As "The Temporary Department for Academic Research," three 'Fords explore the aesthetics of academia.
What's a trio of Haverford grads to do when they find themselves missing the kind of intense intellectual rumination they'd grown so used to in college? Meeting for gabfests over countless cups of coffee in Philadelphia cafes just wasn't enough for Oliver Wunsch '07, or James Weissinger and Sarah Jacoby, both '06. The solution? Formalize their philosophical ramblings as The Temporary Department for Academic Research (TDAR), a“perpetually ad-hoc working group”/art collective aimed at, according to the TDAR website,“questioning the very systems of education, initiation, and accreditation under which they had so recently thrived.”
In August, TDAR enjoyed a month-long residency at the Philadelphia Institute for Advanced Study (PIFAS), offering a series of presentations under the title“Academic Aesthetic Breakout Session.” Among the TDAR-curated events: a talk on comic books, graphic novels and the politics of nomenclature by N.C. Christopher Couch, a former Haverford faculty member who taught both Weissinger and Wunsch, and a discussion/workshop with Haverford College Visiting Assistant Professor of Fine Arts and Mellon Post-Doctoral Fellow John Muse on“Test-Taking, Test-Making.”
“All of our events took place in a totally white, totally fake, life-size classroom we built in an empty studio there,” says Weissinger of PIFAS, whose august-sounding name doesn't really describe its fluid identity as an exhibition/performance space, free university and artist enclave—all housed in an old warehouse in Philadelphia's Kensington neighborhood.
Included in the presentation by Haverford's Muse, was an actual 20-minute test in which the professor asked participants the difference between a good test and a bad one, encouraged them to discuss whether tests“necessarily breed suspicions and thus anxious relations to others,” and asked them to make up a corresponding question for one of two answers:“contemporary art” or“Because I said so.”
“We had about 30 people crammed into that little room for that one,” says Weissinger, Associate Director of the Hurford Humanities Center. (Wunsch is the Media Arts Coordinator of the Painted Bride Art Center and Jacoby works at the University of Pennsylvania's Vitale Digital Media Lab, is a freelance writer and designer, and plays synthesizer in Philadelphia band Golden Ball.)“Everyone took the test in complete silence and they wrote these really thoughtful answers and then we had a fantastic discussion about it.”
The culmination of the TDAR residency, an event called“Final Exam: The Art/Test,” was inspired, in part, by some of Muse's comments, says Weissinger.“He talked about how the best thing about tests in school is you know when they begin and when they're over. It's not so clear with tests in life.”
For the“Final Exam” the attendees, who had been told they would be taking a test later, were ushered, one group at a time, into a waiting room with a hidden camera and microphones, and a host (PIFAS co-founder Brandon Joyce) whose ostensible job it was to help them prepare for the test. Once they entered the exam room, though, the groups learned that the actual test was over. They'd been graded by hidden viewers on their comportment during the wait. Says Weissinger,“We evaluated them on confidence, on who could make conversation and not seem super nervous, or who could remember something from a previous event.”
How did they do? Says Weissinger,“Everyone got high marks.”
Next up for TDAR: The group is creating an admissions catalog for a hypothetical summer arts institute as part of a collaboration between Philadelphia gallery FLUXspace and Historic Yellow Springs in Chester County.
