Question Time.

Within UK art and design institutions, there is an increasing disquisition, largely passed on by central government, to further comparative and evidence-based exercises and models.

Such assessment may be useful in establishing correlative currency and value, and it may help formulate evaluative tools. However, these evaluative systems are seldom objective, and may be subject to convenient and strategic institutional manipulation. Significantly, these systems also rely on us trusting those who formulate and apply contextual frameworks to authenticate knowledge, where such authors and frameworks may not always recognise or capture inherent value.

Sometimes, it’s okay not to comprehensively know things, and sometimes it’s okay to ‘feel’ things, where value and knowledge is perceptive. Sometimes the question is good enough, and does not actually require a complete or finished answer.

So, if it is “the question” that is the essential driver of innovation, and that yet to come, it is crucial that we practice questioning within dedicated and adaptable ‘rehearsal’ spaces, where we learn from the question itself, however silly or meaningful this may be.