Art Wars

by CESLEY MUSGNI

Fall 2010, I experienced one of the worst things a Graphic Design student of the 21st century could face in art school: a laptop malfunction close to midterms. This was beyond last-minute-print-job the night before a major critique. My portable workstation was temporarily dead and sitting in the Cabell Library basement, waiting to be catered by the tech services.

I had no idea where to go at this point. Two or three projects were due within the next week, and all my necessary files were idly sitting with a bunch of other failed computers. My first reaction was to go upstairs to use one of the few, beautiful, new 27" iMacs on the second floor of Cabell Library. As such a powerful new addition to the sea of PCs, I felt relieved. I rushed to the iMacs, USB drive in hand, ready to finish some projects.

As nice as the library’s iMacs are, they are simply for web browsing. No essential design program can be found on these computers.

Stumped at this point, I contemplated asking to borrow a classmate’s MacBook. With our similar schedules, there was no chance in hell anyone in the Graphic Design department would lend me their laptop when they were trying to get finish own projects.

So, I asked around Pollak. Where on campus could I possibly go to work on a Mac with Adobe Creative Suite, without stifling someone else's work schedule in order to salvage my own? Out of all the visual art buildings at VCU, the Pollak building was the only one with no general computer lab.

As freshmen in Art Foundation, we had access to a Mac lab at Bowe Street to work on projects. The only time I worked on a project there was in a heavily video-based, time studio class. All of the other times, the lab was mainly used to print documents and photos. I'd also have to pester an AFO student to card me in.

Later, I learned that tucked away in the Fine Arts Building were iMacs; but I would need a pin number to get my hands on them. I was in shock and awe. Out of all the departments, the Sculpture department had their own computer lab with Macs included! I know that VCUarts is ranked number one for Sculpture, and if they were to fund one of the departments with more money it would be them. But do they really need it so much that they have a passcode locking the rest of the non-Sculpture world to keep it exclusively for them?

Through a friend in the Sculpture department, I was able to obtain the magic four-digit passcode that would answer my Macbook-malfunctioning prayers. When I got to the Fine Arts building, I punched in the supposed code, but the door remained locked. I peered through the window and quietly knocked, and a sea of heads facing down turned into eyes staring back at me.

Once inside, I instantly jumped to a seat in front of an iMac. They were just as beautiful and brand new as the ones in the Cabell Library, except it had Adobe Creative Suite, plus more.

I looked around. There was also a large format, four-process color printer sitting at the opposite side of the room. I was amazed, and at the same time annoyed, knowing that none of this was intended to be available to me as a Graphic Design student. Our major uses these particular devices daily. On most occasions, we have to pay outside of tuition for these resources.

I frantically tried to get as much work done in the few hours I had available. The friend who had given me the passcode walked into the lab 30 minutes into working, and sat at the computer to my right. We said hello and small-talked as my eyes shifted from my project on my screen to hers, which revealed nonchalant web surfing.

I became even more infuriated knowing Pollak was without a computer lab, as my limited time in the Fine Art’s building was ticking away.

In comparison to other Graphic Design programs, VCU’s department takes a very traditional approach to teaching (i.e. instilling manual craftsmanship and analog experimentation), but 99.9% of the time, students in this major will use their laptops during the process. It could be from the very start of a project or at the end for production preparation.

With computers and technology in general, there is always one thing to consider: Murphy's Law. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Clients change their expectations. Colors on a print job can easily mismatch the colors intended on a design. Being 99% done to designing a job and realizing that the dimensions are off can happen.

With budget cuts and the tight financial situation that VCU is going through, I would like the university to consider the very limited money we have, and invest it into something that is known to be 100% beneficial to the students. In the Graphic Design department’s case, implementing a computer lab in Pollak would be an ideal step. There is not enough funding for the school to reimburse graphic design students for print jobs that roughly cost us hundreds of dollars collectively throughout a semester. The least they can do is give us a guaranteed workspace to ensure productivity. I wouldn't want to spend my tuition money any other way.

I know this kind of addition to Pollak is a change too big to enforce immediately but there has to be some way to give Graphic Design students access to Macs that does not result in us frantically running around campus in distress. Adding the necessary programs into the Macs already existing in the library, or opening accessibility to current Mac labs at other visual art buildings such as the Fine Art Building, to other art majors will make a difference. They would be small changes with big impacts. There are so many resources within the general art school that are unreachable to individual majors. All I'm asking is for one of these resources, the computer labs- the one resource that is across the board- useful to all the art majors, especially to the Graphic Design students, to be considered in the future plans of VCUarts.