Today we had a lecture/meeting about the proposed changes to the DJCAD programme structure, with several members of the academic faculty present, along with students from Textiles, Jewellery and Metalwork and Interior and Environmental Design - although a substantial amount of JMD students were unavailable due to course commitments.
Firstly I'd like to point out to those who read this who study in a different discipline from myself that I voiced several issues from the IED perspective - some of which are not entirely my personal issues with the changes, but are talked about in great depth amongst my fellow classmates during studio time. However, after kicking up sh*t for a meeting so we could all be properly informed about the changes - people suddenly lost their voice when it came to voicing these aforementioned concerns.
Enter Shona.
When busy people such as Andy Milligan (our head of IED) and Jonathan, along with Mike and Frances from Textiles give up time out of their busy days to give us a chance to question all these changes - why does the powerful voice heard so much in class suddenly evaporate as if it never existed? In fact, people changed their tune in front of the masses - but yet back in the studio, the same moans and groans can still be heard. It made me feel like the big bad wolf from IED in that lecture and left me less than impressed with the lack of voice when it mattered.
Frustrating.
Although I can see that everyone stands to benefit from the proposed change (use of other facilities, and knowledge from other disciplines etc.), it will always feel somewhat of an odd choice of grouping. Yes "craft" may be taken as a term meaning to belong to a creative profession, it's just craft in it's main sense is rarely what we do. I don't know what my personal distaste for the word "craft" is, I just don't like it. Perhaps it's because I "use software or computers and stuff" - the irony of being described as that amused me, as this was said while trying to convince me IED is a craft. Furthermore, having even more people using the woodwork workshop will probably render our furniture module obsolete as space is already an issue during this project - which ironically is the IED project that has the strongest tie to the damned "craft" word that's getting banded about.
Another thing that is bothering IED more than the other disciplines is the loss of our first year. A huge amount is learnt during this crucial learning curve, and, on thinking back to the knowledge I came in with and the level of IED we are currently at now - it is difficult to expect newcomers to maintain 2nd-4th year levels when only entering in their second year. The "T" shaped graph of knowledge that was talked about is all very well, but we struggle to get our projects complete as it is. We have for example just been given an extension over the Easter break to accommodate for the masses of work within our discipline that is due, let alone a module here and there based in other fields. I guess what I am ultimately concerned for is the final outcome of our degrees, and not just for our individual years, but the course as a whole - by giving us these new options and opportunities to learn new skills across varying areas, are we diluting our specialised knowledge and therefore jeopardising the strength and quality in each field come degree show? This isn't even just from an IED perspective, the same goes for all disciplines.
It feels like a car sales man's trying to persuade me, sell it to me, make me think it's good - when really we've all got a sinking feeling and a knot in our stomaches, wether it's voiced or not.
I'm scared all courses will end up a mish mash of several inter disciplinary modules that leave you graduating a jack of all trades, master of none - and I don't think anybody, from any field, would like this to happen to what they are passionate about.
