Dear Eduardo,
The word "academic" is being used in two ways here. The first Academy
was
Plato's academy in Athens. Plato's curriculum was inherited by the
medieval
universities, and scholars used the term "academic" in Plato's sense of
the
word. Plato would have understood the university as academy. He would
not
have considered the curriculum in art academies academic, even though
they
used the word academic.
Any human activity produces knowledge. To say that art academies were
places
for the production of knowledge is true. To say that all knowledge
production
constitutes research is not. Research entails a specific range of
activities, and
most kinds of knowledge do not involve research. Knowledge may be
worthy
and valuable without being research. Few of the modern academies
engaged
in research: that is precisely why the Humboldt university reforms gave
rise to
the modern chrestomathic university while the academies of art and
design
continued to produce artists, often without offering degrees, but
offering
diplomas or certificates instead.
To say that two entities are of the same kind because they share words
in
common is an etymological fallacy. The word "dean" is used for those
who
govern university faculties because the first university faculty grew
out of the
medieval cathedral schools. These were governed by the dean of the
cathedral,
the senior priest of the cathedral chapter. Cathedrals continue to have
deans
and universities have deans. Many cathedral deans become bishops.
Despite
the fact that I share their title and their lineage, I will not become
a bishop.
I'm the wrong kind of dean for that. Art academies are very different
kinds
of academies than universities are, and the fact that they share an
adjective
in common does not give them common qualities. Of course, I'm always
willing to change my mind if you can get me a diocese where I can
speak
ex cathedra.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | University Distinguished
Professor | Dean, Faculty of Design | Swinburne University of Technology
| Melbourne, Australia | [log in to unmask] | Ph: +61 3
9214 6078 | Faculty www.swinburne.edu.au/design
>>> Eduardo Corte Real <[log in to unmask]> 10/13/2011 10:31 PM
>>>
--snip--
We must point out, underline and don't underestimated that between
guild
and universities there were, since the 1500's, the modern academies. Of
Letters, Sciences and Design (!) if we consider that the definition of
Disegno encompasses Design like trillions of art historians translating
Italian to English did before us.
In the period you mention, François 17th, 18th and 19th centuries,
these
Academies spread throughout Europe and the Europeanized (:0) world.
One thing we must recall about these Academies (and I'm focusing in the
The Florentine Accademia Del Disegno, founded in 1563 under the
patronage and funds of Cosimo Medici) was that they were places of
research (production of knowledge) and vocational learning. There is no
news in saying that we use the word "academic" in university's
activities for good reasons.
The fact that modern industrial design had its up-rise precisely pining
the crises of the art academies do not mean that most of design
teaching
and learning was originated in the academia's traditions. At least Art
History (and Archeology) research was highly produced in those "houses"
not to mention applied mathematics and geometry.
I don't know were did the idea that research is new to design but I
sense that it is very poorly substantiated in the history of Design.
I would like to know more about the programs Breuer and Gropius
developed in the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Can someone help me
on this?
--snip--
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