Utilising Psychanalytic Theories to Frame Some of the Difficulties Facing the Emerging Creative Subject at Art School Today

Abstract

This paper explores the tension between the freedoms prevailing in an open learning environment and the susceptibility of the emerging creative subject as quasi-public maker and performer. Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Deborah Britzman have something to add to our thinking about the tertiary art school student and the learning environment. The paper focuses on the production of meaning including through the body as lived experience and in particular the performative nature of identity and the vulnerabilities prevailing within the context of the studio-based learning environment. This paper seeks to examine this particular learning context, rife with patterns of resistance and compliance, which forms a difficult and contentious backdrop for the creation and representation of the creative subject.