once upon a time when i completed college there was this sense that education is now just blended in to every day life. creating, working, doing, it was now all a mesh of learning new things and doing things all at the same time. once i had "learned how to learn" the idea of school or students and teachers was obsoleted until some dreaded later point where maybe i would need to be re-educated by one of those institutes from the late night informercials.
having not been a student in the formal sense for some time the first day of sfpc had this weird anxiety to it. in order to be a student you have to let go of all sorts of expectations that work life ingrains over the years. in professional life you have to carry an air that you know what you're doing even when you don't. presenting your work as great and without vulnerability is a key to commercial success. we all know it's a front and a game, but playing is not an option.
at the summer sfpc class it's pretty hard to tell the students and teachers apart. people on both sides of the table have equally impressive credentials. this could all just as well be everyone teaching everyone (which in some sense it is.) but i can already say that having the freedom to be a student in mind will play an important role in my output over these two weeks.
over the course of the day i quickly and comfortably sunk back into that student mindspace. that space where experimentation is ok. where failure is ok (and not in the silicon valley sense). where having no idea what you're doing is ok. where being vulnerable is ok. where you aren't going to be criticized for not knowing how git works. where you'll see and experience things you haven't before. we're all going to be a little uncomfortable while growing together and that is all just ok and beautiful.
one of my absolute favorite quotes comes from saul williams "my work is the residue from working on myself." the idea that ones art is just a product of a greater attempt at self understanding and improvement. so in that sense i hope to produce some freshly inspired work over the next two weeks that breaks away from my existing trajectory. it's time to shake things up.
