More Familiar Heterotopias.

In last class I when we were discussing heterotopias I thought it was interesting that our own school was brought up. One thing I’ve always noticed at my time here were communities generated within the school that have their foundations in false pretence and insecurity that we are all guilty of.

These heterotopias are brought about by the clustered and un-intimate nature of the current environment. It relies on individuals creating areas were they belong, to essentially make everything right in their world out of the terror that who they are is not special.

A prime example of this would be the tendency of our students to degrade the life of anyone willing to attend Sait. To most of us, it seems that a career in art is the only sound and noble choice to make in life. It’s apparent to most that choosing a career in say, welding, or automotives is for a lower type of person. What they seem to forget is that one of the true necessities we actually have his nutrients, and obviously we use money to buy food. Food is far more important than the pursuit of intellectual gain in the arts, so how can someone simply trying to have a job and survive be deplorable? Because how else would art students justify their own existence? How would we be so sure that our choice is the right one if we don’t shit on any other choice? These are a sort of psychological heterotopias, they are associated with physical boundaries but rely on personal instinct.

Even more absurd is the heterotopias generated by the factions of visual communications and fine arts. Everyone knows there are these generalized and crass outlooks coming from either side, and again they have their roots in personal indulgence and ignorance.

Further down on the post you can see that Jeremy Jeresky made a statement that clearly outlines his heterotopia of choice.

“But it should be questioned and even assulted ( subverted or even completly obliverated and reconstructed) and of course it is up to us artists to do the job, not visual communications majors, because they are just slaves, hopelessly abducted to the ever so sofisticated system, but real fine thinking artists, ......yep. ( Dont get me started about VC students, hopeless slaves, articulating their masters demands........?....$$$$$$$$$$$$$) _Okay so lets spend the next couple of days plotting and hatching and studying and free thinking and reading and thinking and obsorbing and looking and listening and thinking and hatching and talking about...”

“It is a tight game, and yet, a loose engagement... between the conglomerate who produce, and market,..and those who partake and subsist..... I personally don't give a shit. I don't watch TV, I Don't really go to "popular movies" , I go to artsy cool movies,.. which anyone with a bit of a brain would'nt really normally go to.”

I should start by saying that all of this could just as well be a joke for his own amusement, in which case it’s admittedly funny (the irony of spelling sophisticated wrong is not lost on me), because believe it or not, there are human beings with fully functioning motor skills going to this school that actually have these beliefs.

This is a heterotopia of the privileged, self-endowed, free thinking individual that you could say is a product of the system of higher education. We all do this, through our long hours and empty pockets have an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.

In the rare case of our school we see another sub-culture of arrogance beyond that of higher learning. Despite the fact that art is a completely abstract and subjective term, we find people strictly declaring what is right and what is wrong with no ground of previous experience or accomplishments to stand on. For Jeremy to have said those things he so eloquently put would be the same as a VC student declaring that anyone who used money to enroll in classes in the fine arts department are unmotivated hippies who’s only ambition is to be poor and have cooler hair than you. Obviously, this is not the case, as anyone with unobstructed observations skills can see there are some extremely talented people in Fine Arts, just as there are in Visual Communications.

What Jeremy has generously provided is a perfect example of how heterotopias are real, and are generated not just by our physical surroundings, but more importantly by the continuously adapting psychological state of it’s inhabitants.

-Connor Willumsen