Indeed, the process has been tedious in many ways, which IF we allow can be prohibitive; however, I think coming in we all had some idea that there would be hurdles to clear. I don't want to get too Zen about this, but there is a journey that exists outside the text, outside the project, and even outside the university.
Now that the VW is moved and the cabling is underway, I think one of the tallest hurdles is behind us.
Perhaps a documentary or "making of" would be good, not only for us, but for those who come along after, that way we'll have an official way to track truly progressive moments, and a way to document the non-progressive moments as well. It could be interesting to come back to it, say two years later, to see how much has changed, or not changed.
About the MFA...yes, an MFA is a degree about "doing" things. It taps into a very particular intelligence--imagination. "Masters" degrees are meant to be apprenticeships. We are to learn the craft from the Masters who came before us. The efficacy of these apprenticeships depends, of course, on the skills of the masters who teach us. There's a lot that can be said about that, in terms of both the historical idea of the Masters degree and how that's changed, as well as what this all means in a university setting.
I am commenting on my own comment, as I meant to add that the MFA is to provide an idea of how to turn imagination into commerce. Again, this depends on watching and learning from those who've done so successfully. This opens a whole new "can of worms" so to speak...
ReplyDeleteReally nice. Be as Zen as you like.
ReplyDelete"turn imagination into commerce" -- great metaphor--how does that work, economically, in a setting like ours. What is the coin fo the realm at UGA?