I’ve been reading some playful and insightful books around art education, to inform my lectures and exercises. It has impacted how I formulate my thinking around pedagogy and the differences between content versus communication, and the way in which, or how, you teach something. Rather than focusing on delivering content/information, the books developed my thinking around what happens when you look at learning from the aims and skills you hope students gain throughout the course (e.g. confidence, creative thinking, storytelling, communication and reflection skills) and how to use playful exercises to develop those.
They are written by creative art and design practitioners who are lecturers, and the books are very accessible and not formal academic writing. They relate to what Vivienne Marie Baumfield discusses in their essay, ‘Practitioner Research: Understanding Teaching Through Enquiry’, which explores collaborative, experimental, community-based and investigative pedagogy (Wyse, Hayward and Pandya, 2016), whereby the classroom is a ‘laboratory’ and lecturers learn from each other in an heuristic way.
These books will definitely influence my Microteaching session. The books strongly reminded me of two artist projects, one by Sophie Calle about an instruction game she played with writer Paul Auster, and another by Yoko Ono, ‘Grapefruit: A Book of Instruction and Drawings’; a set of instructions developed as a piece of art. Both highlight the joy and importance of curiosity and alternative perspectives as a driving force in creative practice and lecturing.
‘Taking a Line for a Walk, Assignments in Design Education’ (2016) – “Assignments can give instructions, describe an exercise, present a problem, set out rules, propose a game, stimulate a process, or simply throw out questions. Taking a Line for a Walk brings attention to something that is often neglected: the assignment as a pedagogical element and verbal artefact of design education. This book is a compendium of 224 assignments, edited by Nina Paim and coedited by Emilia Bergmark. A reference book for educators, researchers, and students alike, it includes both contemporary and historical examples and offers a space for different lines of design pedagogy to converge and converse. An accompanying essay by Corinne Gisel takes a closer look at the various forms assignments can take and the educational contexts they exist within. Taking a Line for a Walk derived from an exhibition of the same name at the International Biennial of Graphic Design Brno 2014. Written by Corinne Gisel and 224 assignments by various authors, and with an introduction of comprising a (visual) facsimile sequence of 14 assignments”
‘Wicked Arts Assignments, Practising Creativity in Contemporary Arts Education’ (2020) – “Wicked Arts Assignments are bold, unusual, contrary, funny, poetical, inspiring, socially committed, or otherwise challenging. Everyone who teaches art knows them: the assignment that is seemingly simple but which challenges participants, students and pupils to the max. Many artists and arts teachers have that singular, personal, often-used assignment in which everything comes together: their artistic vision, their pedagogical approach and their love for certain techniques or methods. The almost hundred arts assignments collected here connect to the visual arts, performance, theatre, music and design, but more importantly: they encourage cross-disciplinarity. They reflect themes and ways of working in contemporary arts, offering opportunities to learn about ourselves, the arts and the world. The first part of this book provides a theoretical view on arts assignments from historical, artistic and educational perspectives, complemented by interviews with experts in contemporary arts and education. The second part consists of the actual wicked arts assignments. These can be carried out in various contexts: from primary schools to higher education, from home to the (online) community, and from Bogotá to Istanbul. They are meant to spark the imagination of both teachers and students, contributing to new, topical educational and artistic practices.”
Something I wonder now is how many of these activities (published in 2016 and 2020 before the lockdowns) translated to the online space during the pandemic and to the new blended model of teaching that many universities are now implementing. I have a favourite “active listening” exercise which is based loosely off an activity I once participated in physically, that I then adapted and first tested out during online teaching in early 2021 lockdowns utilising the intimate space of the breakout room on Teams. I recently repeated the exercise in a seminar room (with 15 students in person) and the response was very different, as it was a less intimate space the dynamic changed and I felt the students were less nuanced in their takeaway insights and reflections. I will explore this exercise as a case study.
Reference list
Bremmer, M. and Heijnen, E. (2020). Wicked Arts Assignments Practising Creativity in Contemporary Arts Education. Amsterdam Valiz.
Calle, S. and Auster, P. (2007). Double Game. London: Violette Editions ; New York.
Lennon, J. and OnoY. (2007). Grapefruit : a book of instructions + drawings. New York Simon & Schuster.
Paim, N., Gisel, C. and Bergmark, E. (2016). Taking a line for a walk : assignments in design education. Leipzig: Spector Books.
Wyse, D., Hayward, L. and Pandya, J. (2016). The SAGE Handbook of curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment. Los Angeles: Sage Reference.