Crop Circles Spiral Cycles - Difficult Years

I know it is pretty safe to make a post. This part of the The Animation Garden has been fallow for a few seasons.

In another animation garden, where we attempt to grow animators in an industrialised system, an unexpected pressure created a test bed that has borne some productivity. Where I teach required greater efficiency. To a bean counter that means; create more in less time. That way we have the same or greater output for a lesser input. They, the disconnected, cut hours.

The ultimate product in contemporary teaching is that a student leaves the place with a qualification. In the wrenching and re-arranging to create greater efficiencies with education regarded as a commodity (something that can be bought and sold), an observation can be made that the re-branded "education" has become dislocated from learning, and a qualification has become dislocated from knowledge and practical skills. Knowledge has become superficial knowing that knowledge practice will gain a student skills, rather than the development of a practical skills based knowledge from practising a craft. It's like gardening by watching gardening shows online or on TV, or cooking by purchasing cookbooks - the screens and pages become a barrier rather than a portal.

An essential element in any creative endeavour is time. More specifically time allocated to practice. For enlightened practitioners that also means time to play. Best to use the terms "research" or, "experiment" if discussing the ideas in a business planning environment. I would contend that one can be busy at play. But futile attempts at convincing a spreadsheet enveloped soul sucking abacus clicker* detracts from essential play time. (*They thrive in the industrialised education system).

Back to the test bed. The above-mentioned system will be closing the productive experiment down soon. It was built in a place that may not meet the suitability of the corporate controllers. So I'll bring the ideas out into the sun in The Animation Garden.

This is a series of posts accumulated on 'self-directed learning' for second year animation students. The most recent first:

At the end of this year the animators around you would have been practising and studying for "2" years. If it's only in class time then that would be about 1152 hours (if you came to work in every class); about a quarter of a two year apprenticeship. An apprentice working at a craft for 8 hours per day 5 to 6 days per week would usually clock up about 4000 to 4800 hours of practice over 2 years. Good on those animators who have been practising the additional hours. Even without the full amount of time applied to learning animation, look at the amazing amount of learning and animation production you have achieved.

This is a two part video essay on creativity that is meant to be inspiring: