Learning under quarantine
What it's like to be a UCLA Arts student this spring
At UCLA right now, one would normally be hearing the robust exchange of ideas in studios and classrooms, sawing and drilling from the fabrication labs, the hum and whir of 3D printers and CNC machines, the spinning of ceramics wheels, feet hitting a dance floor.
But as we all know, that’s not happening. Learning has continued, but it’s changed.
In this week's episode of Works in Progress, UCLA Arts students share how they are handling the transition from their pre-pandemic studio environments to remote learning.
For artists and dancers, it's been difficult to find the space and the time to make their work.
Mail art made by undergraduate Michelle Kim for her “Sculptural Distancing” class. Image courtesy Michelle Kim.
"Our schedule would have been just as chaotic if we were doing it physically, but maybe the lack of the physical change in location makes it feel a lot more exhausting," said Artin Sahakian, a Masters student in the Architecture and Urban Design department.
But students have also founded unexpected benefits to remote learning, such as being forced to develop new skills like video editing, or forming new virtual communities with classmates.
For many UCLA students, "safer at home" has meant leaving campus residences and finding themselves back home with parents.
"Some students have had to return to their home country or go to another city in another time zone. And it's very stressful to be going to classes in the middle of the night," said Erin Cooney, a Masters student in the Design Media Arts department.
Or it’s meant living with friends or roommates, but struggling to find personal space and a decent WiFi connection. It’s meant a loss of income, and of security.
"To be creative, to make art, it's important to feel safe, [and] it's very difficult to focus in the old way and make work in the old way, because many of us don't feel safe," Cooney said.
DMA undergraduate student Gustavo Tepetla took this picture of himself shooting and editing video for his minor in Visual and Performing Arts Education. Image courtesy Gustavo Tepetla.
Artin Sahakian is staying with his family in Toronto while studying for his Masters in Architecture degree at UCLA. Image courtesy Artin Sahakian.
It’s also meant a lack of access to labs and equipment. While she's frustrated that she can't work in the sculpture lab, Michelle Kim, a junior studying fine arts, has been trying to improve her writing. Remote learning, she said "forces you to work within such confined means that you're left to really focus in on very specific things and really improve upon them."
Jess Grimes, a graduating senior and a dance major, has found it hard to rehearse for her two dance classes. She lives in a Westwood apartment with five roommates.
"So space is extremely limited, but finding ways to navigate that for myself has been a really creative challenge," she said.
While dancers may not have access to their studios, there are techniques they can cultivate during this period, said Ryan Rockmore, a dancer and doctoral student in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance. He typically rehearses his flamenco moves at Kauffman Hall, but has avoided practicing in his apartment so as to not disturb his downstairs neighbors.
Dancer and WACD doctoral candidate Ryan Rockmore strikes a flamenco pose in his apartment. Image courtesy Ryan Rockmore.
"I'm using this time to focus on perhaps other things that were put to the sideline in the past," Rockmore said. "Maybe it's sitting in my room sometimes and snapping out rhythms, or maybe it's just doing a tiny little footwork step on my carpet in my bare feet. Or maybe it's looking at my mirror and undulating or doing certain movements that... I might not have viewed as very important or worthy of exploration."
Some students said that the time saved from not commuting to UCLA has given them more time to read and study, while more time has been taken up by family obligations.
It's also fostered new conversations online between classmates. Cooney is planning a virtual MFA thesis show with her classmates, but hopes to present the physical art at the Broad Art Center in the fall.
"It's made us develop even closer working relationships and also to collaborate in ways that we wouldn't have otherwise, and independently from faculty. It's made us a more autonomous unit and more cohesive."
DMA graduate student Erin Cooney is using her living room as a studio space to make video art. Image courtesy Erin Cooney.
While remote learning has fostered a new sense of community, Cooney worries about what is being lost, "because there is something wonderful about having education take place in one spot where we all come together."
Story by Avishay Artsy
HEADER IMAGE: A cityLAB gathering on Zoom. Image courtesy Dana Cuff.
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