OrientationWednesday, September 13, 2006 | 12:22AM |
My first formal experience at SCAD-Atlanta was this past Saturday. We had orientation all day, and it was pretty much a rehash of what I’d already learned online. That is, until we met as a department. Pretty much every question I had up to that point was answered.
The MFA photography program will apparently consist of 13 students this year, one of which is a transfer from Savannah (although I believe it’s not technically a “transfer”, since we’re the same school). The head of the department is Professor Aishman (who is incredibly cool, btw), and he broke down the format of the two year program in this way: we do what we want to do. That might sound a little too “open” to some people, but in reality, it’s what I believe we need as grad students. Most of us have already done the formal undergraduate format photo program (well, I assume most of us have), and we don’t need that structure to succeed.
We toured the facilities, which were just in the process of being completed. Nearly half of the 5th floor is devoted to photography, while most of the other half is for painting, and the remainder for printmaking. There are two 8x10 enlargers, a 40” wide color processor, amural printing facility, many individual darkrooms, facilities dedicated to graduate use and separated from the undergrad gang darkroom, a section for alternative processes, and three large shooting studios separated by curtains.
The equipment checkout is extensive, including (from what I saw) several 4x5 cameras, and probably other things that were cased. But one thing Professor Aishman mentioned that was incredibly cool was the inclusion of two Hasselblad H1 cameras with digital backs. There’s a lot more, I just don’t know about it all yet.
All of the jobs on campus are work-study, so if I want to work there, I’ll have to be eligible for the funds. The pay isn’t good, but working on campus is a big deal to me, so I’m pursuing it. And I should be eligible to be a TA next quarter (early 2007).
Tonight, as part of Welcome Week, the school brought out a comedian named Andrew Kennedy. He was ok, but his act seemed to rely so heavily on crowd response that it often fell flat. He decided to correct this by infusing the act with cursing, which always manages to humor students. It’s not that he was all out awful or anything, but I find that when a comedian reverts to swearing or anti-Bush jokes (out of nowhere… keep in mind, I can dig a good Bush joke or impression, if it makes sense in the act) it’s really just an act of desperation. I will admit, however, that it has to be tough to perform such a long act. I would estimate it was a good 20-30 minutes in length.
School starts tomorrow (well, today by the time this is published) and I’m excited. All I have is Contemporary Art History, but my photography classes are on Tuesday/Thursday, so there’s much to look forward to in the next two days. I’ll have a report on it all soon enough.
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