Going to waste

Shame on the University of the Arts London for its po-faced reaction to Ann Plumb’s ceramic turds (“Scatological art difficult to pass”, News, 31 July). What would the costive UAL make of the faecal outputs of Gilbert and George or Chris Ofili, not to mention Marcel Duchamp’s urinal or Piero Manzoni’s tins of his own crap (which sold for their weight in gold)?

In the same issue of Times Higher Education, Brian Bloch (“Gut reaction: it all comes out right in the end”, News) reports on the popularity of the delightfully named Giulia Enders, whose “foray into the world of bowels and the associated movements” (I see what you did there, Brian!) is taking Germany by storm. In these days of “impact”, ought not UK higher education to value more the kinds of research that set out to make a splash?

Peter J. Smith
Nottingham Trent University