Under Construction

September 7, 2012 6:41 AM

[The Yale University School of Art] website is a wiki. All School of Art grad students, faculty, staff, and alums have the ability to change most of this site’s content (with some exceptions); and to add new content and pages.
posted by HeroZero (22 comments total)

Design by committee wins again!
posted by cjorgensen at 6:45 AM on September 7, 2012

So...Having not been in art school since before the Earth cooled...I'm looking at the faculty page, and I'm perplexed...Is no one an "instructor" anymore? "Critic"? Really?
posted by Thorzdad at 6:48 AM on September 7, 2012

There are "Lecturers" and "Professors" as well.
posted by azarbayejani at 6:52 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I can't tell if this is being ironic or just bad ...
posted by carter at 6:54 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's just being awesome.
posted by grog at 6:56 AM on September 7, 2012

Yikes....

In order to offset this and maintain balance in the universe, Yale University has mandated that their School of Web Design's site also be a wiki with a focus on bad art.
posted by HuronBob at 7:01 AM on September 7, 2012

There goes the fun in hacking the school's website. Unless, you hack it to look like a bad wiki design, complete with edit logs and lock everyone out from editing it, or better yet, make the wiki edits work in new and interesting ways, by remapping the wiki codes to new functions.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:03 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

I know that the Whitney ISP set a precedent by having a resident critic on their 'faculty' in the late '60s. This misaprop may have it's origin there, and trickled-out to other high-end post-grad Art programs.

(Does the ISP still have any standing these days? Do people still make art in New York City, or has all that stuff moved Upstate?)
posted by vhsiv at 7:05 AM on September 7, 2012

It's hard to be bad.
posted by R. Mutt at 7:06 AM on September 7, 2012

Or the ""Critic" moniker is just a kinder and gentler way for Yale to disguise the fact that they run their esteemed Art Department on a faculty of non-tenured adjuncts.
posted by vhsiv at 7:09 AM on September 7, 2012 [8 favorites]

Wow! Does that look like shit currently. Embarrassing.
posted by goethean at 7:13 AM on September 7, 2012

They have transcended the need for non-ugly! They are so very cool. They have moved past post modern so far they are like gods!
posted by cccorlew at 7:18 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is gonna be all goatse, all the time, isn't it.
posted by echo target at 7:19 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's like the more people you add to something the more likely you are to approach time cube.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:24 AM on September 7, 2012 [3 favorites]

It's fairly obvious every academic department at every university should run their webpage using wiki software, or simply make the files writable under version control, but perhaps one shouldn't start the wiki off with intentionally creating crappy layout.
posted by jeffburdges at 7:39 AM on September 7, 2012

I feel that your clear "uncrappy" bias is limiting.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:13 AM on September 7, 2012 [2 favorites]

@cccorlew

i know, right? wouldn't it be great if we did this in writing, too, and then there was a backlash, so we were constantly trapped, oscillating between the poles of greasy meaningless irony and humorless literal sincerity
posted by This, of course, alludes to you at 8:15 AM on September 7, 2012

A related but I think much more successful approach is the Rhode Island School of Design's Portfolios website. It allows students, faculty and alumni to set up a portfolio as part of a mini social network, powered by Behance.
posted by oulipian at 8:51 AM on September 7, 2012

Thorzdad: "Is no one an "instructor" anymore? "Critic"? Really?"

vhsiv: "they run their esteemed Art Department on a faculty of non-tenured adjuncts."

This is pretty much it. People know what a decent salary range is for "instructor" or if one is exceptionally lucky, "professor", which is becoming the rent-controlled upper west side apartment of educational titles -- exceeding rare and simultaneously lusted after by every seeker in the market and hated by every person who manages one.

Ah, but a "facilitator? Isn't that a janitor of some kind? And "critic"? My neighbor reviews movies on Rotten Tomatoes for free! They're lucky to get a salary at all. In fact, let's tie their compensation to class headcount!
posted by boo_radley at 9:31 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]

P.S.
posted by boo_radley at 9:32 AM on September 7, 2012

Everyone's a critic.
posted by googly at 9:42 AM on September 7, 2012

As a Yale "lecturer"... yeah, I've got nothing. vhsiv has it nailed.
posted by dbiedny at 11:13 AM on September 7, 2012 [1 favorite]