Exhibition about the use of self-education as an emancipation tactic
Exhibition: "Really Useful Knowledge", 29 October 2014 – 9 February 2015 / Sabatini Building, Floor 1, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.
"The notion of 'really useful knowledge' emerged at the beginning of the 19th century alongside the workers' awareness of the need for self–education. In the 1820s and 1830s, working class organisations in the UK introduced this phrase to describe a body of knowledge that encompassed various 'unpractical' disciplines such as politics, economy and philosophy, as opposed to the 'useful knowledge' proclaimed by business owners who had previously begun to invest more heavily in their companies' progress through financing workers' education in 'applicable' disciplines like engineering, physics, chemistry and mathematics. In this reference to the long–forgotten class struggles of early capitalism, the title of the exhibition suggests an inquiry into 'really useful knowledge' from a contemporary perspective.
The exhibition endeavours to position the notion of critical pedagogy as a crucial element in collective struggles, and explore the tension between individual and social emancipation through education with examples that are both historical and current, and their relation to organisational forms capable of leading unified resistance to the reproduction of capital. In doing so, the exhibition highlights the collective utilization of public resources, action and experiments, either forgotten or under threat of eradication, taking the museum as a pedagogical site devoted to the analysis of artistic forms interconnected with actual or desired social relations."
(Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Interaction Design Education Summit 2014
Wednesday, 5 February 2014, Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) at Hilversum (http://interaction14.ixda.org/venues/).
"At a moment in time where everybody and everything is constantly interacting – through the use of networks, apps, products, media and services – educating students to design these interactions is not only needed, but also a fundamental challenge. Rapid developments in society and technology put increasingly high demands on the knowledge and skills of future interaction designers. Challenging traditional institutions, some companies have started programs for in–house training. At the same time, alternative educational platforms – such as edX, Udacity and Interaction–Design.org – are offering open access to high–level learning materials.
To successfully address these developments, interaction design education might need to reinvent itself."
CONTRIBUTOR
Neal WhiteSHARE
