My first year as a Creative Student
I’m sure you’ve heard the story of the kid who walked into a new school knowing no one. But I assure you, this story doesn’t go the way those stories go; those kids didn’t walk into an art school, sorry, those kids didn’t log in to an art school.
Hi. My name is Jett, I am a student at OCAD in Toronto Ontario and I am currently working on my undergrad in their advertising program. Being a creative student for the first time was nothing like I had expected. The people were deferred from my expectations, and so did the curriculum. I don’t necessarily mean good or bad, I just mean different, so different. If there was one word to describe my experience last year, it’d be unique. I’m sure we’ve all heard the pros and cons of online learning before, whether a concerned parent or a student experiencing it firsthand. However, the pros and cons are a little more niche when online learning at an art school.
Firstly, I’d like to say that–for the circumstances–I consider myself lucky, lucky I was in the advertising program and not studying painting or industrial design. Being in the advertising program, Google docs tends to be our studio. However, I can’t say the same for drawing and painting students who probably made a considerable amount of their decision to attend OCAD based on their access to on-campus studios and special hands-on lessons the university provides. In other words, I’m lucky I had everything I needed in the palm of my hand; or in the computer on my lap, so to speak. All I needed was my laptop and I was good to go. This made working at home easier as I didn’t have to worry about materials and my workspace.
Although many may have a differing opinion, I personally enjoyed the academics during online learning. I found the school’s focus on critical thinking and creativity to be vitalizing and refreshing; plus that handy mute button allowed me to sit back and listen more, rather than being my loquacious self. That’s not to say the professors weren’t engaging. In fact, I found certain classes to be incredibly engaging. Was it as engaging as it would’ve been if I had lectures in-person? No. But, I truly think they did the best they could.
Now enough about the troubles of online and more about the art student vibes. I personally found the social aspect of OCAD to be very disappointing, and it’s not the school’s fault. Most art students are introverted, expressing themselves through their work rather than through conversation. I personally enjoy engaging in the odd frivolous conversation about the weather or last night’s game, or even talk about one of our favorite pastimes. It seems I was one of few who felt that way. OCAD is heavily focused on politics and social justice, it seems to be the only topic of conversation. Now I don’t want to be misconstrued: I believe all those things are of the utmost importance, however, there’s a time and place for everything, and maybe that time and place isn’t when I say “Hi, my name’s Jett. Nice to meet you.” What I’m trying to say is day to day conversation is almost nonexistent in most programs. At least I get to have those conversations at the beginning of every lecture with the professors.
One benefit to being in such a niche program is the small-sized classes. Some of my classes have less than 30 kids. This allows for engaging discussion which ultimately leads to the best kind of learning: learning where you’re actually interested. This particular skill set is OCAD’s Magnum Opus. Every discussion I’ve ever had in class has led to a lesson learned or my perspective changed. I cannot stress how much more I have learned through these methods, and I am so excited to see what in-person learning has in store for me.
I think going from seeing camera-off profile pictures of anime characters and cats on Microsoft teams to seeing all new faces in a smelly old classroom will be just as visualizing and refreshing as the OCAD’s academic focus.
