InSEA 2018

Dr. Tyson E. Lewis is a professor of art education at the University of North Texas where he teaches courses in educational philosophy, aesthetics, and critical theory. Although Dr. Lewis has published on a wide variety of topics, his research continues to focus on themes, concepts, and experiences that are usually deemed abnormal, deficient, or counterproductive to educational life. Dr. Lewis hopes to redeem the missed potentiality found within marginal concepts such as distraction, ignorance, stupidity, and impotentiality. An educational experience that embodies many of these discarded ideas is study, which, for Dr. Lewis, is distinct from learning. Results of this philosophical research have been published in journals such as Thesis Eleven, Cultural Critique, Cultural Politics, Educational Theory, and The Journal of Aesthetic Education. He is also the author of four books, including The Aesthetics of Education: Theater, Curiosity, and Politics in the Work of Paulo Freire and Jacques Ranciere (London: Continuum, 2012), On Study: Giorgio Agamben and Educational Potentiality (New York: Routledge, 2013), Inoperative Learning: A Radical Rewriting of Educational Potentiality (New York: Routledge, 2017), and finally, The Absent Minded Examiner: Walter Benjamin's Educational Forms (New York: SUNY Press, forthcoming). 

The Contours of Posthumanism in the Art Classoom

We have a tendency to think about posthumanism as something that we, as a species, are becoming through various hi-tech entanglements. This notion of posthumanism looks toward the future with either utopian hopes or dystopian dread. Yet such a perspective seems to indicate that we are not always already posthuman, even in our most basic, everyday, and banal practices. In this paper, I will highlight the posthuman dimension of contour line drawing in an art classroom. Rather than posit contour drawing as an expression of human perception or cultural convention, I will argue that the contour reveals how objects perceive their environments. As such, the contour is the result of the infiltration of the perceptual lives of objects on human vision. I will conclude by suggesting how a posthumanist curriculum can find itself first and foremost in existing practices rather than in postulating new ones. 

Aaron D. Knochel, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Art Education in the Penn State School of Visual Arts and an Embedded Researcher at the Art & Design Research Incubator (ADRI) in the College of Arts & Architecture at The Pennsylvania State University. He has presented his research at a range of national and international conferences including the National Art Education Association National Convention and at the International Society for Education through Art World Congress most recently in Daegu, South Korea. Knochel was chosen as a 2011 Digital Media and Learning Summer Research Institute Fellow funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Knochel's research focuses on the intersections between art education, social theory, and media studies. From community-based media production to participatory do-it-yourself digital fabrication, his interests follow the complexities of civic engagement both through art and design and through network connectivity. Recent grant funded research projects include a National Science Foundation Eager Maker grant for M.A.K.E. 3D a deployable makerspaces exploring interdisciplinary making and 3D printing technologies and a Penn State Philadelphia Center Seeding Change grant focused on designing public monuments through participatory action research and co-design social practices. Publications include articles in Studies in Art Education, Visual Arts Research, The International Journal of Education through Art, and Kairos. Generally, he tries to live up to his @artisteducator twitter bio: artist-teacher-visual culture researcher-digital media flaneur-novice hacker and pixel stacker.

Encountering Wicked Problems
The world is full of dynamic and complex challenges. These wicked problems require problem solving and creative inquiry that demands the unique and nuanced capacity of artists and designers to perceive, play, and ideate a world as yet unknown. My talk will focus on the opportunities that art-based and transdisciplinary research can provide in navigating an uncertain future. 

Andrea Kárpáti, Prof. Dr., is Head of the Visual Culture Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Science and ELTE University, Budapest. She is also Professor of Education and UNESCO Chairholder at Eötvös Loránd University, Centre for Science Communication and Multimedia in Education. Her research foci: visual culture of children and adolescents, digital literacy, museum learning and STEAM: synergy of science and arts education. She has been involved with InSEA since 1980, served for two terms as Vice President and holds the Ziegfield Award for Distinguished International Leadership in Art Education.

e-mail: [email protected]

Diederik Schönau is a psychologist and art historian. He worked as a subject specialist in visual art education at Cito, the Dutch institute for educational measurement, where he was responsible for the production of final examinations and tests in all visual art subjects in the Netherlands for all school levels (both studio work and written exams). For twenty years he has been a trainer and international consultant at Cito on educational assessment. He was professor in arts education at ArtEZ University of the Arts in Zwolle, with a special interest in issues of quality, interdisciplinarity and artistic thinking. He is currently an independent international consultant in art education. For more than thirty years he has published extensively in international journals and publications on assessment in visual art education, quality issues and educational goals in art education, but also on Italian frescoes in the fourteenth century.
From 1999 till 2002 he was President of InSEA. In 2006 he received the USSEA International Ziegfield Award for outstanding work in international art education.

E-mail: [email protected]

THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK OF REFERENCE FOR VISUAL LITERACY

Andrea Kárpáti and Diederik Schönau

In 2016 the European Network for Visual Literacy (ENViL) published the Prototype of a Common European Framework for Reference for Visual Literacy. As its name suggests, this Framework presents a generic description and model of competencies each European citizen should have in the domain of Visual Literacy.

This domain includes what is traditionally covered by visual art education: production (studio work) and reception (experiencing and interpreting). In this keynote, the presenters will address why and how this Framework was conceived, what it covers and open up a discussion with the audience. They will also introduce the series of workshops on the Framework as part of the congress programme.

Helena Sederholm (PhD) is a professor in art education in the Department of Art at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS), Espoo Finland. Her research interests focus on contemporary art, art theory, and art & science education. As the Head of the Department of Art (2009–2014) she contributed strongly to create Biofilia – Base for Biological Arts in the Aalto ARTS. She has written about art and science, and curated an international exhibition The Starry Skies of Art with science writer Markus Hotakainen in 2016. The exhibition and an accompanied book dealt with art, astronomy and travels in space.

Art meets Science meets Art – What could go wrong?

Collaboration between artists and scientists is always an exciting endeavour and sometimes it could be fruitful for both parties providing interesting and even surprising results. Often the basis of the cooperation is the fact that the conceptions of each other’s fields are enthusiastic but deficient, at times characterised by weird pre- or misconceptions. In this keynote I will demonstrate with the aid of two examples how art is not always working the way scientists often assume it to work (for instance in forensic astronomy) and science is not necessarily working the way art educators would like it to work (for instance working with a satellite).

Samia Elsheikh is a Professor in the Department of Hand Crafts and Oriental Traditions at University of Helwan, Egypt. She is currently the Vice president of InSea “The international society for education through art” and part of  the World Council Regional Representatives for InSea Africa&Middle east region. She is a member of the Scientific Committee for the Promotion of faculty members, Deputy Director of the Quality Assurance Unit at the faculty of helwan university and the Chairman of the hand crafts and Oriental Traditions department.

The art of deconstructing fabric to create transparent maze project

Weaving is an art process where Yarns intersect in different manners to create fabric. In this project it was the opposite way, deconstruct weaving was the way of achieving the designs and the semi-transparent fabric to create domains and domain walls to show a unique collection of 1910Islamic art at the haus der kunst in Munich. 2010. Working with group was the best way to creat the fabric. Designs was made of modern abstract where lines and shapes are inspired by digital codes. Jute was used to create the domain walls for many reasons such as its physical characteristics. Jute is a long, soft, shiny vegetable fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. When the fabric was assembled, the resulting spaces, formed across triangles, cohere into a network of pathways which comments upon the architecture in a subtle manner, inasmuch as it temporarily ushers the strict hierarchy of the halls into a new, interlaced and multi-perspective order. The concept issues a summons to view attainable concatenation between tradition and future from subsequent views.  The challenge was to create 285mv of semi-transparent hand fabricated domain walls.

Exhibitions and museums are two important fields in education. In this research, the art of making environment for showing museum items in an exhibition include many thinking, problem solving, art expression and culture exchange. 

Terike Haapoja is a Finnish visual artist based in New York. Haapoja’s large scale installation work, writing and political projects investigate the mechanics of othering with a specific focus on issues 
arising from the anthropocentric world view of western modernism. Haapoja represented Finland in the 55 Venice Biennale with a solo show in the Nordic Pavilion, and her work has been awarded with several prizes, including ANTI prize for Live Art (2016), Dukaatti-prize (2008) and Ars Fennica prize nomination. History of Others, Haapoja's collaboration with writer Laura Gustafsson has been awarded with Finnish State Media art award (2016) and  Kiila-prize (2013). Haapoja contributes to journals and publications internationally, and is the co-editor of publications Altern Ecologies – Emergent Perspectives on the Ecological Threshold in the 55. Venice Biennale (Frame 2015), History According to Cattle (History of Others, 2015), Field Notes – From Landscape to Laboratory (The Finish Bioart Society), among others. Haapoja is an adjunct professor at Parsons Fine Arts, New York.

Between Thingness and Being - Artistic Explorations on How to Be Here With Others

Through the last 15 years, visual artist Terike Haapoja has investigated our relationship to the nonhuman world and how mechanics of othering operate in the society. Haapoja’s research-based, interdisciplinary work tackles questions on legal personhood, animality, systems of knowledge production and the limits of representative democracy through writings, installations and collaborative projects. In her keynote lecture at INSEA conference Haapoja will thread together a personal narrative of her journey as an explorer - rather than a researcher - of the boundaries and possibilities of ethical encounters.

Ernst Wagner, lecturer and researcher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the UNESCO-Chair in Arts and Culture in Education at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. He studied art at Academy of Fine Arts, Munich and graduated with a PhD in art history at Ludwigs-Maximilian-University, Munich. After teaching art at school he was responsible for art, film and drama education (curriculum development, central assessments) at the Institute for School Quality, Munich 2006 - 2014. He is member of the European Council of InSEA and honorary professor at the Hong Kong University of Education.

His research is focused on Visual Literacy, Museum Education, ‘Arts Education and Education for Sustainable Development’ in the context of UNESCO. He chaired the consortium developing the ‘Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Literacy’, that was funded by the European Commission 2013 – 2016. He has published more than 250 books and articles.

“There is no planet B” (Ban Ki-moon) – how art education can help to develop a sustainable “planet A”

Sustainable development is one of the main challenges of our world today. Thus the United Nations developed the ‘Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) as their programmatic foundation until 2030. UNESCO followed with a Global Action Plan (GAP) for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The presentation will showcase results of a worldwide survey amongst leading art education specialists held in 2016/2017. For this survey the respondents were asked to nominate and explain good practice examples from their respective country of origin, related to the topic ‘art education for sustainable development’. Examples from this survey will be presented and first preliminary ideas discussed how a concept for ‘art education for sustainable development’ could be designed.

Stine Ejsing-Duun is associate professor in technology, design thinking, computational thinking, learning, and play & games. Her research aims at investigating how design can be used as modes of inquiry that can help us create preferable futures, and be fruitful for learning processes and creativity. Her research interest is centered on the meeting between humans and technological systems, asking how technology allows us to act upon and transcend ourselves in everyday spaces providing us with new perspectives. 

Her research has been in various areas connected to play and playful processes - especially in games and game design and in making games that create change. Her present studies are within the fields of design, learning, and art including: Gamification; Gameful design; Design thinking/doing; Playful programming/computational thinking.

Affiliations:

Center for Visual Studies and Learning Design (ViLD) | Center for Applied Game Research (CEAGAR) | Communication IT and Learning Design Lab (K-ILD)/(ILD) | Department of Communication and Psychology at Aalborg University Copenhagen, Denmark.

“World creation”  How might we educate the citizens of the future to be thoughtful creators?

Education that focus on facts and grades does not nurture creativity and problem-solving skills. If the new generations are expected to tackle real-world problems, we need to be able to learn from practice and use theory, but also to produce new insights in the realm of the unknown. When venturing into untrodden ground, tackling emerging problems abductive reasoning as a type of reasoning that is behind introducing new ideas. However, while inductive and deductive reasoning is highly appreciated, abductive reasoning is a way of thinking often not supported in (higher) education.

Through an investigation of abductive reasoning, design as inquiry, and design thinking as approaches to pedagogy and learning, this presentation shows possibilities for nurturing creativity and critical thinking. In my talk, I will use examples from different parts of the educational system. It relates to game-based learning, design thinking and design practice.

Timo Jokela is Professor of Art Education and Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design, University of Lapland in Finland. He is also lead of University of Arctic’s circumpolar thematic network on Arctic sustainable Art and Design. He also worked as Visiting Professor of Art Education and Environmental Art at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland (2006-2011). His academic studies focus on sustainability, socio cultural and  phenomenological relationship between art and nature, environmental art, community art and art education. He has been responsible for several international and regional art-based action research projects in the field of art education and applied visual arts. Jokela has published several articles and books. 

Jokela works actively as a community-based  environmental artist, often using natural materials and the local cultural heritage as a starting point for his works. He has realized several exhibitions, environmental art and community art projects in Finland and abroad.

From erosion to renewing: Participatory Art Education facing changes in the North

Global warming, urbanization and globalization have significant implications for cultures of the North and the Arctic. It entails a complex set of processes where people live, who they are, how they live in terms of culture, economic well-being, political organization, demograph­ic structure and social and  cultural  relations.  Simultaneously, the youth in the north, are sent to have their education in the south or in bigger cities. This has led, in many small towns and villages, to an erosion of social structures and has created series of recognized problems, including ageing of the population, youth unemployment and the disintegration of cultural activities as well as psychosocial problems often related to the loss of cultural identity and weak communication.  The way from erosion to renewing depend of human capacity. Investment on education and creativity, will be the key to the next devel­opment process of the region. Art and design  education can have a leading role to play when new initiatives are needed to enable communities to take charge of their own development processes. This highlights decolonization and cultural-sensitive approaches, regional expertise, co-research and communality. 

Joaquín Roldán is a visual artist and art educator. He has worked as an Associate professor in visual art education at the University of Granada during the last 19 years. He is Coordinator of the Master in Visual Arts and Education for the last 6 years, curator and responsible for the exhibition art for learning art. He was a professor in art education at the Autonomous National University of Honduras in Tegucigalpa during the last three years, with a special interest in issues of arts-based research and teaching methodologies, aesthetic experience and the use of images in teaching and research. For more than fifteen years he has published in international journals and books in visual art educational research methods.

Education through creation in arts for social intervention

My intervention will present a methodological approach in education for social intervention focused on creation. Based on two experiences in educational programs in visual arts in schools and museums and exhibitions in Tegucigalpa (Honduras) and Granada (Spain), we propose a contemporary model in art education focused on artistic creation. We start from the evidence that educational programs in arts, no matter how good and careful they are, do not achieve changes that allow social transformations only through academic research, or successive reforms of the curriculum or other educational programs. Society does not yet know how much it needs art. The greatest lack of which we are victims and perhaps responsible is the urgent need to gain a social space for the visual arts. The urgent and priority act for social intervention through artistic education is the Creation of Culture. Only through the widespread social recognition of the arts can we hope that the impact of the arts can change society.