Category: Art Education Theory and Research

Playing, Creativity, Possibility – Olivia Gude

Gude cites Carl Rogers a lot in this article. Rogers says that in order to cultivate creativity, external evaluation must be absent, which I think is true upon the initial realization of an artwork, but feedback and conversation counts as external evaluation. I want to encourage and nurture a talkative and safe environment for that to happen.

I think that what’s forgotten with creative freedom (and was touched upon in describing Rogers’ psychological freedom) is an absence of responsibility. The maker needs to remember that they are putting the creation into existence for a consumer audience.

I look up the Spiral Workshop which led me to Gude’s lesson plans.

It’s interesting that she writes about a less structured approach to teaching, yet uses enabling constraints in her lessons (i.e. A Portrait of Place lesson, where students link a place to who they are and cannot use linear perspective.)

Question: What kind of activities allow students to have a ‘creative break’ from an art project?

A/r/tography as Living Inquiry Through Art and Text – Stephanie Springgay and Rita L. Irwin Sylvia Wilson Kind 

What is the point of defining Artography?

Does it limit people’s accessibility, by overcomplicating art research, segmenting the subject from other disciplines more than intertwining them?

Is it magic?

Is it tangible, who does it serve?

Does it serve as a guide for art educators, a new way of research that allows for slippage, making, and other modes of inquiry?

Or does it rid artists of accountability (oh, yes, that was part of the process; that was a mistake)

(unfinished work)

(walking in the woods a creative process, enter: another magical realm)

I am not sure if Artography stands up in the name of art practices or separates the subject further from the others, into a further division of categories. Irwin’s six renderings of Artography seems like a different version of a DBAE model, but maybe like a reactionary force against it (using of scraps, entering cracks and constantly living in question.)

The object, the artwork, becomes less important than the discussions surrounding it. And there’s no definite end of becoming an artist or teacher, it is a continual journey.

Embracing Subjective Assessment Practices: Recommendations for Art Educators – Leslie Gates

Objectivity is a choice, and subjectivity means that you can evaluate students based on their growth and individuality. Objectivity can negate the teacher’s expertise or result in a problem where the teacher avoids creating meaningful criteria at all.

I like the article’s emphasis on language in terms of performance descriptors. It is possible to create rubrics with qualitative and subjective language that produces quantitative, measurable results for school admin. I have inserted images from the reading because it provides concrete examples for wording teachers can use in their criteria, and also “longitudinal data” to show the student their progression.

Question: Is using words like “weak” on a rubric harmful towards students? Or is it simply just being realistic?

Tumbling Lessons: Using Tumblr Iconography to Strengthen Multimodal Teaching and Learning in Preservice Art Education

Brooke A. Hofsess, Sara Scott Shields & Gloria J. Wilson

I think having the crossover between digital engagement through Tumblr and materiality through PlayLab sessions for preservice teachers is a great example of multimodal teaching and learning. I think that point of integrating varied medias into lessons is actually quite obvious: to keep students engaged in a variety of current and interesting ways. However, I am a bit confused as to why Tumblr was chosen as the place for preservice teachers to share their content. I think the icons and layout of Tumblr are simple and attractive, but it serves as a platform to share and repost content between quirky subcultures. I understand the metaphor between Tumbling and teaching (making mistakes, exploration and letting go of expectation) but I wonder who is looking at the Tumblr posts and its effectiveness in comparison to making a Facebook page run by preservice teachers, using WordPress, or even Instagram. My questions are:

• What is the best social media platform for preservice teachers to use for critical reflection?
• Who do the reflections primarily serve?
• And what happens to the blog after teacher candidates are finished their degree?

Making Partnerships with Steam – Karen McGarry

I tried doing some research on STEAM initiatives in BC.

This website provides a map/snapshot of organizations currently involved in STEAM: https://www.symbiosis.ca

Symbiosis mostly collaborates with Science World. More images and events details can be found here: https://twitter.com/symbiosisca

I think this article provided a good base for describing the ways STEAM is applied (e.x. For the ‘S’, arts can help visualize Scientific data in alternative, interactive ways.) More importantly, McGarry’s article got me interested in actually doing some research into STEAM projects in Vancouver and around BC. I remember our TA for our English Language Learning course participates in STEAM projects, using his theatre education background to present scientific results. A quick google search of similar projects brought me to an event that occurred this April at UBC’s Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies. Two researchers and a theatre-educator created plays on telling the stories and narratives based on research in delivering clean water to rural BC and Indigenous communities and exploring disabilities in health professions. It inspires me to find ways to include performative art and storytelling to visualize, experience and engage with STEM.

Considering Visual Arts Practices at the Secondary Level: Extending Cross-Curricular Conversations Among Secondary Educators – Tanya Scott & Todd Twyman

I like how the article addressed issues in regard to the cross curricular model, such as time and mixed grade classes. In relation to the previous reading, this reading also prompted me to do more research into projects that I could use in the classroom that would involve a crossover of different subjects. I found this book, accessible online through UBC library, called A Companion to Interdisciplinary STEM Project-Based Learning. It contains 25 Project Based Lessons that is extremely useful for teachers of any discipline. Although the “A” for STEAM (A = Art) is not explicitly recognized, I read through some of the lessons and there definitely are art-making components to each project (building a better cereal box that is self-sealing/openable/meet manufacture requirements, designing a self-sustaining operations base on Mars that can support a small human settlement, etc.) There is plenty of optimism in the art subject’s flexibility to combine with other subjects. If art is the connector, I am worried the art teacher will be faced with a lot of expectations and be pulled in maybe too many different directions. So I guess my question is, how do art teachers manage this flexibility?

A Real Community Bridge: Informing Community-based Learning through a Mode of Participatory Public Art

William Cochran’s community bridge mural is a passive example of what participatory public art can be. The conversation that happens between the artist and the public should be pushed so that the artist could’ve  invited participants to gather, watch, or help carve the stones. Public artwork and community based artwork is being encouraged to go beyond the purpose of “finding common ground.” Through studying the texts of Claire Bishop and Nicolas Bourriaud for past research, I realize the quality of the relations established between the artist and public need to be questioned. The community’s input into the bridge is hidden behind the singular artist. So how do teachers avoid creating a community art piece with their students that isn’t superficial or simply a spectacle?

What is Community-Based Art Education?

J. Ulbricht

Social Justice and Art Education
Elizabeth Garber

Garber’s personal experience and concrete examples of how to use social justice in the classroom really stood out to me. For instance, she described how students focused on identity for their project theme “Understanding Beyond Ourselves.” Even the unit plan’s title is intriguing. I volunteered at Lord Byngs’ art classes and was given the opportunity to develop a lesson plan around identity, but found the work produced fell short of my expectations.  The process and results reflected my surface-level lesson plan on identity. After the reading, I see identity from a more complex perspective. Looking at identity from how others might perceive us, through cultural norms, stereotypes, and discrimination, and being aware that identity is an emotionally sensitive subject, can encourage discourse and critical inquiry in the class.

Question: How can teachers work with administration to promote social justice in education without

Where is the Action? Three Lenses to Analyze Social Justice Art Education

Marit Dewhurst

In Dewhurst’s article, she mentions that when students are translating their concepts into material, there is a balancing act between aesthetic aims and activist intentions. Students become aware of the choices they make in material. I drew connections from this reading to discussions on aesthetics that we have been having in our inquiry course. For instance, Dewhurst touched on some student examples that subduing colours makes a symbolic statement (i.e. the American flag) less obvious. Why are we (and I use this term very generally) attracted to art with  messages or symbols that are less overt, and how does this shut out people who find it more difficult to access the hidden meaning? Or is it simply opening up space for more inquiry and discussion?

Question: If process is integral to realizing a social-justice artwork, how and does this process need to be documented?

Curriculum Change for the 21^stCentury

Source: Freedman, K., & Stuhr, P. (n.d.). Curriculum Change for the 21st Century: Visual Culture in Art Education.

Initially, I appreciated the broad term “Visual Culture” introduced by Kerry Freedman and Patricia Stuhr as a production and exchange of identities, technologies and representations (read my second reflection on the next article for how my sentiments changed.) Understanding visual culture will help students understand their place in the world.

Although I agree that visual culture must be addressed and embedded into the art curriculum, along with the intersection of other ‘non-art’ subjects (math, science, etc.), I believe Freedman and Stuhr envision a creative utopia without the technical constraints of high art.

“Of course some technical exercises are important to art education, but to emphasize this model of instruction confounds the importance of art.” (Freedman and Stuhr, p. 821).

I believe technique and format need to be taught and enforced, but not from a Eurocentric Western perspective. Technique and history are the grounding point for concept, giving students a base to learn and experiment. I do agree that traditional perspectives on art education such as: art being inherently good, a consistent emphasis on realistic representation, and art maintaining childlike qualities automatically being connected to self expression, need to be challenged.

Question: Where and how is there room for play if the curriculum is changed to build students into more responsible citizens?

Beyond Visual Culture

Source: Paul E. Bolin & Doug Blandy (2003) Beyond Visual Culture: Seven Statements of Support for Material Culture Studies in Art Education, Studies in Art Education, 44:3, 246-263, DOI: 10.1080/00393541.2003.11651742

I am glad that this article challenges the previous article in its use of the term Visual Culture. I find myself passively ignoring the importance of the way we use language to permit, dismiss, and regulate people. By replacing Visual Culture with the term Material Culture, there is an effort to include the multi-sensory experience of human made objects, forms and expressions that we frequently engage with and rely on. I drew many connections to this article from other courses I have taken on Art and Disability and also Semiotics.

To subvert language’s authority, we must check into its history, ask “who owns which words?”, and realize that words have more than one definition. For example, Bolin and Blandy’s article list numerous historical definitions of material culture on page 249, therefore giving the reader multiple perspectives and definitions to read from. Similarly, reading and understanding material culture is difficult to do so responsibly, relying on various sources of knowledge and skills (Blandy and Bolin, p. 252).

Furthermore, the multi-sensory experience must be scrutinized. I found the example of certain computer games being potentially damaging multi-sensory experience to be quite interesting. Whereas the audience member is a passive participant in watching a film or TV, gamers immediately partake in someone else’s point of view, which is something I never thought about. I understand the tactics, which seem obvious to me, in how advertisers combine art, fashion, and installation to create a confusing experience for the consumer (What is the product? Or is it art?) But I never realized the immediacy of the game-creators’ influence in first-person gaming.

Question: What are the dangers of intersecting or mistaking nature from material culture?