Darwinian Skinny Dipping, Drunk Drawing and the next adventure…
It’s surreal to think that I’m moving to Cambridge in just over 2 weeks. I’ve only been there once, in 2007 I think, and was escorted off the University premises for drunkenly skinny dipping in the early hours. “Efficient security”, I thought to myself, crossing the bridge away from the college and leaving a trail of wet footprints behind. I knew from experience that the University of East Anglia security definitely could not run that fast. The gates clanked shut as I pulled my underwear back on, and I marvelled at the beauty of the scene. I had bought the cheapest available Easyjet flights with some friends, returns to Valencia, and due to the timing we’d decided to crash on the floor of a friends’ friend’s Cambridge college dorm overnight (I don’t remember which and it has become quite the mystery).
I was studying at the University of East Anglia at the time, and compared to my dorm in Norwich, the student accommodation I saw in Cambridge was stunning - ancient, even. My UEA apartment was called a “pod” and the whole thing was very new and compact, with fourteen people on each floor and two shared kitchens between us. However, in this Cambridge apartment, the student had actual rooms; a sitting room with upholstered antique furniture, mahogany bookcases filled with encyclopaedias, a fireplace, a bedroom, and a bathroom with a bath. I don’t remember if it had a kitchen, I think meals might have been provided. I remember the floors being dark waxed wood which had become slanted at strange angles through the centuries. The whole thing made me feel dizzy - maybe jealous, maybe also a bit self-righteous. “This is what the class divide looks like”, I told myself - and let’s be honest, I was largely correct.
King’s College, Cambridge
I have always been very proud of UEA for the socialist, anti-establishment stance it takes on most things - this is needed in a society as hierarchical and inequitable as the UK’s. And in its own way, Central Saint Martins, where I did my postgrad studies, is also an incubator for innovation and rebelliousness, producing cultural icons like Alexander McQueen and M.I.A. However, the age and prestige of Cambridge was seductive. As I rose at dawn to take the train back to Norwich, I think some part of me was curious whether I would ever be back to Cambridge, (and another part of me wondered whether security had kept my details on some kind of blacklist for future reference).
UEA Ziggurats, Norwich
So why am I going? Of course I am an artist by profession, but I’ve also been a university tutor and lecturer on-and-off since 2014. That’s mostly in South Korea, and to a lesser extent the UK and US. To lecture full-time at University level in the UK, however, you need a postgraduate teaching qualification. And that’s the long and short of it - If I study one year it will be a PGCE, two years would be a Master of Education, either way, by the end I will be allowed to lecture in the UK in the same capacity I have done in other countries. Since Design and Technology feeds into Engineering, it’s considered a STEM subject and so I was fortunate to get a fully funded ride - which I’m infinitely grateful for.
The application process was quite gruelling, comprising a written application of many sections, a timed essay on the subject of Design and Technology pedagogy, a few referees needed, and a two-and-a-half-hour interview in which I was set against another applicant and (kind of) made to compete for one remaining space. I want to say a special thanks to Dr Eric Chapman Frauwirth and Professor Stuart Jones for graciously providing me with references for this process.
The last stage of the application required me to select a college - you must be accepted to both a course and a college in order to attend Cambridge. I really had no idea about the collegiate system, and the whole thing felt very Harry Potteresque. I scanned the list of colleges; “Kings College, Queens College - well I don’t agree with our monarchical system so I avoided those… Christ College, Jesus College, Emmanuel College, St Catherine’s, St Edmund’s, St John’s, Trinity - all too Goddy for me… Corpus Christi College - too latin… Churchill College - too patriotic and good-old-days-when-men-was-men-and-women-was-women-feeling… Wolfson College, Selwyn College and Hughes Hall have nice names but I don’t know what they stand for.” And then I saw “Darwin College” and instinctively ticked that one. I like Darwin. I was living my Goldy-Locks fantasy. For the second choice I randomly ticked Newnham College, which turns out to be a Women’s College, and therefore not one I could get into anyway lol.
Darwin College thankfully accepted me. So this I what I know about the college so far:
It was founded in 1964, and named after the Darwin family of Charles Robert Darwin, English naturalist (not naturist), geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. As such, it’s quite a science based College, but strives to keep a balance with the humanities and arts.
Darwin College was the first graduate-only College in the University of Cambridge.
The College was the first one to admit both men and women, and strives to be an “egalitarian academic community.”
It has an Art collection, which is hung throughout the rooms and dining hall.
The Granddaughter of Charles Darwin was Gwendolen Mary "Gwen" Raverat, a wood engraver who was a founder member of the Society of Wood Engravers. My accommodation is named after her. She was active in the Bloomsbury Group and a neo-Pagan - so I’ll bring my Tarot cards along.
The college organises an annual Lecture Series, with eight talks over eight weeks structured around a single theme (such as 'Power'). This is examined from very different perspectives such as scientific, humanities, arts, etc.
And they have a “Drunk Drawing society” which I have, of course, already joined.
Darwin College, Cambridge
Where some of the other colleges appear quite stony-faced and elitist, Darwin’s social media mostly comprises photos of baby ducklings, cheeky otters and friendly drawings. In college terms it seems to fall somewhere between pottering around the garden and trying to prevent the global climate change apocalypse. Not, I might add, that unlike the feeling of UEA. I did a quick check and it turns out that UEA and Darwin College were actually founded within a year of each other; 1963 and 1964. This period coincides with a whole fleet of “Utopian Universities” in the UK which were built to facilitate the expansion of higher education in the 1960s. Campuses such as Sussex (1961), East Anglia [UEA], York (both 1963), Lancaster (1964), Essex, Kent, and Warwick (all 1965) were launched from scratch, “nearly always funded by the state, usually promising new institutional structures and innovative curriculum design, often boasting eye-catching new buildings by star architects.” They were there to give the working class a chance at higher education and level the playing field somewhat. From what I’ve seen of Darwin, it seems to have a similar spirit. So of all the colleges, I think this one feels like the best fit for me. A lucky choice - thank you Jesus.
Gwen Raverat, Illustration from “The Runaway“
During my time at Cambridge, I intend to research and write my thesis on the perception of intelligence for visually / spatially gifted children. I think artists, designers, carpenters and all kinds of craftspeople suffer from a lack of acknowledgement from an early age. If a young child can recite the periodic table and do complex equations in their heads we tend to see them as intelligent, but if a child is able to craft a figure or draw a face we might call them “artistic”, or “talented”, but rarely “intelligent.” I believe this has grave ramifications on the confidence and mental health of visually / spatially intelligent people throughout their lives, and influences a lack of funding and prestige in the arts in general. I would go as far as to suggest it contributes somewhat to the class divide between makers and managers. I can't imagine a better place to make this case than at an epicentre of academic excellence like Cambridge.
Central Saint Martins’ “Drunk Drawing Society” - the forbidden dream
On a final note, when I tried to set up my own Drunk Drawing Society in Central Saint Martins it was rejected by the Student Union - so I hope the arts students responsible for that blunder know that they are less rebellious than a Cambridge College, and hang their heads in shameeeeee! Shame. On. Youuuuuuu.
Right, I’ve got 2 weeks left till my next skinny dip in Cambridge. Off we go…
