Stephen  Dupont  Internship  Feedback    Critical  &  Pedagogical  Studies  Programme  Malmö  Art  Academy    Placement:  Whose  Salon  at  Galleri  Rotor,  Valand  Academy  of  Fine  Arts      Report:    You  have  written  a  very  generous  report  with  valuable  insights  where  you  touch  upon  the  dualistic  and  paradoxical  relationship  between  an  open  and  free  form  of  experimental  pedagogy  and  the  institutional/course  requirements.    Throughout  the  workshop/series  of  proposals  and  later  the  report  you  keep  the  format  close  to  your  artistic  practice.  Your  report  reflects  issues  on  a  precarious  teaching  situation  where  the  potential  for  a  variation  in  numbers  of  participants  play  a  significant  role  in  the  planning  of  an  educational  event,  and  demands  a  large  flexibility  and  fast  adaptation  to  new  material  and  situations  as  well  as  keeping  an  open  mind.      In  relation  to  the  structure  the  breaks  between  sessions  seems  to  have  added  time  for  reflection  both  for  you  and  the  participants,  and  allowed  you  to  develop  the  project/proposals  in  relation  to  the  received  response  of  the  participants,  your  experience  from  the  previous  sessions  and  still  to  maintain  a  loose,  but  engaged  structure.      With  the  submission  of  the  complementation  of  the  report,  an  expanded  understanding  of  your  ways  of  approaching  the  workshop  held  at  Galleri  Rotor  is  now  explored  from  the  perspective  of  a  theoretical  framework.  By  touching  upon  the  importance  of  the  context  the  workshop  took  place  in,  the  precarious  educational  situation  with  shifting  audience  and  participants  and  the  paradox  concerning  assessment  and  evaluation  –  you  manage  to  draw  up  dilemmas  within  contemporary  educational  practices  for  the  artist-­‐educator.  You  address  the  problems  around  evaluation  of  a  performance  (in  this  case  of  the  artist-­‐educator),  which  is  a  part  of  the  complex  fabric  that  forms  formally  structured  educations:  How  to  discuss  and  reflect  upon  what  has  been  taking  place  in  a  teaching/learning  situation  within  these  structures  and  doing  so  without  compromising  the  content?  One  possibility  could  be  through  self-­‐reflection  and  re-­‐contextualization  of  a  concrete  learning/teaching  situation  –  a  presentation  or  an  oral  feedback  session  could  potentially  have  offered  this  without  the  intention  of  being  an  assessment,  but  a  space  for  exchanging  learning/teaching  processes.  Your  complementation  is  a  highly  relevant  addition  to  your  very  interesting  report,  which  both  reflects  your  position  as  the  artist  as  well  as  working  “in  the  gap”.              

Presentation:    Your  introduction  of  the  internship  centered  around  the  context  of  Whose  Salon  at  Galleri  Rotor,  presenting  the  space  and  research  project  as  it  related  to  your  workshop,  Magic  &  Happiness.  Issues  that  you  brought  forward  included  how  to  work  within  a  contested  space,  how  to  implement  structure  of  a  course  within  a  relaxed  space  and  the  question  of  “Who  has  the  right  to  speak?”  You  described  your  process  as  forming  a  workshop  that  would  revolve  around  texts  that  were  close  to  you  in  your  own  practice  and  explained  your  method  of  using  written  proposals  to  initiate  the  workshop  as  a  process  of  “relay  race,  recap,  and  continuation”.  The  images  you  selected  depicted  you  within  the  space  working  alone  and  were  perhaps  selected  to  represent  an  element  of  reflection  that  you  wanted  to  convey  –  that  being  the  idea  of  the  artist  participating  in  their  own  workshop  and  the  problem  of  a  drop  in  context  for  the  workshop.  You  described  your  pedagogical  approach  as  “showing  as  opposed  to  telling.”      Some  questions  and  concerns  that  were  raised  during  your  feedback  session  were:    

-­‐ How  did  you  assess  the  workshop  and  its  relevancy?  Did  you  get  any  feedback  from  participants?    

-­‐ Was  the  goal  to  deconstruct  the  text?  Was  the  installation  the  best  way  to  handle  the  Benjamin  text?  

-­‐ How  do  you  evaluate  a  process  that  is  ongoing?  -­‐ How  did  this  use  of  text  work  as  both  a  pedagogical  informant  for  

participants  and  extension  of  your  art  practice?    Logbook:    Your  logbook  reflects  the  process  you  have  been  working  yourself  through  by  planning  an  event  at  Galleri  Rotor,  and  is  very  exciting  to  look  through.  One  reflection  in  your  notebook,  which  I  have  picked  up  on  is  where  you  address  your  concerns  about  the  potential  lack  of  continuity,  and  how  you  note  that  it  felt  like  you  couldn’t  make  a  structure  or  a  learning  outcome  –  how  did  this  inform  your  process?  What  was  it,  that  troubled  you  the  most  in  the  uncertain  situation:  that  your  proposal  became  a  performance?  Or  was  it  the  loss  of  a  structure  for  you  to  follow?