Making Artistic Learning Visible: Theory Building Through A/r/tographical Exploration
Amy Ruopp, Kathy Unrath
Visual Arts Research, Volume 45, Number 2, Issue 89, Winter 2019, pp. 29-48(Article)
Published by University of Illinois Press
For additional information about this article
[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ]
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/743517
29Visual Arts Research Volume 45, Number 2 Winter 2019
© 2019 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Making Artistic Learning Visible: Theory Building Through A/r/tographical Exploration
I do not seek, I find. —PicassoIf art educators are going to teach to meet the needs of the 21st-century learner and an ever-changing global society, art education needs to move beyond teaching content and embrace creativity, process, and ideation as interdependent components in teach-ing and learning art. Communicating and teaching the complexities of ideation and process are critical for reading and engaging an increasingly visual world. This article offers insights into how multimodal reflection in action and on action intersecting with rhizomatic thinking creates conditions for paradigm shifts about identity and concep-tualizations of creative knowledge acquisition with pre-service art education students. By capturing the multimodal moments of their own creating through video format, a layered text capturing material, action, voice, intention, and reflection emerges to make process visible. Pre-service teachers entering the field of art education cognizant of their epistemology and the “how” of knowledge construction not only empower their students as active learners but are also living advocates for art education.
KEYWORDS: Reflection, a/r/tography, identity, creativity, rhizome
Inspirational Roots
This study began 3 years ago during an internship with my advisor in an art education methods course at a midwestern research-intensive university. It was inspired by conversations with pre-service art education students, graduate and undergraduate, who revealed to us surprising perceptions about their professional
Amy Ruopp University of Missouri
Kathy Unrath University of Missouri
30 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
identity. As self-identified artist/ teachers, it came as a shock to us that many of the students in our art education course felt uncomfortable assuming the identity of artist; further, they shared that they had difficulty articulating how creative and artistic learning unfolds. Those who referred to themselves as artist teachers explained that this term revealed something they taught, not something they em-bodied. They did not perceive themselves as artists and creative thinkers, only as teachers of art aligning with skill and technique. While skills and content are cer-tainly important, we believe if art educators are going to teach to meet the needs of the 21st-century learner and an ever-changing global society, art education needs to move beyond teaching content and embrace creativity, process, and ide-ation as an interdependent components in teaching and learning art (Kay, 2010; Pink, 2006). Curious about our students’ perceptions, my advisor and I redesigned an existing assignment in which students participated in an artistic investigation that centered on the creative process and meaningful making. We added a visual research component designed to reveal the process of creating in the moment and inspire a deeper sense of the artist self, especially as it relates to teaching with creativity in mind. Working from a personally inspired big idea (McTighe & Seif, 2010; Walker, 2001), such as presence, transformation, relationship, the students artfully engaged in the creation of an artist book, which deeply investigated the conceptual thinking behind and within the process of art making while also ex-ploring an idea personally meaningful to them. As they immersed themselves in their “making,” we asked them to video themselves in the act of creating and nar-rate their thinking and decision making as they progressed through the project. We specifically asked them to turn their attention to the choices they were mak-ing. What were they doing with their attention as they worked? How did they work through tensions and difficulties? Over a span of 6 weeks, each student pro-duced 2–4 hours of video data revealing their art-making process, which addressed technical decisions, conceptual thinking, and meaningful making. We then asked them to create an edited 10-minute documentary from their hours of video data that synthesized, in their view, the most significant elements of their process, thereby making their artistic process and learning visible. Throughout the creating of their book and later editing/researching their raw video data into a documentary that illuminated their process, the students were engaging with inquiry as a/r/tographers (Irwin & de Cosson, 2004). A/r/tography is participatory in nature, emphasizing a lived exploratory process. In-quiry entangled with practice produces something different. The embodiment of creative inquiry internalizes process, which differs from an external representation or final product. Rooted within entangled action complicates habitual notions of how knowing unfolds while contiguously exploring and uncovering facets of the
31Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
artist/researcher/teacher identity. The complementary lenses of the artist/research-er/teacher revealed insights and realizations about art making, creating paradigm shifts in their understanding of process and sense of artistic identity. This article offers insights into how multimodal reflection in action and on action (Schön, 1987) plugged (Jackson & Mazzei, 2012) into rhizomatic think-ing creates conditions for paradigm shifts about identity and conceptualizations of creative knowledge acquisition with pre-service art education students. It is important to note here that while the fundamental concepts of the rhizome and reflection differ, in this case, they work together to produce an evolving and fluid conceptualization of how art making unfolds. In conceptualizing the rhizome as tangled and multi-dimensional, reflection becomes multifaceted, offering an array of perspectives to deeply illuminate process. By exploring teaching and learning through the eyes of an a/r/tographer (Irwin, 2004), conditions were created for lines of flight (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) where thinking interrupts traditional no-tions of understanding, resulting in a space for new knowing. This newly enriched understanding afforded students opportunities for non-linear contemplations of creative practice. Deleuze’s interest in creative thinking offers a philosophical ar-chitecture to contemplate when he reminds us that “something in the world forces us to think” (1994, p. 139). By living and recording their artistic encounters with ideation and materials, pre-service art teachers were witness to their unfolding process. This cultivated a firsthand awareness of what happened during the artistic and creative process. This new awareness could then be transferable to their future classrooms.
Guiding Questions
In contemplating these ideas, the following research questions were used to guide this study:
1. How does cultivating a deep, embodied understanding of the complexities of the creative process embedded in art making facilitate art teachers’ ability to make sense of and communicate the complexities of process?
2. How do art teachers develop working theories of teaching and learning as informed by their authentically lived artistic experience with the creative pro-cess?
The Artist Teacher: Some Context
Creativity has become an essential currency in today’s global society and is critical to the conceptual age (Pink, 2006). Therefore, a brief review of historical context is important to establish shifts in conceptualizations of the artist teacher and their potential value in contemporary society.
32 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
The idea of the artist teacher dates back to the early 1800s. One of the first people in the field of art education to coin the term “artist teacher” was George Wallis (Daichendt, 2009). Wallis believed that to advance arts within culture, edu-cators needed to “start thinking (artistically) about method (education) to improve skill” (Daichendt, 2010, p. 78). Early on, Wallis reflected on his artistic process, transferring this knowing to teaching and educational pedagogy. He challenged the traditional notions of art education at the time, which were focused on pre-paring art and design students for fields of manufacturing. Although the contexts of 2 centuries ago are quite different from those of the 21st century, the notion of connecting artistic thinking and process with teaching is even more relevant today with our interconnected world. The term “artist teacher” is commonly heard in art education preparation programs and art rooms. It has been our experience that there is an assumption that arts educators identify as artists. While some do, we were realizing that many may not. An anonymous informal survey of 25 of our own undergraduate and graduate art education students revealed that only 5% identified as artists. A more in-depth survey (Milbrandt & Klein, 2008) of art educators’ professional identity revealed that less than 11% of art educators identified themselves as artists. While arts educators are in the profession of teaching art, some may struggle to articulate how an idea unfolds. Thus, in many visual arts classrooms, teachers typically deal with the mechanics and technical delivery of skills with an emphasis on the material product. However, it is in the in-between moments, the in process, where learning unfolds and becomes a knowledge base. With attention resting on product over process, we were concerned that our pre-service teachers were entering the classroom with little more than an ambiguous sense of what it meant to build a creative knowledge base and make meaning as an artist. While some research is beginning to examine the intersections of artistic process and pedagogy (Hetland, Winner, Veenema, & Sheridan, 2013; Irwin & O’Donoghue, 2012), we know less about how artists and art teachers come to understand the creative artis-tic process.
Intersections with Pedagogy
Historically, arts education programs are rooted in teaching skills, techniques, and mechanical concepts as tools for making works of art. Curriculum practices rooted in the elements and principles of art were developed in the early 20th century by Arthur Wesley Dow and often remain the focus of many art programs today. Lack-ing or often less emphasized in art education curricula is the knowledge of “how to think in an artistic medium” (Gardner & Hatch, 1989, p. 76). In reflecting on practicing art teachers, Thornton (2013) points out that it is not unusual for art teachers in primary and secondary education to teach with only minimal personal
33Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
art experience. Building on this, Gude (2004) proposes that historical methods have a firm grasp on pedagogical methodologies, and she thus advocates moving beyond antiquated tradition with its emphasis on skills to more meaningful making in artis-tic process and production. While the elements and principles remain useful tools and building blocks of visual composition, art educators are being called upon to prepare students for an unpredictable future that requires creative problem solving and conceptual thinking (Pink, 2006). The increasing emphasis on meaning making in conjunction with the 2014 revised National Core Arts Standards (https://www .nationalartsstandards.org/) and emerging technologies has heightened the need for multimodal thinking around how and what we teach. Pink (2006) describes a significant shift in today’s society, moving from the linear to high-touch and high-concept. Today’s learners require increasingly complex skills to navigate our global world—skills that echo the complex thinking of the creative process. Therefore, it is imperative that art teachers entering the field have a conceptual awareness of the creative process and its role in knowledge acquisition.
A/r/tography as Methodology
The researchers and students of this study participated as a/r/tographers embedded in a community of learners. “A/r/tography is an arts and education practice-based research methodology that emphasizes living inquiry and an examination of the spaces between arts-making/researching/teaching (a/r/t)” (Carter, Beare, Belliveau, & Irwin, 2011, p. 17). Irwin (2008) offers that engaging as an a/r/tographer “calls individuals to strengthen aspects of themselves that are not areas of strength” (p. 75). A/r/tography opens a space for emergent discovery through lived inquiry. Carter and Irwin (2014) explain that “a/r/tography embraces the multiplicity and complexity of an individual’s experiences, subjectivities and evolving identities” (p. 6). We posit, when explored in tandem with multimodal reflective inquiry, that this encounter troubles habitual thinking and opens opportunities for rhizomatic exploration and connection. The rhizome as an architecture for thought offers a non-linear structure to explore both identity and process in action. The structure allows for multiple possibilities to emerge within an encounter, offering new per-spectives and conceptualizations about creative practice. The student participants in this research acted as a/r/tographers as they in-vestigated their personal art-making processes. They were working as artists, prob-lem solving and creating meaningful imagery. They were researchers of how mate-rials, choices, and process communicate conceptually rich ideas. Finally, the event itself was a teaching in that, when researching their own processes, it disrupted and informed their thinking about art making and identity. When students em-body the methodology of exploration, their attention expands as they consciously
34 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
and intentionally explore through the lenses of three different but entwined iden-tities; they “give attention to the in–between: where meanings reside in the simul-taneous use of language, images, materials, situations, space and time . . . [and cre-ate] the circumstances that produce knowledge and understanding through artistic and educational inquiry laden processes (Irwin & Springgay, 2008, xix, xxvi)” (as cited in Carter et al., 2011, p. 18). The student participants, through active video reflection, participated in the process as artist/researchers and formulated their own teachings (working theory) as a result of the reflective inquiry. As art educators in higher education, the authors believe that “artists are re-searchers, therefore, are sites and catalysts for constructing new knowledge” (Mar-shall, 2015, p. 221). Videoing and speaking out loud during the art-making process offers pre-service teachers multiple opportunities to witness and research their own thinking and doing. In addition, it cultivates the capacity to tend to the sensation (Deleuze & Guattari, 1994) of creating. “Using a/r/tography as a focus for inquiry, teacher candidates begin to recognize that they [were] connected to, not separate from, all of these identities and their practices, and thus, need to be engaged in researching, teaching, and art making processes” (Carter & Irwin, 2014, p. 4). The captured moments of art making on video embody both artistic practice and the research process realized in the editing and composing of their short documen-tary. Revisiting one’s process multiple times through different lenses deepens and enriches understanding as the artist investigates ways of knowing and interacting and the researcher comes to understand how knowledge is acquired though cre-ative process. Returning to notions of lines of flight, “a/r/tography borrows from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (1987) who describe how ‘rhizomes’ metaphorically relate to a network of connected identities, ideas and concepts” (as cited in Carter & Irwin, 2014, p. 4). This interweaving of the creative process and identity creates an opportunity to engage in artistically emerging phenomena in more complex ways. The linear quality of words limits the expanse of process. However, thinking with the rhizome offers intersections and connections in thinking, doing, and the sensations of meaningful making. By capturing the mul-timodal moments of creating through video format, a layered text capturing mate-rial, action, voice, intention, and reflections emerges to make the process visible. This study unites technology with multimodal skills needed to not only produce artwork, but to simultaneously nurture complex reflective skills that lead to theory building.
Reflection as a Point of Departure for Lines of Flight
Reflection is active. When we reflect, we examine prior beliefs and assumptions and their implications. Reflection is an intentional action. A “demand for a solu-tion of a perplexity is the steadying, guiding factor in the entire process of reflec-
35Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
tion” (Dewey, 1933, p. 14). Dewey adds: “The function of reflective thought is, therefore, to transform a situation in which there is experienced obscurity, doubt, conflict, disturbance of some sort into a situation that is clear, coherent, settled, harmonious” (1933, p. 100). Reflection starts with discomfort during an experience and leads a person to a balanced state. It takes time and focus to reach clarity of thought. Schön’s (1983) theory about reflection explains that all educators carry both socially and personally constructed theories and philosophies. Further, he sug-gests that one can engage with these constructs and change them at will, imply-ing that adaption as a result of reflection impacts learning. Schön (1983) speaks to the process of reflection in action as central to the art of examining situations saturated with ambiguity, uncertainty, instability, or value conflict. Artistic process lays claim to these concepts and many more. Art making is unique in that it falls outside an easily identified theory or category while simultaneously connecting to the possibilities and actions of all of them, echoing the rhizome. As such, how art-making knowledge is acquired remains somewhat of a mystery. Both Schön (1987) and Thornton (2013) suggest that the reflective process, particularly in action, is as elusive as the artistic process and is difficult to capture or articulate. Employing an art-based multimodal method such as video as a reflective tool might serve to un-cover aspects of both processes. By combining videography with written reflection and artistic production, the multimodal process becomes potentially transforma-tive in that it troubles and disrupts ways of knowing that were previously taken for granted. It challenges assumptions and beliefs about process, getting underneath the known to discover the unknown and previously elusive and invisible. Re/view-ing action reveals subtleties that might otherwise be missed. New art teachers entering the field of art education will need to be cognizant of artistic processes that conceptually interconnect to deliver curricula that meet the needs of the 21st-century learner. Communicating the complexities of ideation and process are critical for reading and engaging an increasingly visual world. By utilizing videography as a research tool for capturing the lived reflective process, the artist/researcher/teacher is released from the confines of traditional text-based knowing and engages the a/r/tographer in “imaginative, experimental, cognitive and affective dimensions of learning” (Brigham, 2011, p. 45). Huber, Dinham, and Chalk (2015) claim that today’s learners will need to navigate the visual, spatial, gestural, and aural aspects now present in much of today’s digital and visual culture. The interweaving of multiple textual elements as reflective practice completely transforms the how of thinking and communication, inviting broader perspectives and possibilities for teaching and learning. Reflection is, in and of itself, an actant. Continuously return-ing to the action, creating from multiple perspectives, serves as an entry point into the rhizome. Thinking becomes less linear and more layered and tangled, taking on rhizomatic (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) qualities. Documenting artistic process in
36 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
action with video captures the complexities of the moment and can be revisited with the critical eye of the researcher as reflection on action. “By seeing through multiple eyes, we can trace otherwise invisible connections across layers of time and space” (Sousanis, 2015, p. 45), thus making learning about art making visible.
Video as Theory Building
Purg (2012) suggests that the use of video in learning is increasingly blurring the boundaries between current theory and practice, providing a space for new theory to emerge. Thornton (2005) extends Schön’s notion of reflection in suggesting that in the space of “reflection in action,” new theory is developing that is contextually unique to the unfolding event. Wien (2011) also offers that in witnessing one’s own movement and making it visible, individuals may also see into their own theories, or the absence of them; therefore, “the integration of the artist, researcher and teacher identities has the potential for creating emergent identities in which new skills, theories and practices are formed that could influence the development of art and art education practice and knowledge” (Thornton, 2013, p. 10). As an a/r/tographical tool, video disrupts time, folding it in oneself, it is a journey over time and a journey in time (Irwin, 2013) In imagining knowledge as data, it is engaged with as an action. Benozzo, Bell, and Koro-Ljungberg (2013) examine data through a similar lens: that of how it moves and lives and is experienced by researchers. Video, therefore, becomes a collaborative dialogue with the inner and outer, past and present self. This height-ened awareness of the folding and unfolding (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987) of mo-ments emerges through revisiting and re-watching the video reflections of accu-mulated experience within and around an artwork’s becoming. The artist’s voice in the video reveals moments past (experiences and knowing) with present (current problem to solve) while in the action of creating, thus situating the self in two or more moments in time simultaneously, acquiring new knowledge. This facilitates a more profound sense of what it means to create with big ideas while revealing perceptions of how ideation and the creative process unfold. Pre-service teachers entering the field of art education cognizant of their epistemology and the “how” of knowledge construction not only empower their students as active learners but are also living advocates for art education.
The Study
Participants, Research Process, and Data Collection
The summative reflective blog posts of 15 participants were selected as data for this study. They are representative of participants from each of the 3 years the
37Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
course was offered. Of the 15 participant responses selected, three represent gradu-ate certification students while the remaining 12 are undergraduate juniors in the art education program. The reflections varied in length, from one to two single-spaced typed pages. The entire project spanned 6 weeks. The summative reflection addressed ex-periences about idea generation, process, and coping with difficult moments, the editing process, frustrations, and new understandings. This was the final compo-nent of the project and was written by the students as a conclusion upon complet-ing their video synthesis. Throughout the duration of the project, students documented their artistic investigations through video reflection, photographs, written reflection, and a final edited video documentary highlighting their artistic process. The art of editing their raw footage (data) down to 10 minutes required them to revisit, review, and research their process over and over again. They were asked to reflect deeply on the experience of revisiting the video footage and to share revelations and discoveries about that process in their summative written reflection. To compose the final video, the students had to revisit and re-search their raw footage for those clips they believed best illustrated how the process unfolds. In this way, the students themselves became a/r/tographers. The videos became a/r/tographical autobiographical research embodying a relational understanding of meaning making, in which “all bodies/subjects involved in the research inquiry were active participants whose meaning making exists in the moment of the en-counter” (Le Jevic & Springgay, 2008, p. 70). This included the materiality of the artwork itself and the internal voiced identities of the artist/teacher/researcher. Their final video was the visual summation and narration of transformative mo-ments of realization surrounding their own artistic processes. This included edits, narration, and the addition of music. Following the final video, the students com-pleted the assignment with a final written reflection, which spoke to the process of re-searching their artistic practice. Through the re-watching and editing of their own meaningful artistic investigations, they were able to clearly articulate new understandings about the creative process. These written summations served as the data and the focus of our analysis. It is within this data that evidence of paradigm shifts and emergent working theory appeared.
Data Analysis
We began the analysis more traditionally, reading and re-reading their written text. Extensive memos and notes were made in the margins as patterns began to emerge. The data and memos were then loosely open coded for emergent cat-egories. This more predetermined protocol of coding (Saldaña, 2015) served as a
38 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
launch point for a more visual exploratory analysis. The first round of coding act-ed as what we conceptualized, analytic seeds for potential disruption of thinking in both our process of reading data and in the students’ awareness of their process. In reading and re-reading, certain words and phrases with related meaning began to appear often enough that they suggested significance. These were circled and highlighted in like colors. Challenging ourselves to read data differently, the pages were then spread out on a table so they read as one large surface rather than pages in a book. The reading became less linear and more rhizomatic. All like circled words (seeds) identified by color were connected by lines creating a map-like im-age across the surface of the pages. The layered mappings revealed tangled layers of actions and doings. The prompt we gave our students for their summative reflection created two obvious layers in this mapping, so locating them in the data was unavoidable. The first prompt included statements that spoke to a shift in their own artistic aware-ness. The second addressed potential implications for classroom practice. Beyond that, three additional categories/layers emerged through this first mapping: (1) Surprises as a result of the watching the video experience, (2) positive feeling re-sponses during the process, and (3) negative feeling responses during the process. With the category/layers identified, we created a table organizing significant ac-tions or statements in like columns for further exploration and analysis. The words and phrases from Table 1 were then subject to a second round of analysis looking for patterns, connections, and interconnections that might of-fer insights into how making learning visible might impact perception of self and understanding of process. We color-coded the table to differentiate layers and then cut up all of the responses and redistributed and juxtaposed them multiple times, opening ourselves up to surprises. Thinking rhizomatically and working with the data in “unexpected and unplanned ways” (Augustine, 2014), we put our own a/r/tographical lenses to work. What became apparent in this redistribution and juxtaposing was the emergence of three distinct themes or doings: (1) realizing—new realizations or awarenesses, (2) shifting—shifts in paradigm and beliefs about process, and (3) emerging—evidence of new working theory and ideas about how learning unfolds. Themes revealed emerging meanings or patterns within the collective data set that connected back to the research questions (Braun & Clark, 2006; Mullet, Willer-son, Lamb, & Kettler, 2016). In examining the analytic memos, tangled layers, the mapping, and themes/doings, a second visual method of analysis was developed (Figure 3). What began to unfold was evidence of changes in patterns of thinking and behaviors con-nected to art-making processes. The reorganization and consolidation of themes/doings formed a web of interconnected transformation. Each theme/doing highlights shifts in thinking,
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42 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
knowing, and experiencing, moving toward new ways of conceptualizing the artist self and its applications in future teaching.
Findings
New Realizations
The first theme uncovered sensate moments or impulses (Carroll, 2007) that were both welcome and sometimes uncomfortable. These moments focused on prob-lem solving, action, and process. This increased and deepened awareness of what was occurring in the moment shifted their attention to a more feeling focus rather than an intellectual focus.
Because my thinking is visible, I am able to revisit the videos with the same enthusiasm as when they were created. Unlike written reflections, my fervor and excitement will never fade, and I am able to get a genuine sense of my feelings at the time of creating. Through my making and re-watching of the footage I was able to get a realistic perception of the way my “art-mind” functions. (Stu-dent blog reflection, 2014)
I also realized that while I like to have a general plan of attack and materials with intentional meaning, I don’t like to have all the details nailed down (i.e.,
Figure 3. Patterns of paradigm shifts.
43Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
placement of objects). These are truths about my process that I don’t think I would have known if I had not stopped and tried to explain my decisions along the way and realized that at some point I let the decision making go, in favor of intuition. (Student blog reflection, 2014)
Arts-based research engages visual phenomena and the practice of inquiry differ-ently in that it engages beyond the logical, extending to the senses. It “takes differ-ent forms and informs differently” (Barone & Eisner, 2011, p. 9). References to the intuitive, a feeling of letting go and developing more confidence, accompanied by the realization that it was okay to not know what would happen, were profound shifts for many of the participants, as they were accustomed to focusing on a fixed result or a specific product. By spending time revisiting and dwelling in the in-between spaces of their initial idea and the finished artwork, students’ conceptions of their identities were disrupted (Irwin, 2013). They were able to see, hear, and feel the choices they were making. This new awareness opened a space for different behaviors and expectations to emerge in the art-making process, as evidenced in their videos and summative reflections.
Paradigm Shifts
Changes and shifts in paradigm were made perceptible as students framed, cut, connected, and assembled moments of artistic creating. Video, as Deleuze de-scribes it, “is revealed to be a field of experimentation for thought” (Sauvagnar-gues, 2016, p. 97). As students edited their videos and then reflected, their new realizations disrupted traditional or habitual thinking and created a space for transformation in thinking about process and art making. Their slowed process became a central focus, while the product became secondary. They were able to stay with(in) a moment to cultivate a deeper understanding of what they were do-ing. Here, we noticed evidence of a new relationship with process developing.
I think verbalizing thinking is a very powerful teaching tool. It helps the student recognize the path of their process and what they may or may not need to do in the future. It took me forever to realize that while I am a pre-sketcher/planner, I cannot have all the details laid out because it takes away from my intuitive problem solving. (Student blog reflection, 2014)
For me, being able to speak out loud about my thinking helped me identify my art making process. I realized that I find the moment where planning ends and interaction with the material begins is the most exciting part. At that point, the art-making is intuitive and raw within the confines of a preplanned organiza-tion, and I find that exciting. (Student blog reflection, 2014)
Moments of excitement and particularly moments of tension were pivotal in shift-ing how students conceptualized process. Discomfort became a line of flight for
44 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
growth and transformation as students negotiated their way through it rather than avoiding it. Increased self- awareness and deeper conceptualizing around the value of feeling and its connection to meaning making appeared in their reflections. An increased openness to how process might unfold differently as artwork is cre-ated and the observation that multiple ideas are always and ever present appeared often. This is a significant shift in attention from a product focus to the ambigu-ity of process. Especially notable is the emerging research mind-set as it relates to creative activity.
Developing Working Theory
Finally, individual statements of emergent working theory addressing process and art making began to appear. The video editing process requires all three lenses of the a/r/tographer be put to work in order to conceptualize how something “mat-ters” in the world. “The intellectual, imaginative, and insightful work created by artists and educators as practitioners is grounded in ongoing forms of recursive and reflexive inquiry engaged in theorizing for understanding” (Irwin & Spring-gay, 2008, p. xxii). Through this embodied reflective process, students validated their artist identity and recognized that this knowledge is transferable to their future classrooms.
During the making of the “book” we were asked to document our thought pro-cess, and through this I realized just how important it is to understand what we ask our students to go through in order to help them. If I didn’t stop to think about my art-making practice, I would not have known what I do when I get stuck, and therefore I wouldn’t be able to help a student in a similar situation. (Student blog reflection, 2015)
I think if the students recognize how their process works and how it differs from [the processes of ] other students, it will give them confidence in themselves to work through their art. (Student blog reflection, 2016)
Significant to their new understanding is the notion of how to persevere when confronted with challenges. Students were understanding the mechanisms of process and speculating on how this might impact pedagogy. The realization that process honors disruption and celebrates multiple perspectives is not only a critical understanding in art, but also essential in our ever-expanding global society.
Discussion
Deep thinking and conceptual development take time and are sometimes difficult. “Deleuze defines art as a capture of forces, not as a representation or imitation
45Amy Ruopp and Kathy Unrath A/r/tographical Exploration
of nature” (Sauvagnargues, 2016, p. 89). When students develop the confidence to persevere in ambiguity and the flexibility to change direction, they can attach increased value to meaning making and the unique process of each individual. In addition, cultivating an appreciation for the time it takes to truly understand something occurs through investing in process. Editing video is, by its very nature, an artistic/research act. It is a composi-tion of moments across time, mapping thoughts, images, and action. While the result may appear linear, at its essence, video is rhizomatic, as moments are lay-ered, rearranged, cut, and reassembled. Rhizomatic thinking conceptually disrupts habits of perceptions and knowing, challenging genealogies of thought (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). The edited video became artful data, which informed our stu-dents’ final reflections on their realizations about artistic identity and process. The folding and unfolding of process recursively explored through the lenses of a/r/tography evoked new understandings. Learning “involves moving into and through an evolving space of possibility” (Davis, Sumara, & Luce-Kapler, 2008, p. 83). Employing video technology as a method of reflection shifted the students’ attention into the moment of process and disrupted current paradigms around art making. New realizations challenged habits of thinking and knowing in such a way that they had to critically examine preconceived notions of creating and art making to be able to transform their understanding of process. As such, they were developing working theory directly from their experiences. Making the pro-cess visible demystified myths around who makes art and how it unfolds (Porter, 2004). The theory of tacit knowledge (Polanyi, 1967) maintains that we come to know through experienced sensations. We suggest that this concept extends to ideation and the sensuous act of creating. Interacting with material differently, moving attention into the feeling moment, student participants constructed new knowing as a/r/tographers and were able to articulate complex internal pro-cesses. MacDougall (2011) states that “the visual recording—that is, the research data—becomes the fabric of the finished work” (p. 101). The video data in essence provided students with opportunities to revisit, research, and realize the signifi-cance of how art-making knowledge unfolds. Engaging with their artwork as data invited student a/r/tographers into the in-between spaces of the artist/teacher/researcher, making connections between the identities. The complexities of the conceptual thinking embedded in art making require a paradigm shift in how one understands teaching and learning. “More-over, experiencing the practices of artists, researchers and teachers contiguously can disrupt the arbitrary boundaries of fixed disciplinary knowledge” (Irwin & O’Donoghue, 2012, p. 222). In deeply exploring process and working through discomfort and tensions, the mechanisms of meaning making are uncovered. “The integration of the artist, researcher and teacher identities has the potential for
46 Visual Arts Research Winter 2019
creating emergent identities in which new skills, theories and practices are formed that could influence the development of art and art education practice and knowl-edge” (Thornton, 2013, p. 10). The students’ strengthened sense of artistic identity coupled with their new awareness about process impacted their thinking about teaching and the conceptualization of their future classrooms.
Implications
For readers experiencing tension in response to these ideas, we invite you to em-brace that discomfort. Rather than resist, be curious. For in that tension, much the way our students discovered, there is an opportunity for transformative growth. As Irwin (2013) points out, “teacher education has been primarily focused on learning to teach” (p. 202). This investigation is beneficial in that it has the potential to strengthen art education programs by offering a detailed look at the benefits of cultivating artistic identity and awareness of the creative process in pre-service teachers. This then has the potential to strengthen and promote visual literacy and creative problem solving and arts programs in K–12 settings. In our investigation, students transformed over the semester, and their per-ceptions of self as an artist teacher expanded as they became more comfortable with their deepening awareness of the teacher self and the artist self. Working the-ory was developed and articulated, and, as Porter (2004) suggests, this bringing of the roles together strengthens the whole and fuels the artist teacher. Schön (1987) suggests that “when someone reflects in action, he becomes a researcher in practice and context” (p. 68). Barone and Eisner (2011) argue that arts-based research “is a heuristic through which we deepen and make more complex our understanding of some aspect of the world” (p. 3). The video and editing process and final reflection offered a deepened understanding for all while remaining unique for each one. It is a mechanism that begins in a place of reflection, but in the re-searching and re-viewing and editing, it assembles and juxtaposes aspects of the creative process, producing more than reflection alone can provide. Through this a/r/tographical exploration, students embodied all three iden-tities, while combining ways of knowing to develop their own working theories of teaching and learning and, at the same time, strengthening and validating their artistic identity.
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