Light & Shadow: The Art of Matt Faulkner

About 15 years ago I was having a cup of tea with a friend during a break in between classes at the college where we were teaching. He was the dean of the sculpture division of the Fine Arts Dept. and I was adjunct faculty for the Illustration Dept. (don't get me started on my feelings about his dept. being called "fine arts" and mine not). Anyway, we were sharing concerns over the malaise we were encountering in students when he looked at his watch and said "I've got to go give a senior a critique of his degree project. Actually, this is a good example of what I see regularly." He then shared with me the story of this student who had spent the past 6 months not applying himself to the prescribed process for developing his degree project- moping about, not doing much, arguing with his instructors. Lo and behold, last week they found that he'd placed orange road-construction tape around his studio space. Seems he decided that the mess he'd made in his studio, along with the angst he'd experienced over the past 6 months, were his degree project. It was my friend's job to give this "project" his serious consideration.
I never found out how they graded this students efforts (or lack there of). What do you think- pass or fail?