IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION A

Abstract

This paper looks at three specific and sequential taught sessions in order to explore and explain the continuing development of a curriculum of critical practice in an art and design setting and the pedagogical approaches with which it corresponds. We start from the position that theories are tools for thinking (borrowed and adapted from Pierre Bourdieu’s ‘thinking tools’ (1992) which centre on reflexive practice) but reverse the conventional academic conception of ‘theory and practice’ placing practice before theory which, as Josef Albers states, ‘is the conclusion of practice’ (2013: 1). In the first of the three sessions the formal space of the Lecture Theatre is disrupted when students are guided to work collaboratively, using only their bodies to create a giant knitting machine and a human loom within the space. Following this, the second session asks students to further explore the basic movements involved in knitting and weaving; firstly, using only their hands and the yarn provided; secondly, by making their own tools to aid their process (using materials provided). Finally, the third session combines a traditional lecture with interactive drawing and ‘object interview’ tasks to introduce and explore Henri Bergson’s work on perception, intuition and the creative mind, connecting this to theories of making to demonstrate to students that they are already making theories through practices of ‘thinking through making’. Seen in a wider context the sessions are representative of an approach to developing critical practice, through immersive, intuitive teaching, that enables students to develop integrity, both in terms of their values as a practitioner (creative integrity) and in relation to the properties of the work they produce (material integrity) and encourages realisation. Albers, J. (2013) Interaction of Color. New Haven: Yale University Press; Bourdieu, P. & Wacquant, L. (1992) An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press