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Artists in Uniforms

How would Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol look like at school when they were young? Of course there were no piercing on lips and eyebrows yet. And probably they might not have fallen into any "norm" of fashion code. More provocative? Or their creativity should not be exploited in this kind of superficiality?

How should the students look like in a senior secondary school dedicated to creativity? It's a mystery whether imposed regularity will kill their creativity, suppress or ignite it. Students like uniform, I heard, because they will be fed up very soon in choosing clothes everyday. Why is there a problem of "choice"? Is it aesthetical inability? Or imposed social value associating self-esteem too much to outlook? Or cultural unconsciousness - in relation to local school convention? Would any adult prefer to buy a same set of clothes in order to avoid the same "problem"? You may say, the norm is different in adults' world. Anyhow, could there be alternatives, besides yes or no? Prof Fumikazu Masuda of Tokyo Kozei University talked about his educational project of clothes exchange scheme to replace uniforms last year in HK. He said the kids loved it, we won't know, but it shed light on possible new ways in tackling the problem.

Whether these 16-year-olds wear black-coloured finger-nails or not is not significant to me, but whether they could be guided to make judgment about themselves with self-awareness is. Could discipline be more important? Consider fashion per se, it is significant for the provocation to the norm, not because of its "prettiness". And so is the majority of contemporary art works. I am not sure if 10cm-longer-than-the-norm hair-style will create bad influence on the others, but I think an environment which encourages creativity should allow unbound condition for learning to respect differences, out of tolerance, if not real understanding. This 10cm is especially crucial for individuality and origination. Yet, I agree, on the other hand, punkies shall also learn for the same reason when their hair-gel sculpted hair will "influence" the others, and how... but not just banned for the difference. This is itself a valuable educational process which fixed syllabus cannot substitute I think.

The question is not what how long their dresses should be, but how and according what these rules are created, and more importantly, how they should be implemented, rigidly or in a suggestive manner. It's not a question of nurturing creativity or not, it's self-understanding and realization, 'cause fashion nowadays is implanted under the skin where rules are merely lame. (Image: BMEZine.com via Wired News)

posted at 10:46 PM | View by Post