The subject of this study, which engages philosophy, art and the teaching of art, asks how art can be taught if it can be any thing. I characterise this status as ‘open’, meaning that it is epistemologically and ontologically unstable in ways which challenge our understanding of what an ‘artwork’ might constitute. The research looks to debates in the philosophy of art, for example, the definitional challenge of art, but especially to attempts to identify where the ontological distinctiveness of art lies if physicality fails to explain such distinctiveness. I argue that, although such debates have a relevance for the teaching of art at undergraduate level, this relevance is not widely acknowledged in the literature of art teaching. I first examine how openness is recognized and dealt with in art schools through the Benchmark Statement for art and design. I use a case study to explore the implications of open art with educational practitioners. I then ask whether art has always been problematical to teach and whether it is any more so in the context of contemporary art practices. Two accounts of value in art teaching (Ginsborg and de Duve) are examined in order to show how differently the practices which reflect that value can be interpreted and how the value is shifting as particular theories manifest themselves in art schools. I explore the relationship between theory and practice in the art school context, identifying six ways in which the term theory can be interpreted. Each way has implications for how art teaching is understood although I give special attention to an aspect of philosophical theory – the ontological structure of artworks – to argue that the teaching of art would meet the challenge of open art more readily by acknowledging, more overtly than is currently evident, the ontology of artworks.

Creativity can be described as the ability to generate new ideas and to combine existing ideas in new ways in order to find novel solutions to problems. Creativity is enhanced by a free flow of knowledge and through social contact. On this basis, it can be argued that knowledge sharing is central to creativity in design, and this thesis presents evidence which supports this view. Design education should therefore include learning and teaching approaches which encourage knowledge sharing and these approaches should be based on the patterns of knowledge sharing of designers from the creative industries in order to prepare students for future employment. In this thesis, an analysis of the practices of designers in the creative industries in Scotland is presented. The methodology of this study is design-based research; this approach advocates a rigorous framework, with cycles of design and triangulation in evaluation, which by demonstrating objectivity, reliability and validity, strengthens the validity of the outcomes. The data has been gathered by structured ~~ questionnaire and in-depth interviews which have been conducted with participants from a wide range of design companies. Data has also been gathered from final year students in design programmes and a comparison drawn. In practice, employees in the creative industries consume and create knowledge by making use of a wide range of distributed resources. Creativity is an important aspect of practice for both novices (students) and experts. All respondents in this study believe that creativity is enhanced by knowledge-sharing collaborative practices. .", However differences between the practices and knowledge-sharing patterns of students and experts have been identified. This evidence has been used to develop an authentic industry-based learning and teaching intervention which supports creative design. The learning and teaching outcomes have been evaluated and the evidence suggests that authentic knowledge-sharing interventions support the development of creative solutions t-o design problems. A number of key principles have been deduced that are considered central to this outcome. The findings, and the key educational principles presented here, together provide new knowledge in design practice and education.

This study aims to examine critical studies in secondary art and design education; to question its teaching practices, content and purposes, with a view to proposing how these elements might work more critically. A broadly qualitative methodology is adopted, that draws on elements of a number of approaches including action research, interpretivism and naturalistic enquiry that claim to enable understanding of practice from practitioners’ points of view. The study is indebted to Bourdieu’s work; his concepts, including habitus, capital and field are used as ‘tools to think with’ enabling the possibility of opening up practice, of getting beneath taken for granted ways of acting and to “strain” interpretation of students’ views. Adopting a Bourdieuian frame also encouraged reflexivity throughout the study. The study initially uses questionnaires to explore a number of personal, initial “hunches” that have been acquired from my own experiences of students destined to become art and design teachers. Additionally, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with student teachers; from these emerged the phenomena of an “in-between” position. The study goes on to argue that this position, where identity is in a state of flux may enable more critical interventions or enactments in art and design education. The study concludes by suggesting that although art and design education occurs within locations of constraints and structures, nevertheless, those involved in initial teacher education in art and design – including students, school mentors and university tutors - are all differently, but importantly placed to make critical studies teaching more critical.

The objective of this research is to compare the noticeably prevalent perception among undergraduate studio-based art and design lecturers that elearning can contribute little or nothing to teaching and learning, against the rhetoric and literature of elearning associated with competencies for the knowledge economy. The inference is that elearning is unsuitable for the instructional strategies associated with art and design education. This anecdotal evidence together with the limited studies on the implementation of online learning technologies in art and design education, triggered this research. The significance of this study is that it seeks to contribute to the present re-evaluations of art and design education in the context of the knowledge economy. The core question is: how do the perceptions and practices of teaching staff in art and design disciplines compare and contrast with the associated rhetoric and literature of elearning and innovative practices? Consistent with the phenomenographic approach to research, this study pursues a second-order perspective, i.e. through a qualitative analysis of interviews this research deals with people's experiences of aspects of the world. It considers the pedagogies associated with elearning for the premise is that the competencies required for the knowledge economy cannot be provided for unless there is a corresponding change in teaching and learning methods. This research confirms the prevalence of the perception that elearning can contribute little or nothing to teaching and learning and attributes this to the historical evolution of art and design pedagogies, the persistence of didactic methods, the false understanding of elearning as replacing rather than enhancing teaching and learning practices and the lack of sufficient and appropriate professional development and training opportunities for teaching staff. The implication is that there is a noticeable misalignment between perceptions and practices of elearning and the associated rhetoric and literature of elearning and innovative teaching and learning practices.

This thesis contributes to an understanding of contemporary curatorial practice and theory through an investigation into the complex relationship between new media art and contemporary art. A fresh curatorial perspective is introduced charting three major forms of relationships between new media art and contemporary art - antagonism, ambiguity and convergence. A historical evolution starting with antagonism, moving through ambiguity and finally converging the forces of new media art and contemporary art is proposed and explored throughout the thesis. The overarching research question: is there a need for distinct curatorial theory and practice of new media art underpins the hypothesis and furthermore puts the selected curatorial projects to the test. What emerges is a strong argument for the incorporation of new media art and its associated curatorship into the more encompassing entity of contemporaineity - its art, as well as its theory and practice of curating. Inspired by the method of critical reflection, Curating Contemporary Art opens with a hypothesis featuring an introduction, literature review and curatorial methodology outline. A novel notion of curatorial constituents: pre- production, production and post-production is proposed and then further investigated in relation to each of the four selected case studies. This approach provides a navigable structure for each of the three chapters. Specific issues of the curatorial constituents are highlighted under the relevant stage in each chapter. This host of curatorial issues with references to a range of appendices, including a detailed bibliography, lie at the thesis research core. The thesis ends with a synthesis or a conclusion. Overall, the thesis aims to enrich the current curatorial discourse through professional-confessional analysis of issues such as curatorial premise, theme-led practice, eo- curatorship, curatorial commissions, public commissions, funding, added value, ownership, genre and time-based notions. Here, a refreshing curatorial eye is cast on those issues in an attempt to foreground the importance of exhibition making, its theory and practice. Period-wise, the current investigation positions the thesis as part of the larger and ongoing project for curatorial historisation of the decade at the end of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21 st Centuries. It also asserts its intention to boldly go where no comprehensive curatorial study has ventured before by probing deeply into our assumptions about new media art, contemporary art and curatorship such as: is there a specific entity as curating computer based art or just curating contemporary art? Furthermore, it builds its innovative hypothesis around the three forms of relationships between the two art worlds under scrutiny: antagonistic, ambiguous and convergent, by comparing curatorial views and analysing experiences from across the two 'ideological camps'; by distinguishing between curatorial practice and curatorial theory while tracing their own origin and historical precedents. The antagonism of the mainstream art world towards new media and vice versa has contributed to the marginalisation of new media art and even its demarcation outside of the cultural mainstream. The marked ambivalence between the two fields of study is explored through the oscillating love-hate relationship which provides evidence for the reasons why the contemporary art world still sends out mixed signals of love and enmity about its digital other half. At the other end of the spectrum, the relationship between new media art and contemporary art appears much more convergent, amicable and mutually beneficial. The pioneering example set by New York's Postmasters Gallery is discussed in the self-reflective contemporary context of ARC Projects Gallery, Sofia.

This qualitative project concentrates on the creative research processes of contemporary Cypriot video artists and on their interrelation with the field of visual arts education, examined through the triple role of artist/researcher/teacher. The project contains evidence of the achievement of a tangible research product in the form of an Educational Guide, accompanied by a DVD collection as a creative outcome that presents, in 10 DVDs, the video profiles of 10 local artists with a selection of their video artwork. The project adopts a pluralistic research methodology, and identifies and presents multiple results that are extracted from the artists’ case studies, together with a self-study concerning artistic research approaches to video art-making. The results are transformed through a hermeneutical and semiotic approach into educational suggestions for the employment of video art as an art form, and video as a medium into the visual arts educational context. The body of knowledge presented contributes to three major areas: the documentation and accessibility of the artistic practices of contemporary living Cypriot artists, the understanding of their artistic research processes, and the attribution of pedagogical value to video art’s content and context through the creation of educational materials that consider the availability of the artists’ video works. The outcome of the project is intended for general and visual arts educators, artists, art historians and gallery and museum professionals who wish to study the insights of video art in Cyprus through an audio-visual presentation. The overall contribution of the project to professional practice is summarised in the bridging of the gap between the sister fields of visual arts and contemporary visual arts education, by transforming everyday artistic practice in appropriate material for pedagogical contexts.

This study is concerned with the examination and investigation of facts and documents relating to past and present provisions for the teaching of art and design in the Republic of Lebanon. It encompasses nursery, elementary, secondary and higher grades of schooling and includes initial evaluation of the present art syllabus. The study will be accompanied by a survey of the current state of art and design practice in Lebanon, as set against the historical background and cultural heritage of the country. The effect of recent political events on education will be appraised. From the material a number of inferences will be drawn concerning the needs and priorities of art and design education in Lebanon. The study concludes with proposals for reorganising and updating the art syllabus. In the conclusion a number of recommendations will be made to assist with the diffusion and dissemination of art education throughout the country.

This is a study about knowledge/power in galleries and museums, contested and reconfigured by a genre of artworks, referred to as Artists' Interventions. Such artworks, their intended functions, and pedagogic uses are the locus of the study. I define galleries and museums as inherently pedagogic institutions, which have historically constructed and disseminated dominant systems of value. In order to examine in what ways these values have been reconfigured through Artists' Interventions, I undertake a historiography of the role of the gallery and museum. In defining interventions, I differentiate between interventionist artworks that disrupt and contest the 'normative' or dominant discourse of galleries and museums, and artworks that support and confirm established interpretations of art and artefacts, and focus attention on the former. I propose art-historical predecessors for Artists' Interventions and situate contemporary initiatives in relation to disruptive, dialogic and parodic methodologies. These are more closely examined in a central case study, a practice-based aspect of the thesis in which I make my own intervention, An Elite Experience for Everyone, performed and exhibited at the William Morris Gallery, London (2005). Where Artists' Interventions have emerged against a backdrop of dominant regulatory and divisionary discourse their disruptive and parodic strategies re-establish the museum as a discursive forum. However, the trope of disruption and dialogue has recently been accommodated within curatorial and pedagogic initiatives. Only the trickster is allowed to evade this assimilation.

This thesis identifies and critically examines the teaching collection assembled for the Leeds School of Design, established in 1846 under the Leeds Mechanics’ Institution and Literary Society. The nucleus of this collection was a generic set of plaster casts, prints and publications distributed by the Head School of Design at Somerset House in London, founded in 1837. This approved selection of pedagogic objects was augmented with local donations of paintings, prints, decorative arts and photographs. This thesis proposes that these supplementary objects, and the ways in which they were displayed, represented a resistance to standardisation and a renegotiation of the role of art and design education in relation to existing voluntary societies and their associated public exhibitions. Chapter one investigates the contested curriculum of the Schools of Design and the role of the Royal Academy in its construction. The question addressed concerns how the same reproductions of canonical antique statuary came to be deployed as vehicles for the transmission of a mutable set of ideological positions related to the concepts of art and its applications, industry and consumption and the division of labour. The distinction between the training of the artist and the artisan is also considered on a local level through the Leeds Academy of Arts, which was active between 1852 and 1855. Chapter two explores the philosophical, political and economic positions that informed the practice of the Leeds School of Design, beginning with a Foucauldian analysis of the behaviours and beliefs inculcated in the students through the regulation of space, time and work. The culture of autodidacticism and the associated approaches to political economy developed by Edward Baines Junior and Samuel Smiles are articulated as a means of understanding the climate in which state-sponsored education was received in a regional context. These intellectual conditions are further elaborated through the practice of the travelling public lecture. Chapter three considers the temporary exhibitions, conversazioni and soirées associated with art and design education in Leeds, beginning with the first polytechnic public exhibition organised by the Mechanics’ Institution at the Albion Street Music Hall in 1839. The strategic appropriation of architecture associated with commercial and industrial activity for the purpose of display is considered through the work of Henri Lefebvre on the social production of space. The fourth and final chapter considers the itinerancy of the pedagogic object and the emergence of circulating collections composed of applied arts, reproductions in plaster, fictile ivory and electrotype and photographs. The mobilisation of material culture through these didactic collections will be analysed through a variety of critical frameworks, including historical materialism, post-structuralism and social geography, as appropriate to discrete aspects of the archive.

No description available.