IN-PERSON: Applying Education

Abstract

This paper explores the importance of futures teaching that emphasizes creative interdisciplinary collaboration to respond to complex, real-world problems. It also argues for praxis — blending theory and practice together for robust learning.  It tells the story of an interdisciplinary course that brought together students from media arts, visual arts, theatre, and general studies, and focused on using arts to respond to crises. Students worked in interdisciplinary teams for the entire semester on problems such as post-pandemic community, human-nature relationships, attention and technology, and the role of arts in a circular economy. Students were guided through a scaffolded research process to research their problem from multiple disciplines, analyze that data in an interdisciplinary way, and transform their findings into an arts-based transdisciplinary project. Simultaneously the class explored theoretical material related to ways of seeing and aesthetics, critical theory, pluriversality, ethical relationality, futures thinking, and more. The class applied each theoretical lens to their projects to help them refine and clarify their work and presented their projects to an invited audience at the end of the term. The paper argues that this pedagogical approach emboldens students to think critically and creatively about how their work can make change in the world.