Looking Awry at Assessment and the Abrogation of Becoming

Abstract

Sometimes a curious contradiction exists between our everyday practices of communication, action and relation and those which inform our critical exploration of such practices and relations. This contradiction is summed up by Zizek’s (1989) reference to Manoni’s statement, ‘Je sais bien, mais quand meme,’ ‘I know very well…,’ (e.g., that money in itself has no value, that you are not a fully autonomous being), ‘but all the same…’ (in my everyday practices I act as though it does, I act as though you are). This indicates a striking disavowal between belief and practice. In the context of assessment we might venture that: ‘I know very well…,’ (that to assess art work is problematical, perhaps even undesirable), ‘but all the same…,’ (I continue to do it). The discrepancy between belief and practice is infused with complicities of power whereby although we may not believe totally in our specific social mandates the demands of our institutionalised practices suggest that we do.