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Salient. Victoria University of Wellington Students' Newspaper. Vol. 32, No. 20. September 4, 1969

Opinion

Opinion

My topic is the S.U.B. proposed future colour-scheme. It stinks. It glares. It shows a taste so execrable that I wonder only that no proverbial plaster butterflies and yellow-and-purple ploka-dots have not some­how been fitted in—what else has not been?

The masterminds on the furnish­ings subcommittee of the S.U.B. (Management Committee, who are traring to slowly get the revised Structon scheme (interior) implemented in a "decent" (i.e. "imperceptible" — I am sorry to introduce you to the jargon) manner, have obviously not the same craving for Variety! in shapes as they have for Variety! (Please God. Give Me Variety!) in colours, as witnessed by the fact that my poor, feeble imagination, tho' floored by the "Colour Problem", has no difficulty in piling (shape-wise) disConcord upon disConcorde. Think of the circles, squares, triangles, oblongs, ellipses, etc. that they could have taken it into their heads to cover walls, floors, ceilings and (to do a thoro' job) hanging mobiles with! Gee!

As I see it, the "intellectuals" (culture-wise) of Western Civilisation have adopted the concept of there being a different degree of "artistic sophistication" in different people and publics (and what student would not like to think of himself as an intelectual?) This means, of course, that prolonged exposure to and discussion of cultural forms (I use "cul­tural" and "artistic" and their respective cognates interchangeably) will improve the quality of a person's and a public's response to such forms.

Now the interior (and, to a lesser extent, the exterior) S.U.B. proposed colour-schemes exhibit a high degree of such cultural naiveté. To be sure, this cannot all be blamed on the Sub-Committee, or on the watch-watching rubber-stamp that is the Management Committee, for many students have actively sustained their ignorance and many many more have done so passively, by their —Oh No. not this word again--by their Apathy.

Where is the Fine Arts Society, or whatever they call themselves—why have they not made bloc proposals? Where are the concerned responsible students, anxious that the future (clichetic) generations of fellows shall not suffer from some combina­tion of irresponsibility, laziness, im­modesty, lack of taste, cliquishness, and general rot of (principally) Four People (I exclude, through­out this article, Dr. Culliford, who obviously feels student matters should be settled by students, and acts ac­cordingly.

Where are the Freshers? Fresh from the authoritarian sludge of our secondary schools, they democratic­ally and self-respectingly modestly decide to let their elders run their affairs, although they are the ones whom these plans will affect the most. I will quote John Eade, whether he nor any other Exec, member knew anything about their respective jobs when they came onto Exec. That goes too for me, who came on half-way through the year.

Two of these four people appear, and I repeat "appear", mindless and characterless on the Subcommittee One other has this appearance, but also makes up a clique within a clique with the fourth, who says what eventually goes, although he should not really be on the Sub­committee at all, as he came onto the Management Committee in his capacity as House Committee Chair­man, a position now occupied by myself, and the duties of which he has long, long ago relinquished. The reason given for this person's reten­tion on the Subcommittee, although he has been prevailed upon to re­sign from Management Committee, is that "his experience will be valu­able". Now. I have been to a few (Furnishings) Subcommittee meetings (turning up late to one in­formal one, because I was not in­formed of its occurrence—how in­convenient it is to have a dissenting voice on one's Subcommittee), and only once have I heard (as I recall) this person make a judgement that could be reasonably said to have the possibility of an experimental basis. He did not give reasons—experimen­tal or otherwise—for this judgement. He has the capacity to understand mathematical formulae—such as that "The set 'unity' is wholly contained within the set 'beauty' " (if you'll excuse the undoubtedly inaccurate formulation) and to ignore them with­out stated reason.

"Sour Grapes!" Fair enough: but it is wrong to think that personality-clashes play no part in student politics. Here personalities will decide an important issue—the environment of future students at this university.

I picked up from my pigeon-hole a copy of the Minutes of a Meeting of the Furnishings Subcommittee held on Thursday. 7 August, l969, at 3 p.m.. in the Executive Meeting Room. Student Union. As had been agreed. I was down as having been an observer. As had not been agreed—openly—my insistence that my dissent be recorded to the proposed external decor of the S.U.B. had been ignored by Mr. Boyd. Blank paper spoke. The point is that the fact I was not told at the meeting that my dissent would not be recorded because I was merely an observer, or for some other reason, points to double-dealing, and to something like that Boyd realised the case was weak for my not having Arnold's vote All right—I'm making a fuss. I don't see why he should get away with this type of behaviour.

I do not consider myself very artistically sophisticated, especially as compared with people with good backgrounds in the visual arts, such as one might expect to find in the Fine Arts Society, but compared with the Four I mentioned above I certainly do. Giving them the job they've got is like entrusting the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to a group of nine-year-old End Blyton devotee. Why local professional visual arts experts should not be invited in to help us out. I do not see.

If people more qualified than I disagree with me, if they praise the current schemes, if members of the FOUR have distinguished line arts records, I shall have to eat very humble pic. Tough! If a large response is elicited by this, and the response is largely unfavourable to me. I shall be glad there has been a large response. This Matter It Too Important To Be Quiet About.

*

With Mr Zohrab's consent, his article was referred to the Secretary of the Association, Margaret Bryson. She replies:

AS one of the four(?) people on the Furnishing Sub-Committee referred to by Mr Zohrab, I fell I must point out some errors in his diatribe.

First—the committee has done everything in its power to glean student opinion on the colour schemes put forward for their consideration Prior to Mr Zohrab's having anything to do with the committee all schemes had been displayed and comments collected.

Second—according to the comments made by students on the schemes Mr Zohrab's views on the building seem to be in a minute minority—virtually a minority of one.

Third—what Mr Zohrab attacks as a mindless consensus on the part of the Committee is better regarded as general agreement—agreement not only with each other but also with the vast majority of student comments on the scheme.

Fourth—I would be the last to deny Mr Zohrab his liberty to disrupt and agitate, but the fact is that the colour scheme being implemented at present was thought out by an expert —the architect—and has met with general approval from students.

If Mr Zohrab must vent his spleen on something I suggest he find a more worthwhile topic.