, featuring experimental, obtuse and slightly random educational practices; these were often based on Oblique Strategy cards, created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, suggesting a reconfiguration of the classroom, the swapping of musical instruments, and encouraging an altering of working methods. Music practice rooms were utilized as experimental spaces where students were encouraged to explore some of these ideals with tutors acting as facilitators, adding instruments or suggesting ideas for students to explore. At my institute, I introduced an Art of Music module specifically aimed at recreating my perceptions of an art college vibe. Lecturers were encouraged to rearrange the teaching space, concentrate more specifically on visual and conceptual elements, reconfigure preset ideas of music through random experimentation (sometimes including stacking classroom furniture upside down) or generally placing limitations on their pedagogical practice. Connected to the Oblique Strategy cards, musicians might be instructed to reverse their dominant hand use or do nothing for as long as possible , for example, extracting them from normalized behaviour patterns.
A presumed art school aesthetic didn t suit all students; in fact, only a resilient few, the open-minded, mentally strong and flexible really excelled on the more radical courses but they impacted on the creative art worlds. Outsiders were embraced and could embrace back, as assessment of entry often became less about academic qualifications but more directed towards attitude and freedom of thought, an often-uncomfortable ethos for institutions. Radical art colleges searched for cohorts, tutors, guests, who could challenge boundaries or the edges of creation, because they sensed that was where future superstars of popular culture existed, within schools containing innovative and explorative spaces. In coexistence with that most revered album, The Velvet Underground and Nico (1967) (a beautifully creative album, featuring stark lo-fi production by Andy Warhol), UK art schools inspired young creatives to form bands. As Ana da Silva (2021), Velvets f