Conceptual Shifts
Assessing the Subtle Aspects of Art: Ways of Seeing, Ways of Knowing, Ways of Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jayant Athavale, Sean Clarke
When artwork is assessed in the modern era, it is based on various criteria such as the subject, mastery of the brushstroke, use of colours, aesthetics, etc. Most often, the ways of seeing, knowing and learning art do not include an assessment of the subtle-vibrations that it emits. The Maharshi University of Spirituality (MAV) has 37 years of spiritual research experience. This research has been conducted by using aura and subtle-energy scanners along with the advanced sixth sense of its research team. One important principle gleaned from the research is that the subtle-vibrations of any object should be considered when assessing its overall value to society. All works of art, too, emit subtle-vibrations that can significantly affect the viewer and the surrounding environment. These subtle-vibrations can be positive or negative in nature and will accordingly have a corresponding effect on viewers. Paintings that emit negative vibrations can have long-lasting negative effects on the viewer that may not be immediately apparent. The spiritual state and spiritual level of the artist and of his mentor are important criteria that will contribute to the type of subtle-vibrations that will be associated with their art. Considering these findings, it would be prudent to reassess the actual worth of artwork as many expensive and renowned paintings were found to emit negative subtle-vibrations. If art schools were to embrace the concept of painting spiritually purer art, it would fundamentally change the way art is taught, assessed and appreciated along with enhancing the viewers’ experience.
A Journey of Learning and Becoming through Performing: A New Application of Prosthetic Pedagogy
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elise Kieffer
The concept of prosthetic pedagogy, as developed by Charles Garoian (2013), provides the framework for using the artificial-real worlds created by the arts to influence and impact teaching practices. The prosthetic space or encounter is artificial or separate from the artist and audience, and yet is felt as authentically and deeply as if it were part of their being. The characters written by an author might become real friends in the heart of their creator. The landscape within a painting might become a true mental place of refuge for the viewer. Garoian explored prosthetic pedagogy through visual arts and museum experiences. This research further examines prosthetic pedagogy by applying it to the performance space of the theatre. The art of theatre builds worlds onstage and through performance that allow performers to be and exist apart from their physical selves in the realm of prosthetic reality. The prosthetic pedagogy of art allows for both the audience and participant to step outside of themselves to learn, grow, and discover. The artist and audience are able to transcend the natural and real world to enter a place of internal reality. In that internal space, the prosthetic device is a real extension of the individual. Through a blend of autoethnographic reflection and contemporary research, this presentation considers theatrical artistic experiences as an application of prosthetic pedagogy.
New Contextual Strategies in Site-specific Art
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Seda Ozen Tanyildizi
Today, the context in which a work of art moves away from traditional approaches and begins to incorporate new strategies has created a need to offer new categories, classifications, titles or definitions regarding art and site relationships. Artists now attempt to create a communicational approach aiming to reinterpret and revive the site or develop a new identity for it in line with different goals and objectives. Discovering the contextual structures within the variety of works can be related to the hybrid position of current art practices. Evaluating the hybrid works and experimental formats which are the products of an interdisciplinary structure in terms of practice methods and strategies, depends on studying the correspondence of ideas between various positions. The aim of this study is to analyse the position of new alternatives for site-related art and question in what context a work of art should be evaluated. By doing so, this study highlights the current statements on multifaceted approaches in site-specific art benefiting from the artists’ own experiences and the cases they themselves witness.
Exploring the Pedagogic Turn to Art as Research in Higher Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Anita Sinner
The pedagogic turn to art as research advances experimental perspectives, reflective assessments, methodological innovations, and ethical issues and concerns in relation to a host of areas in the field of education. To open deliberation on the wider constellation of artwork scholarship, a case for latitudes as a disposition is made to take into account the need for breadth in our reception of research. Bridging this proposition, doctoral dissertations offer a survey of the pulse of current practices. This shifts conversations to consider knowledge clusters as pedagogically intensive thresholds, where the rendering of research is always contingent on the form, before content. Such changing protocols and practices draw attention to this exciting new vernacular beginning to take shape within the educational inquiry.
