Visual Culture - 02/15/20

"Art Education for New Times" by: Paul Duncum

"The Disconnect Between Theory and Practice in a Visual Culture Approach to Art Education" by: Rebekka Herrmann

"Problems Confronting Visual Culture" by: Arthur D. Efland

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Olivia Bonlander

Contemporary Theory and Curricular Practiced of Art Education

Tami Weiss

02/14/20

Visual Culture

The readings for this week all referenced similar ideals which made me unsure whether or not I should separate them into their own headings. I found these concepts especially interesting because the overall theme was the progression of time and culture and how this has impacted art education. The general consensus is that art education needs to adapt with this new ‘visual culture’ in mind and move on from the outdated ideal of the original philosophers.

According to Herrmann, the visual culture approach is connecting the ‘relevance to the lives of students through popular visual culture and its relationship to postmodernism and contemporary art practice’. With the consistent flow of new media emerging for students to access the ‘visual culture’ is constantly growing (Duncum). Students are becoming more and more visual learners just because of the society and information available. Art Education should be adapting in order to support these ideals and to ensure a more successful education for their students. The development of visual culture within the classroom does not necessarily need to look like specific lessons being taught or activities done but instead the encouragement made to develop individualistic ideas (Herrmann). I completely agree with the idea that Art Education should change to encourage media interpretations while also continuing to enforce proper use of media.

I feel that within many classrooms there have been some adaptations made to begin the transition from the classical ways to teaching in this visual age but, many educators are reluctant. While the old way does work it is slowly becoming more and more outdated. A quote from Efland that I found to support this was, ‘No valid educational purpose is served by limiting the range of visual culture either to the realm of the everyday or to the arts that transcend the everyday’. The way that I interpreted this quote was that it does not matter which way the educator chooses to limit the content of their course if there is not a good mix of the varying ideals students will be receiving the best quality education in which they could. I think there can be an easy mix of individualistic exploration and concrete expectations for a classroom.

One way to easily connect these visual ideals is through an activity that we covered in discussion. When analyzing the piece known as, ‘The Comedian’ which depicts a banana duct taped to a wall the discussion does not necessarily need to be started with the full description already laid out for students. The discussion can start with a conversation of the ‘why’ behind the piece and work to get students engaged by talking about what they see, feel, and think when they see a controversial work like this. By developing individual thought about a piece of work they are developing their coding and decoding skills which is a key factor within teaching in a visual culture (Duncum). Some of the other important skills that are developed through this way of teaching are ‘critical inquiry’ and the understanding of ‘social and environmental change’ (Herrmann).

As I have grown up with much of the developing technology, I feel that it really is important for students to be taught how to analyze new media, but I do understand the reluctance that comes with it. In my experience students are always more interested when their culture is incorporated into the necessary projects that develop skills so not only would students be more engaged but they would also be multitasking and learning art and a useful skill if they do not pursue art in the future.