A/r/tography as a Pedagogical Strategy: Entering Somewhere in the Middle of Becoming Artist

A/r/tography is often considered to be an arts and education practice‐based research methodology, but this author explores a/r/tography as a pedagogical strategy that has informed the author's artistic practice and pedagogical experiments. The author tracks his own journey of entering into an a/r/trographic world and where that entering has positioned him as an artist and educator and then moves on to speculate a possible arts education as his a/r/tography contorts into conceptual doings. Walking is used as a concept, as a process or method to generate more concepts, and as an art form with pedagogical potential within several undergraduate and one graduate course at the author's university. The author also investigates alongside or in concert with the courses he gives. The author equates artistic concepts, like walking, with theoretical and philosophical arguments, assertions and propositions. Artistic processes are equated with methods and methodological concerns, even though these systems of inquiry and knowing may be idiosyncratic in artistic inquiry. And finally, an art form can be understood in research terms as a type of research product or creation, that can be an event, performance, or a continuation of these as write ups or presentations, that are shared with the general or a particular public.     

Mapping Invitations to Participate: An Investigation in Museum Interpretation

This a/r/tographic inquiry delves into questions about participatory art museum practice, specifically seeking to understand the nature of invitations to participate. Utilising drawings, writing and mapping of embodied participation, questions of how individuals are invited to participate in various locations and how these invitations inform the work of art museums that engage in participatory practice are considered. Conditions for participation, including familiarity, personalisation, enthusiasm, playfulness, narrative, uniqueness, sociability and listening, as well as anti‐invitations that contradict moves toward participation, are discussed in relation to examples from the study and scholarly writing. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to share research about participatory practice in various locations and its implications for art museums, and second, to explore the potential of arts‐based research methodologies, particularly a/r/tography, for art museum education research.     

The City of Richgate: A/r/tographic Cartography as Public Pedagogy

The City of Richgate project worked with eight intergenerational immigrant families and examined immigrant experiences and narratives through a community‐engaged process that employed a/r/tography as a methodology. As such, the research also investigated the extent to which a/r/tographical research could visually and narratively portray the analysis of data collected by the co‐a/r/tographers. After interviewing and collecting images from each family, large artistic gates (banners) were created. This first phase of the project revealed the power of images in situ, and thus the power of a/r/tography in situ. For the community members and co‐a/r/tographers meanings were constructed within ongoing a/r/tographic inquiries described as collective artistic and educational praxis. The second phase involved the identification of important places by each family within the City of Richmond. After analysing all of the data, several works of art were created with each family in mind: bus shelter images juxtaposing close‐up and far away geographical images; side‐by‐side images portraying historical and contemporary images of family ideals and/or issues; banners illustrating families in meaningful poses; and archival collections portraying the importance of identity and memory in the transformation of culture. This phase culminated in a citywide exhibition of the artwork performing public pedagogy. The exhibition questioned the idea of a City of Richmond having a community centre, and instead exhibited many Richgates, or conceptions of Richmond. Rather than having a city centre, there are many centres, a Network of Cities of Richgates, where centres are constantly changing and shifting to reflect the narratives of individuals living in a psycho‐geographical region of a city.     

The Project ‘Art for Learning Art’ in Contemporary Art Museums

Projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality are used in a visual arts‐based educational project in contemporary art museums from an a/r/tographic perspective. The project ‘Art for Learning Art’ (in Spanish, Arte para aprender arte), at the Museo CajaGRANADA in Granada (Spain) has been developed in collaboration with the University of Granada since 2013. We have employed creative, educational and research methodologies inspired by exhibited works in art museums to encourage visual feedback of visitors participating in collaborative installations. Two such experiences also were produced at the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum in March 2018; utilising the methodology of mediation through projection‐based augmented reality and virtual reality, which introduces facets of visual and physical experience that alter the whole experience for the museum's public. By putting on virtual reality headsets, and playing with physical movements, we generate images and change the projections in the museum using projection‐based augmented reality to disrupt the way the public typically moves in the museum. The purpose of the developed interrelations with artworks in the Museo CajaGRANADA and the Tate Liverpool Gallery and Museum was to create collaborative digital images by playing with select artworks exhibited in the museums’ collections. We use this kind of mediation in art museums to develop a visual understanding to provoke learning about art through art creation in a contemporary way. The results are extraordinary as images; they are collaborative artworks, which connect visually with the artworks in the exhibition.     

Encountering Pedagogy through Relational Art Practices

Two artists involved in ‘socially engaged art’ practice were invited to work with art education teacher candidates and instructors in an effort to rethink notions of teaching, learning and art. We initiated this residency, which we called ‘The Summerhill Residency’, to examine how learning encounters might create environments for meaningful exchanges between the ways in which artists and secondary art education teacher candidates learn to think about pedagogy and the nature of artistic learning. Drawing upon Bourriaud's theory of relational aesthetics, we consider, yet trouble, the relational aspects of the processes and products of the artist residency, and examine the crisis of imagination that permeated teacher candidates' experiences. Throughout the project, a/r/tography offered a rich form of living enquiry that opened up possibilities for learning within a community of enquirers.     

Pre-service teachers and visual arts education. A study based on artistic creation as a way of interrogating reality / Los futuros docentes y la enseñanza de las artes visuales. Un estudio basado en la creación artística como forma de interrogar la realidad

: This study explores pre-service teachers’ knowledge of visual arts education and their ability to undertake creative processes. It is a study conducted with 88 primary school student teachers from a university in southern Spain. The participants were required to produce an artistic piece in which they were asked to reflect their thoughts on visual art education. The resulting pieces served as a tool for inquiry which enabled us to evaluate their theoretical and practical knowledge after performing an analysis of their form and content. After analysing the data, we concluded that future teachers are aware that arts education develops many types of skills, although they are only partially able to carry out a satisfactory artistic creation process. Therefore, it is essential to reinforce the training of pre-service teachers in the domain of artistic processes. Questioning pre-service teachers directly, and doing so through artistic creation, has allowed us to ascertain their level of knowledge of the visual arts.     

“神”:杜甫诗论中的重要美学范畴

杜甫的诗歌理论推崇"神"这一审美范畴,"神"既体现出诗歌审美创作是诗人对审美对象进行心灵化加工的主客体双向异质同构的精神活动,同时,又规定着诗歌作品审美意境的创构应以"有神"为最高境界.在杜甫看来,只有达到"有神"、"神妙"的作品,才是艺术杰作,因此,他把是否创构出"有神"、"神妙"审美境界作为作品艺术成就高下的重要标准."有神"、"神妙"、"神",体现了杜甫的审美意趣与审美追求.     

Participatory action research in two primary schools in a rural Tanzanian village: an exploration of factors to cultivate changes in teaching and learning

Access to primary and secondary education in Tanzania has drastically expanded in the past two decades. In response to this success, its ministry is now targeting improvements in educational quality through additional reform. Yet teacher absenteeism, physical abuse, overcrowding, lecture-based pedagogy and a system of accountability based primarily on state and district examinations centered on rote memorization impose great obstacles to students being prepared for future employment and further education. This study draws insights into how traditional teaching and learning methods in one rural village in Tanzania can be changed through examining a collaboratively created intensive after-school program that focused on three content areas and used a participatory action research approach centered on cooperative inquiry. The key elements of the participatory action research approach drawn upon were using a participatory model to create a community of co-learners, designing the curriculum collectively, students collecting data in their communities about identified problems, requiring all participants to contribute, student groups disseminating their findings through presentations and an ongoing support system for teacher development in applying a student-centered pedagogy. Students responded through increased school attendance, confidence, self-esteem and active engagement while teachers incorporated participatory methods of instruction in their classrooms. The factors accounting for the consensus of support by villagers and school and government leaders for the program include community and government buy-in, the creation of a community of learners, consistent follow-up support for teachers and reinforcement of expectations.     

Living action research: authoring identities through yaya projects

This article examines the authors’ experiences living action research through an art therapy activity known as YaYa that involved creating and sharing visual representations of themselves as beginning researchers. This activity was part of a graduate course on education action research and students in the course found the activity transformative. The article first explores how four students in the course created and presented their YaYas. It goes on to discuss how the activity provided opportunities for students to imagine and re-imagine authored identities in the figured worlds of teaching and research. The role that visual arts play in transforming consciousness is also used to help understand the powerful impact of the YaYa activity. The YaYa as a visual artistic process opened students up to meaning-making and reconstructing identities that involved not only the mind, but also the emotions, body and spirit. The authors claim that learning action research can itself be a process of action research, and that living such practice is about involving and imagining the whole self in multiple figured worlds.     

中学美术教育评价机制改革刍议

评价是美术教育中不可或缺的重要环节,上海市紫竹园中学注重美术教育评价的艺术取向和学习主体的差异性,以分层教学理念为导向,充分尊重学生的个性特点,在教学实践中尝试创建开放式,多元式的美术教育评价模式,旨在提高学生的创造能力、实践能力、审美能力。     

论艺术院校专业教学与思想政治教育的融合创新 ——以山东艺术学院为例

艺术院校应重视大学生的思想政治教育,注重艺术专业教学与思想政治教育的融合创新,强化艺术类教师思想政治学习意识,提高艺术类教师思想政治理论水平,创新思想政治理论课教学形式,推进思想政治理论课教学改革,将思想政治教育元素和思想政治教育功能融入专业教学和专业实践,通过音乐创作、美术写生、戏剧创作、舞蹈表演、摄影创作、电影编导...     

Arts‐Based Educational Research in Museums: ‘Art for Learning Art’, an A/r/tographic Mediation

This article discusses forms of arts‐based mediation in museums that use creation as the primary tool in the learning process. We present four mediation experiences based on the arts‐based teaching methodologies promoted by the project ‘Art for Learning Art’. These experiences have been developed in four museums: the Centre Pompidou Málaga, the State Russian Museum in Málaga and the Espai d'Art Contemponeo [Center of contemporary art] in Castellón in Spain and the Modern Art Murilo Mendes Museum of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Four experiences in three cities of two countries that work in a methodology which involves participative and collaborative visitor connections with the works exhibited using arts‐based strategies. In all cases, the artistic works of the exhibitions are the conceptual basis for mediation proposals that are offered to the public in order to encourage participation. We link the aesthetic experience as the origin of the mediation process in two fundamental aspects: creation and appreciation. In the act of creative appreciation, most art education objectives are met. The actions and processes are directed by collaborative and contemporary creation strategies around two axes: museum educator‐artists in training and visitors‐artists as learners. In the four experiences that we present here, this confluence takes place. The four events have been adapted to the conditions of the place, public and art exhibitions, contributing new approaches to the model that has been promoted from the University of Granada since 2013.     

Against the Grain: An intervention of mastery learning and intellectual emancipation in art education

In a case study of an undergraduate course in art education, modes of mastery learning and propositions of intellectual emancipation were explored as interventions in curriculum design. By adopting Rancière’s framework of a ‘will to will’ relationship between instructor and students, the core assignment—a visual journal—became a site of student positionality through mastery methods, rather than information gathering. The visual journal provided a record of the event of knowledge and served as a forum to verify that acts of student thinking were done with attention, congruent with Rancière’s perspective that learning generates greater consciousness, feeling and action. Requiring both qualitative and quantitative criteria within the parameters of the visual journal functioned as a means to experiment with the potential convergences of mastery and emancipatory approaches. The visual journal then operated as a third space where ongoing, consistent engagement demonstrated the capacity of students to encounter more equitable relations with the instructor and with the content in ways that have implications for knowledge creation in teaching and learning.     

Preservice Teachers’ Images of Scientists: Do Prior Science Experiences Make a Difference?

This article presents the results of a mixed methods study that used the Draw-a-Scientist Test as a visual tool for exploring preservice teachers’ beliefs about scientists. A questionnaire was also administered to 165 students who were enrolled in elementary (K–8) and secondary (8–12) science methods courses. Taken as a whole, the images drawn by preservice teachers reflected the stereotype of a scientist as a man with a wild hairdo who wears a lab coat and glasses while working in a laboratory setting. However, results indicated statistically significant differences in stereotypical components of representations of scientists depending on preservice teachers’ program and previous science experiences. Post degree students in secondary science methods courses created images of scientists with fewer stereotypical elements than drawings created by students in the regular elementary program.     

走进心灵的家园──试论绘画艺术表现上的个性特质

艺术创造是艺术家们个性特质、灵感的产物。研究、揭示这种特质在艺术创造中的作用, 将更进一步推动人类自身的发现,从而不断深化艺术创造。     

Development of Art Appreciation in 11–14 year‐old Students

Modern art curricula derive from the assumption that visual arts education can be of a high quality only if productive and receptive artistic activities are implemented. In art education practice, we are able to follow incentives for artistic expression but pay less attention to developing art appreciation that is based on developing as subtle perceptions of artwork as possible. Students have few opportunities to observe, enjoy and understand artwork. This discussion presents the results of a study that monitored the development of art appreciation abilities of 11–14 year‐old students in Slovenian compulsory education. The level of art appreciation abilities is rather average and more developed with older students and girls. There were no statistically significant differences with regard to school stratum.     

话剧节对“艺术兴学”办学理念的探索与实践

话剧节是中文系结合专业特点打造的一项品牌活动,是我校＂艺术兴学＂和教育教学改革的一项标志性成果,它将学生教育管理工作与实践性教学改革有机结合起来,提升了大学生的人文素质和艺术修养,推进了校园文化艺术的繁荣发展,为社会造就了高素质的复合型人才。     

新时代主题性美术创作路向建构

主题性美术创作具有独特的美学价值和社会价值。进入新时代,主题性美术创作要在习近平新时代中国特色社会主义文艺思想指导下,建构以人民为中心的美术创作路向:我们要将人民作为新时代美术创作的中心、源泉和话题,从人民中挖掘典型形象作为创作的内容和主题,并从社会现实中寻找创作题材以凸显新时代主流意识形态;主题性美术创作具有审美认知、审美娱乐和审美教育等社会功能,能在潜移默化中宣传新时代中国价值观念、弘扬中国精神、彰显中华传统文化、体现中国人审美理想追求。     

试析吴冠中彩墨画中的装饰绘画语言

在当代艺坛中,吴冠中是最引人注目的画家之一。吴冠中的艺术创作,始终保持着装饰绘画的特点。他将工艺设计中的形式美因素和装饰绘画因素融合到国画创作中,从而形成其国画作品的审美形式特征,这一特征具有鲜明的装饰形式美或唯美倾向。传统的中国画是以笔墨、传统、文人画为主,而吴冠中的彩墨画介于具象和抽象之间,融合了中国传统文化的精髓和现代西方绘画的艺术风格。他的作品中有诸多可视因素,如画面中点、线、面、色彩、黑白元素的运用,并且通过聚散、疏密、强弱、虚实以及变化来丰富画面的装饰美感,表现了东方艺术特有的意境和西方绘画艺术的形式美、现代美。     

新媒体时代艺术教育的挑战与创新

艺术的创作和传播与媒体发展紧密相连。新媒体的发展和普及改变了人们的生活方式,推动人类进入一个前所未有的数字时代,艺术的创作方式和存在形式也因此改变,艺术与非艺术的界限正在消失,艺术有了更丰富的内涵。"新媒体艺术学院"、"数字媒体艺术"、"媒体创意"等专业院校大量涌现,伴随着数字艺术的蓬勃发展,艺术教育面对前所未有的挑战。艺术教育工作者需要结合新媒体艺术的特点,从课程设计、创新教育、团队协作等方面进行探索。