CAA News Today

Each week CAA News publishes summaries of eight articles, published around the web, that CAA members may find interesting and useful in their professional and creative lives.

The Inclusion in Governance of Faculty Members Holding Contingent Appointments

The report that follows was prepared by a joint subcommittee of the American Association of University Professors’ Committee on Contingency and the Profession and the Committee on College and University Governance. Approved by both parent committees, the report was adopted as policy by the AAUP Council at its November 2012 meeting. (Read more from the American Association of University Professors.)

Cooper-Hewitt Announces Publication of White Paper on Socially Responsible Design

The Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum has announced the publication of a white paper, Design and Social Impact: A Cross-Sectoral Agenda for Design Education, Research, and Practice, along with a panel discussion on the paper’s findings and proposals. The paper is an outgrowth of the 2012 Social Impact Design Summit at the Rockefeller Foundation, which was hosted by Cooper-Hewitt and other groups to discuss strategies and actions to advance the field of socially responsible design—one term that refers to the practice of design for the public good, especially in disadvantaged communities. (Read more from the Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum.)

The Art of Technology

John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design, remembers the night his Japanese-born father attended a parent–teacher conference in Seattle. The teacher gushed, “John excels at both art and math.” Later, he overheard his father proudly tell a customer at his tofu store, “John—he’s good at math.” Four decades later—at a time when economists, corporate executives, and politicians talk about the need for national excellence in science and engineering—Maeda is still trying to ensure that the arts aren’t forgotten. (Read more in the National Journal.)

3D-Printing Pen Turns Doodles into Sculptures

Free yourself from the tyranny of paper and boring 2D. With a $75 pen you can draw in thin air. The 3Doodle pen, developed by start-up company WobbleWorks, works much like a handheld 3D printer. It contains a mains-powered heater that melts the plastic beads used in such printers. (Read more in the New Scientist.)

Art School Panels Highlight Issues in Contemporary Art

On Saturday, the Yale School of Art hosted its first series of panels featuring students, curators, and professional artists discussing issues in contemporary art. The day of panels—which covered everything from the role of the internet in art making to how the camera phone has changed photography—was meant to foster discussion in a public setting about ideas that students had been dealing with in their mandatory first-semester “Critical Practice” class. (Read more in the Yale Daily News.)

The Geography of America’s Freelance Economy

Writing in the Atlantic back in 2011, Sara Horowitz, the founder of Freelancers Union, dubbed the “freelance surge” the “Industrial Revolution of our time”—as significant a shift in employment patterns as has been seen since the transition from agriculture to industry in the 1800s. A recent report estimates that there are about 17 million full-employed freelancers, or independent workers, a number than swells to more than 40 million, roughly a third of the workforce, when you include temps, part-timers, contractors, contingent workers, and those who are underemployed or work without employer-sponsored health insurance, 401Ks, or FLEX accounts. (Read more in the Atlantic.)

What Happened to Arts Students When the Fees Went Up?

When tuition fees tripled last year, with many universities setting their rates at the highest possible amount of £9,000, arts professionals in the country held their breath. Would the introduction of higher fees create a “dearth of training for people who don’t have independent wealth or rich parents,” as actor Clare Higgins put it? The truth is, it’s still hard to pinpoint the impact of last year’s fee rises. (Read more in the Guardian.)

Art Gallery Sued Again over Sale of Paintings

The once esteemed gallery Knoedler & Company has been sued five times since late 2011 by former clients who said it sold them forged paintings procured from a little-known Long Island dealer. Now the shuttered gallery is being sued by an investor who says paintings from the same dealer are genuine and that Knoedler did not do enough to sell them. (Read more in the New York Times.)