Walk Through

Director: Redmond Entwistle
USA, UK; black & White, 18’, 2012
English with Turkish subtitles

Redmond Entwistle’s new film Walk-Through, a combination of documentary and fictionalised reconstruction, is a multi-faceted analysis of contemporary art education and the very particular impact of Michael Asher’s ‘post-studio class’ at the California Institute of the Arts, Los Angeles in the 1970s. The ‘Post-Studio’ class exemplified CalArt’s mission to “haul the teacher from the podium” and activate the student in the learning process. It took the form of extended group discussions - sometimes lasting over 12 hours - in which students critiqued each other's work. Subsequently the group critique has become the primary model of teaching in arts schools today. Walk-Through is devised as a tour of the campus, which guides us through CalArts’ history and the life of the school, from archive images of its design and construction in the late 1960’s to the present day. The film analysis the school's mission, its place in art history, and its flexible architecture, which was designed to facilitate its democratic philosophy.