Vol. 9 No. 2 (2013)

					View Vol. 9 No. 2 (2013)

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Volume 9 Issue 2

Cover Date: July 2012

Contents

Editorial

 

Glen Coutts

 

Page Start: 151

 

ARTICLES

 

Visual Expression of Beauty and Ugliness in Adolescent Art

Authors:  Andrea Kárpáti  and  Lisa Kay

 

Page Start: 155

 

Keywords

adolescent art, visual language, self expression, kamasz-rajz, vizuális nyelv, énkifejezés

Abstract

In this article, we present preliminary findings of a cross-cultural pilot study undertaken on the common borders of education and therapy through art. We examine images of beauty and ugliness drawn by adolescents in Hungary and the United States. Using beautiful and ugly drawing tasks as a personality test was first developed by researchers at an interactive digital testing site in Hungary. However, this method had not been used as a research tool, so with the developers’ permission, a small pilot was performed to facilitate standardization of the task. The described research method is especially useful for adolescents and young adults whose verbal communication is richly supplemented by their creative imagery. Our analysis focused on themes, emotional responses in the drawings, which are vital signs that express adolescents’ perceptions about the two extreme aesthetic experiences. The use of the Ugly and Beautiful Image Task (UBIT) as an educational and therapeutic assessment tool is also addressed.

 


A tanulmány egy kultúraközi összehasonlító vizsgálat első eredményeit tartalmazza, amely a művészetterápia és a vizuális nevelés közös határain mozog. Magyar kamaszok alkotásait hasonlítjuk össze, akik a szépség és a rútság fogalmát próbálták meg kifejezni képi eszközökkel. A két ellentétes minőség megjelenítését pszichológiai tesztként alkalmazták először a Psychogalaxy weboldalt megalkotó kutatók. Korábban ezt a feladatot kutatási célra még nem alkalmazták. A fejleszők engedélyével egy kismintás pilot kísérletet végeztünk, amelyben a feladat értékelési rendszerének finomításához kívántunk hozzájárulni. A vizsgálati módszer különösen hasznos kamaszok és fiatal felnőttek esetében, akiknek a szóbeli kommunikációját gazdag információs háttérrel egészíti ki kreatív képi közléseik. Elemzésünkben a rajzok témáival és az alkotók érzelmi reakcióival foglalkoztunk, melyekből kitűnik, hogyan vélekednek az esztétikai ellentét-párról. Írásunk végén a Rút és Szép Képalkotó Feladat (RSZKF) pedagógiai és művészetterápiás alkalmazási lehetőségeit is felvetjük.

 

 

‘Silver Scorpion’ Communal comics and disability identities between the United States and Syria

Authors:  Valerie L Karr

 

Page Start: 173

 

Keywords

disability identity,United Nations,comic books,education,disability,Middle East

Abstract

This article will explore the development and expression of disability identity and agency through a cross-cultural communal art experience, the creation of comic book heroes with disabilities. The narrative voice of youth participants with disabilities from the U.S. and Syria was examined to understand ways in which this group learning experience in visual art facilitated their causal agency and the development of disability identity. This article explores artistic expression and human rights education as curricular spaces for the development of causal agency skills, and investigates how the final artistic product represented the vision of youth participants. The study found that the creative process encouraged the development of causal agency skills through visual narrative. For future educational interventions at the intersection of art, youth and disability culture, this framework may serve to illuminate particular youth and disability experiences through stories, goals, and representations.

 

Non-traditional education using cultural heritage: A case study from Syria

 

Authors:  Maya Alkateb

 

Page Start: 189

 

Keywords

non-traditional education,folk culture,cultural education,oral tradition,heritage education,Syria

Abstract

This article explores the issue of using culture and cultural heritage as themes in non-traditional education to foster teamwork attitudes and leadership, research and presentation skills, in addition to looking at ones’ environment with a critical eye and valuing culture as an asset. It presents an educational programme where youth from Syria documented oral heritage, explored their cultures with photography as a probing tool and participated in creating public displays of their heritages. In this article, I describe the educational programme, its rationale, the employed concept of culture, faced challenges and learned lessons. Feedback from participants and host communities is discussed and questions for further enquiry are raised, including on the applicability of such programme to promote cultural diversity, the long-term effects on participants, and ways to highlight the value of cultural heritage towards the communities that own it when its continuity is threatened.

 

Factors affecting low ceramics specialization decisions within the KNUST Industrial Art degree programme

 

Authors:  Samuel Nortey and  Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa and  Edwin K. Bodjawah

 

Page Start: 205

 

Keywords

specialization decisions,ceramics,Department of Industrial Art,high school location,introductory ceramics course

Abstract

This article looked at the trend of specialization within the four-year Industrial Art degree programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Specialization decisions during the period 1999–2011 were studied, which confirmed that ceramics receives low specialization after the first-year diagnostic studies. The Social Learning Theory provided the framework for the study to explore factors that influence students of the Industrial Art department in low ceramics majoring as compared to the other disciplines (textiles design and metals product design). Findings showed that there is a significant association between studying ceramics in high school and students’ decision to specialize in ceramics at the university level. The results obtained from the odds ratio (OR) further indicated that if students are taught ceramics in high school, then they are 115.96 times more likely to specialize in the course at the university level. The study also revealed using the logistic regression that the course content satisfaction and other explanatory variables such as age, gender and location influenced decisions. The findings of the study strongly support the idea of background student motivation and the need for teaching that is exploratory, practice focused, problem centred and process oriented to motivate first-year students in majoring in ceramics.

 

 

Introduction to theatre at primary school: A short-term evaluation of a French experience

 

Authors:  Jean-Yves Leroux and  Nathalie Moureau

 

Page Start: 219

 

Keywords

education policy,childhood,theatre,cultural consumption,cultural capital,school,politique éducative,enfance ,théâtre,consommation culturelle,capital culturel,école

Abstract

The aim of this study is to observe the impact that an introduction to theatre in schools has on a child’s subsequent theatre attendance. Insofar as it has been generally accepted that cultural consumption by children depends on the child’s family background, it may be possible to justify that governments should provide access to the Arts in schools for children of disadvantaged families. We conduct a study on a French programme called ‘Lectures en scènes’, whose purpose, among others, is to increase child theatre attendance. A statistical survey was distributed among 550 French pupils in the south of France between 2007 and 2009. One-fifth of the children changed their practise: they decided to take courses in theatre or to attend plays the year following the programme. Moreover, the effect is stronger for children belonging to high social classes, a paradox for a programme, which aims at reducing social inequalities. This result could lead the efforts of the government policies to be concentrated on disadvantaged districts.


L’objet de cet article est d’étudier quel impact l’introduction du théâtre à l’école a sur la fréquentation théâtrale ultérieure des enfants. Dans la mesure où il est généralement accepté que les consommations culturelles des enfants dépendent de leur contexte familial, nous posons ici l’hypothèse que l’introduction du théâtre à l’école favorise l’accès à la culture d’enfants venant de contextes défavorisés. Afin de vérifier cette hypothèse, nous avons mené une enquête à partir d’un programme français intitulé “Lectures en scènes”. L’enquête a été menée entre 2007 et 2009 dans le sud de la France auprès d’environ 550 enfants. Un cinquième des enfants ayant suivi le programme a décidé de suivre des cours de théâtre ou d’assister à des représentations au cours de l’année qui a suivi leur expérience. Il apparait toutefois que le changement a été plus marqué pour les enfants appartenant aux classes sociales favorisées, un paradoxe dans la mesure où un des objectifs du programme était de réduire les inégalités sociales. Ce résultat pourrait conduire à préconiser que les politiques d’éducation à la culture concentrent leurs efforts sur les zones géographiques défavorisées.

 

 

Lessons about identity formation from contemporary art

 

Authors:  Rachel Mason and  Raphael Vella

 

Page Start: 235

 

Keywords

contemporary art,identity,citizenship,education,Europe

Abstract

This article describes and interprets artworks that interrogate identity and explores their potential application as a resource for teaching in schools. The artworks in question were selected for interdisciplinary curriculum experiments carried out by research teams taking part in the Images and Identity project funded by the European Commission. There is much public debate about the changing nature of identity today and the art and citizenship teachers collaborating on curriculum development during this project used contemporary artworks to encourage young people to reflect on, explore and express their understanding of their identities within the context of Europe. The article draws on social science theory to explicate some of the artworks sourced for the project that examine identity as a personal and/or socially constructed representation of self (ethnic, national, civic, etc.) and/or engage with identity politics in various ways. It ends with a brief discussion of ways art teachers could use contemporary art to explore citizen identifications with Europe.

 

VISUAL ESSAYS

On Loss: A Strange Beauty

 

Authors:  Alexandra Cutcher

 

Page Start: 253

 

 

Becoming arts-based researchers: A journey through the experience of silence in the university classroom

 

Authors:  Rachel Fendler and  Judit Onsès and  Fernando Hernández-Hernández

 

Page Start: 257

 

Keywords

arts-based research,higher education,student transitions,narrative enquiry,image-based enquiry,investigación basada en las artes,educación superior,tránsitos del estudiante,investigación narrativa,investigación con y sobre imágenes

Abstract

This visual essay captures the changes that students experienced in the undergraduate class Arts-Based Research, an elective offered at the Fine Arts Faculty of the University of Barcelona. This class was structured around a collaborative enquiry involving both students and professors, which explored the experience of silence in the university classroom. While carrying out the investigation, students learned to research, by researching. In doing so, the group experimented with and became more fluent in different arts-based methodologies, and generated three final results: a video, an article and an installation.
Este artículo visual refleja los cambios experimentados por los estudiantes durante la asignatura optativa de Investigación Basada en las Artes, ofertada dentro del Grado de Bellas Artes de la Universidad de Barcelona. Dicha asignatura se estructuró como una investigación compartida en la que se involucraron tanto los alumnos como los profesores, y cuyo objetivo fue explorar la experiencia de silencio en las clases de la universidad. Durante el proceso de investigación, los estudiantes aprendieron a investigar ... investigando. Así, mientras el grupo experimentaba con diferentes metodologías basadas en las artes, a su vez aprendían más sobre éstas, dando lugar en el final del proceso a un video, un artículo y una instalación.

 

Project ‘Adriatic Fish and Sailing Ships’ was conducted with 255 children: Visual essay of the art project in Croatia

 

Authors:  Dijana Nazor

 

Page Start: 265

 

Keywords

film,learning outside of school,combined materials,creativity,film,učenje izvan škole,kombinirana tehnika,kreativnost

Abstract

The project ‘The Adriatic fish’ was conducted with 240 children from a primary school near Split, Croatia. The aim of this project was to show that children can learn and creatively collaborate outside of school, in their surroundings, by finding natural forms (of stones) on the beach. Learning how to observe and recognize the shapes around them, they acquire the skills of research and creating by combining materials (stones and wire). Throughout this project, the students learnt about the species of Adriatic fish. This project helped to develop children’s ability to observe and also encouraged their creative cooperation.
Projekt Jadranske ribice nastao je u suradnji s 240 djece iz osnovne škole pokraj Splita. Ovim projektom nastojalo se pokazati da djeca mogu učiti i kreativno surad-ivati i izvan škole, u svojoj okolini, pronalaženjem prirodnih oblika kamenja na plaži. Ucˇenjem gledanja i prepoznavanjem oblika oko sebe stječu se vještine kreiranja i istraživanja s kombiniranim tehnikama (kamenja i žice). Kroz ovaj projekt učenici su učili i o vrstama Jadranskih riba razvijajući spoznaju o bogatstvu Jadranskog mora i svog podneblja. Cilj projekta bio je razvijanje dječjeg opažanja i zajednička suradnja med-u učenicima.

 

 

Book Reviews

 

Authors:  Suzanne Caines and  Marjorie Cohee Manifold and  Diederik Schönau

 

Page Start: 275

 

Abstract

The Last Art College: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, 1968–1978, Garry Neill KENNEDY (2012) Cambridge, MA and London: MIT Press, 421 pp., ISBN: 9780262016902, h/bk, £41.95
Debates in Art and Design Education, Nicholas Addison and Lesley Burgess (eds) (2013) London and New York: Routledge, 221 pp., ISBN: 978-0415-61887-8, p/bk, £23.99
The Arts in Education. An Introduction to Aesthetics, Theory and Pedagogy, Mike Fleming (2012) London and New York: Routledge, 134 pp., ISBN 978-0-415-62029-1, p/bk, £ 34.96


Published: 2013-07-31