I am as lost as can ever be; the time to make use of the squishy thing in my head has now come. Liberal Arts or Specialization, it’s almost like voting again…trying to finds the pros and cons. Well the squishy thing is begging to question why we can’t have a bit of both like in a buffet line. It may seem weird but our lives are a long buffet line with good and bad things to come. We start as the child who is given the food that we essentially need, walking past as our parents decide what will be good for us and what won’t. We find our likes and dislikes, experimenting with everything and anything we can find. It is then as we move past the lovely kind lady who serves us chips and gravy to the stage at which we move into the compulsory line (School). Here we have to maintain a balanced diet of meat, veg and dairy that is seen to be good for our surroundings and what is to come. The scenario pushes past the point at which we now decide, are we full or can we keep going. Do we go to the seconds’ line (Higher Education). This is the point at which we discover where we want to go in life and what is needed to get there. Do we need to move onto the Dessert line (Further Education) and when we are there do we need specialized Dessert or simply Liberal Dessert…
Well I’ve not been discussing my specialties at a buffet line but more so the process to which we get to the point at which we can finally decide what we really want from life. It boils down to the question of being well rounded in a field of knowledge or just getting straight to the point at which we become specialists. Well I believe it all depends on several factors that need to be considered, for example in a field of medicine a surgeon can only further by selecting a specialty. Whether they want to focus on cosmetic or neurology, they cannot be both since it would be dangerous to the patient if they were under-qualified for a certain procedure. In this case, specialty is needed and thrived upon, however in an artistic field it would be advantageous to be liberally taught. This way the generation of new ideas and methods can easily be approached and changes within industry can be made. Specialists in this field would tend to carry on the way they were taught since those methods prove well to them. At the same time it can be argued that a liberal would not understand some of the techniques and procedures involved and therefore be at a loss since productivity would suffer.
This is queue for Mr. Squishy; this is where a blend of both teaching methods would help a lot. Imagine an artist who is technically gifted and highly trained but has the ability to formulate new ideas and creativity. The artist would be able to see things from different perspectives but be able to relate them to what they are already taught. Looking at Fine Art course verses Game Art course, Fine Art skills provide students with the ability to be able to create any form of art and develop a strong artistic judgment. These skills can be applied to any industry since the basic ability is transferable, the skills teach the student how to produce art that in some way expresses them. Game Art is specialized and therefore the skills learned are meant to be taken into the games industry, a student would only be able to design certain sub specialties such as characters, environments, props and vehicles or the lot for the game industry. They would develop an artistic judgment but one that revolves around the needs of a game. Mood and emotion would not be a part of the work they create, it would not have a story just a purpose. Not saying that Game Art is not good since the skills learnt secure a job in the industry and are skills that a Fine Art student would not know unless taught in some way but it would be better to combine both skills.
The current Game Art course I am on seems to try and blend the two styles into one. The ability to work as a professional but transfers the skills that would be applied for a games industry into another field. Fine Artists would find it difficult to work on a commercial level since their work is produced for their judgment whereas Game Art is commercial. The blend of artistic judgment, ability to formulate creative ideas and work at a commercial and technical level would make a good overall artist. In certain other fields, employers should create a blend of Liberal back-grounded people and Specialists since specialists can keep the present going whereas the liberal individuals would be able to look at the future. They are adaptable and sustainable to change and can provide a wealth of knowledge from different backgrounds. Specialists can relate to the way things are going presently and keep them in tact.
• http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED172593&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED172593
• http://www.collegenews.org/x1910.xml
• http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/on-topic/education/liberal-arts-vs-specialiation-degree-better/
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