Transformative Teaching

Abstract

While digital tools negated much of the misery of the Pandemic, it was clear that this mode of communication was sub optimal. Students of the visual arts have now several competitors to actually or physically making things themselves, there is the fabrication-based approach, where a person employs the skills of another to create their vision and the world of NFT’s where the artwork is aligned to a digital currency that exists primarily on hard drives and screens. As a ceramicist I place a high value on the making of things myself. I believe that there is much to learn in a process intense endeavor, not merely the technical aspects of the enterprise, but still much more to discover about fundamentals of life and oneself along the way, patience, determination, focus, accumulating skills and knowledge through repetitive experiments, and the value of failure. Making real things in the real world is important, as students realize, there is no easy way to erase, delete or undo something once it has been done. The recent history of the UAE has some unique circumstances that may also speak to why these issues may relate more here than in other regions. In researching this issue, I will look to my own students to provide me with data, via the projects that I will and have set them, and develop methods of how to interpret and present these findings.