| Dallas Seitz: Hunted - the cannibalism of colonial collectorexia
Pump House Gallery is pleased to present Dallas Seitz's first solo show in a UK public gallery, which will include a number of significant new commissioned works. Moving between the mediums of video, sculpture, drawing and photography Seitz investigates the processes of hunting and collecting as a form of colonization and obsession. Though the artist's practice is largely conceptual, much of his work originates from the personal. Often drawing on his own family, upbringing, and memories Seitz moves towards psychological and political terrains - exploring the wider motivations, intentions and implications behind the act of collecting. HUNTED (the cannibalism of colonial collectorexia) features a variety of artworks in a number of different media including films, images, handmade objects and bronze and glass sculptures.
Kerry Hart: The danger of interdisciplinary arts education
Wouldn't it be great if we could read a couple of books on brain surgery and be ready to perform an operation? In arts education, that is the type of miraculous feat we often expect from our teachers. Every academic discipline requires a unique intellectual function — from quantitative reasoning to philosophical inquiry. The arts are no different. Dance requires a physical-kinesthetic brain function; music requires an auditory function; visual art requires a visual-spacial brain function; and drama incorporates a combination of several, including the verbal-linguistic function that is important to the literary arts. The college and university curriculum in each arts discipline is rigorous and, indeed, it takes a lifetime to acquire mastery in one subject area. Yet when it comes to teaching students who do not have a background in any of the arts, we create interdisciplinary arts courses that provide a superficial overview — usually from a historical perspective.
PS2 Makes You Study, Sort Of
We've all heard the basic story of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 before: An unsuspecting orphan is pulled from the comfort of his boring life into an adventure that will eventually lead to saving the world from a vast source of evil. Been there, done that. But Persona 3, released on Aug. 14 for the PlayStation 2, is far from a run-of-the-mill PS2 role-playing game, and not just because of the techno and rap that make up its soundtrack. Despite the cliché story (albeit with a modern twist), the gameplay mechanics are so quirky and innovative that one can't help but overlook Persona 3's many similarities to every other RPG ever. Persona 3's originality stems from the fact that it doesn't fit comfortably into just one genre. Half of the game is composed of traditional dungeon-crawling RPG fare, but the other half is a high school simulation, complete with gossipy girls, extracurricular activities, dating, and tests.
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