ABSTRACT
The shift in focus for Art Schools, particularly within the Global North, from fine art to computer science and business studies has been slow but arguably insidious, inculcating a neoliberal business ontology which seeks to neutralize the critical and indeed radical potential of non-positivist disciplines. This chapter draws upon the author’s own career trajectory, from undergraduate study in UK art schools at the peak of Thatcherism and Reaganite economics, to being part of the Blair government’s initiative to get more women into computing in the late 1990s, to the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) educational initiatives which sprang from the America Competes Act of 2007, the year the author began a funded PhD in Arts and Computational Technology at Goldsmiths, Department of Computing. This chapter also analyzes the current growth of Computing and Business centers within the UK and more widely located Art and Design colleges, again drawing upon the author’s later experiences of lecturing and senior management within STEM and STEAM disciplines. Analyzing the rise of STEM and STEAM via a critique of Neoliberalism, Design Thinking and digital indoctrination, the key frames of reference are Hicks, Williamson, Selwyn and Anft.
