Art College will be starting again in the next couple of weeks. Students young and some old will be packing and moving back into student housing, with some finding out that student housing is possibly the most expensive part of tuition in London. Wishing it was December already? Mothers the world over will be looking forward to cooking meals for undernourished young men and women who will happily tuck into whatever is placed on the dinner table. Many art students already know they require different accessories than those students off to a term of business, economics, and other more academic topics of study. Art school is rigorous and stressful. The world is going to kick many while their down and the rest while their up, leaving bruised and wounded egos scattered around the illustrious university campuses that dot the art hub capital. Here are a few tips for those just starting this Autumn 2012.
The first thing is this. Professors are going to expect that everyone has been going to exhibitions this summer. Not just a few exhibitions. They will expect that you have been going regularly to major and minor shows in London (preferably), and if not in a major metropolis, where ever you were. Even if that meant that you had to trek across the arctic tundra for days while you rapidly developed trench foot, all the better; you can paint about it next week. They will have expected you to have gone to see the Serpentine’s Yoko Ono show, Tino Seghal at the Tate Modern,At least one performance at ‘The Tanks’ and to have a positively passionate opinion about several of the smaller gallery shows they may have missed themselves while they slaved away at publications and in hot studios. They do this to maintain status within the university to collect a somewhat livable pension once, or if, they ever retire. Tip; If you havent been visiting exhibitions read our archive of ArtLyst articles, listings and reviews, make crib sheets!
This is however a great week to catch up on shows that may have been missed with Olympic bliss over the summer. Many shows will be finishing this week and will leave students lost for words when professors ask your opinion of Anish Kapoor’s “Orbit” within the greater context of the architectural landscape in London. Go this week and learn as much as you can about the artist’s that have been exhibiting in London this summer. Go to the major galleries like the Tate and the minor galleries that appear around the East End, enjoy being more informed about your city and prepared for anything they happen to ask on the first day.
Tino Seghal is in the white shirt on the right, know who he is.
This is Yoko Ono, you should know who she is already. If you don’t get out of art school.
Secondly, buy every Apple product you possibly can afford. It is common knowledge that art students are Apple freaks. They own the phone, the iPC, the iLaptop, they own the old school iPod and the new school iShuffle. All these products scream, yes I am an individual, with vision and creativity in abundance. I don’t have a job (will never have a decent full time one), and don’t know much about the difference between qualitative and quantitative easing, but iLike my things. Apple does however offer exceptional tools for budding artists in training. Make sure when you go to buy your iWhatsit today, you have them load all of the Adobe Creative Suite programs and ask them what you should have in relation to your course of study. Get them all and learn how to use them if you don’t understand them already. Take a few days and play around with Photoshop, create a style for yourself before you even get into the class. Your professor will appreciate your existing knowledge
about the programs and you’ll be learning much more quickly. This is an important point for new students coming to the art school world, you don’t want to be left without an iPen on your first day.
This is actually called an iEverything. You’ll want to buy one of these too, if only to prove you finally have it all.
The third thing you will certainly need is a good sense of humour. You will need to learn to laugh at yourself and to laugh off situations that are difficult at best and utterly miserable at the worst. Begin understanding now that it is not going to get easier after art school. If you can stay focused on your work and develop a unique perspective that distinguishes you from every other person at your university with an iUniverse and significant knowledge on Damian Ortega’s latest work at the Whitecube you may have a chance.
Words by: Portia Pettersen Copyright Artlyst 2012