The following portfolio is representative of my own artistic practice that combines the role of artist, educator, peace worker and researcher into one entity. The works are drawn from a back catalogue of fifty plus collaborative arts projects that has engaged with individuals and communities in different locations over the past twenty years. These works have been delivered within formal and informal educational settings. While each piece can be read as an individual artwork – collectively they talk to common issues related to visual art practice, public pedagogy and conflict transformation. I have identified four consistent themes present in the work Social Justice, Human Rights, Development Education, Democratic Education, Inclusion and Identity. My practice can be described as a socially engaged art practice. However, while I pay close attention to the aesthetics and artistic impression of my work, I place a primary importance on education by asking a simple question which often provides a myriad of highly complex answers. I ask - What is being learned? I have worked with children, young people and others who live in the midst of socio-political conflict or in societies affected by underdevelopment. This combination of experiences has enabled me to forge a deep understanding of the role of identity politics in the construction of division and conflict. I have developed what I choose to call a problem posing1 visual arts pedagogy that serves to expose and undermine the conditions that sustain such divisions. My work has uncovered an implicit interconnectivity among art practices, critical pedagogy and the concepts and practices of conflict transformation. This combination coupled with my experience in the field of peace building, has enabled me to develop a unique pedagogical form that is responsive to the context and needs of specific communities. Through the following commentary I posit this pedagogy firmly within the general discourse of peace building. The portfolio presents new knowledge that aims to inform innovative approaches to the role of the visual arts in conflict transformation and ultimately lead toward 1 Problem posing – drawing on Paulo Freire (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed: a problem posing pedagogy offers opportunities for learner and teacher to build a relationship based on critical inquiry. ii embedding such processes in the field of peace building and international diplomacy.

This thesis examines the political dimension of comedy in performance through a practice-as-research project incorporating elements of stand-up comedy, relational art, and participatory performance. In the wake of the depoliticisation of live performance comedy in Britain after the incorporation into the mainstream of the agit-prop driven Alternative comedy of the 1980s, I question whether stand-up in particular can have a political efficacy greater than raising awareness or representing a political struggle. Satirical comedy, comedy of Carnival, and more recently, comedies of ‘transgression,’ are held as paradigmatic of comedy’s generic political dimension, and contemporary discourse celebrates the comedian’s ability to negotiate lines of offense or taste. Opposing this view, I argue that this ‘Canivalesque logic’ is incompatible with the ideological conditions of global capitalism. A ‘radical democratic’ comedy necessitates a focus on the relational and affective dimensions of comedy performance. Following from this theoretical framework, this thesis progresses through three phases of experimental practice. I begin by interrogating and expanding my existing practice as a ‘circuit comedian.’ Next, audience-performer relationships become the site of interrogation, and I engage in two projects influenced by participatory performance and relational aesthetics. The third phase returns to stand-up comedy, coloured by my previous experiments. This project results in a model of comic performance as embodied formalist critique of ideology. The results of this project contributes to a way of reading comedy performance, as well as to discourse about the politics of theatre and performance. It is also provides an exegesis of comic techniques and a sustained analysis of my practice as a comedian and artist. Overall, this project intends to escape the false choice faced by the politically-minded comedian today: to paraphrase a well-known Marx Brothers joke, when given the choice between commenting on the world or changing it, we should answer: ‘Yes, please!’

Along with the live performance of Sissy!, the present document constitutes research centred on the figure of the ‘sissy,’ defined in relation to the effeminate homosexual. The practice-based study proposes ‘sissiography’ as an original concept, conceived of as a negotiation between the three elements of body, abuse and space. Bodily traits are investigated under the coin ‘negotiable markers’ to include mannerisms, behaviours and sartorial choices commonly regarded as characteristic of the sissy. Abuse is studied in reference to Butler’s notion of ‘words that wound’ as well as to incidents of hate crime in London. Thirdly, sissy space is analysed in relation to safe and hostile urban zones. The study concludes that the unifying principle at the heart of sissiography is the concept of failure. In examining the writing of sissiness, the thesis considers existing scholarship on sissies and positions itself against the diagnostic concept of so-called Gender Identity Disorder. The argument developed here is underpinned by autobiographical elements. Historical discourses of male effeminacy are presented to challenge the notion of fixity in perceptions of the sissy. While offering a written investigation of the concept of sissiography, the study also develops an analysis through the researcher’s body in a series of studio experimentations and live performances. Practice is the central instrument of the enquiry, facilitating the writing of new sissy discourses. A cyclical mode of research leads from practice to theory and back to practice. The sissiography is thereby shown to be a form of inscription on the body, a form of writing space, of writing movement, of reinscribing history, of describing possible sissy futures.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Gaver, Donald P. Second Reader: Gragg, William B. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 21, 2009. DTIC Identifier(s): Logistics, Combat support, Warfare, Cannibalization, Spare parts, Military operations, Mathematical models, Theses. Author(s) subject terms: Diffusion Approximation, Combat Logistics, Cannibalization, Availability. Includes bibliographical references (p. 80-81). Also available in print.

This dissertation identifies a strategy of artistic inquiry within contemporary media art practice. It applies the concept of material that acts in an agential capacity, generating performative acts. It argues that the emergent potentials of materials and their interconnectedness with the compositional layers of a work can facilitate modes of effecting change in the artistic system. Through the theoretical investigation of the production processes of physical structures and environments, the thesis focuses on the compositional dynamics within which materials actively perform. It examines how Lars Spuybroek’s architectural design method of Material Machines (2004), and both the tactile potential as well as tactical uses of materials as generators to the formtaking process, might describe an open and active artistic strategy for employing the experimental capacities of such materialization processes. Building on philosophical and conceptual arguments that trace concepts of agency (Bruno Latour’s Actant-Network theory) and enactment (Karen Barad’s concept of intra-acting), the thesis introduces the two installation works ANI_MATE (described as a performative pneumatic stage machine) and ON TRACK (described as a mechanic-robotic installation). These apply the introduced artistic strategies. The analyses of these two artworks traces the particular capacities of the materials involved (respectively, their elasticity or viscosity) to negotiate forces of physical movement, which effect the system to transiently or irreversibly transform. ANI_MATE is a machine that is artist-operated and that explores the relationship between liveanimation procedures and the transformability and flexibility of its material environment. In contrast, ON TRACK’s performative machine ecology removes human agency. The machines act autonomously, giving rise to chance in the artistic system and allowing agency to emerge from the dynamic interconnectivity between materials, parts, and processes, eventually producing an entropic scenario of spilling resources. The thesis concludes that, in the context of a post digital paradigm in-development, such artistic practice offers a new strategy for an emergent aesthetics within contemporary physical-digital performance.

Abstract This studio-based thesis study discusses historical research as a motivation for art creation. Incorporating historical research on the naturalist and explorer William Bartram this paper explores the ways history may serve as inspiration for art-production. This paper also examines how making art may act as a form of research. Additionally, it explores how this strategy may be implemented in the classroom, with the intention of leading to greater engagement and understanding by students within their research area as well as their artistry.

This master thesis deals with the topic of the natural place and the place which is changed by people's activity. It deals with topic of genius loci, problems of loss of the place and our relationship to place where we live. In more detail it is focused on the city and its peripherals. It offers a short wiew to the history of cities and their periphery, architecture and urban planning. The thesis also deals with fine arts associated with the urban environment - artists, for which the city was and is an inspiration and a theme and with the role of art in public spaces. Research part of the thesis is aimed at children's perception of the place where we live. Through qualitative research methods I am trying to find out what is the meaning of the word "home" for todays children, how they percieve their close surroundings and what is the development of their thinking. The didact part of the thesis offers collection of art assigments for children with topic of the city that should increase children's perception of the urban environment. Some of them are inspirated by psychological geography which is based on the human perception of the environment and its reflection in our consciousness. The pedagogical reflection of realized tasks is also included in this part of work. The conclusion of the thesis is...

This study was an exploration of the professional identities of secondary school mid-career art educators through arts-based educational research [ABER]. The aim of this research was to gain understandings of mid-career art educators’ perceptions of their professional identities. Inspired by my personal experiences as an art educator, this study engaged other art educators to visualise their professional identities, as secondary mid-career art educators in England, and contribute new perspectives to the research community. Theoretically, this study is aligned with the writings of Dewey (1934, 1944), Deleuze and Guattari (1987, 1994). Deleuze and Guattari’s post-structural concept of the rhizome formed the basis for the development of the ideas associated with identity. As an assemblage, the rhizome is a complex system based on non-linear, reactionary growth patterns. The non-linear growth of the rhizome is facilitated by the activation of the in-between. As such, the rhizome connects to a view of identity as an unstable, flexible and fragmented entity that is in a constant state of becoming (Bauman, 2000). Dewey’s pragmatism was connected with Deleuzian post-structural theory through the writings of Semetsky (2006). Dewey (1944) and Greene’s (1973, 2003) writings associated with democratic education and artistic development connected these theoretical considerations with constructivism, the arts and education. Sachs’ (2003) writing on progressive and bureaucratic education provided a framework for the discussion of professionalism and professional identities. As a contribution to ABER this study was based on a/r/tography (Springgay et al., 2008) as a methodology and actively integrated image and text to the data collection and data analysis. Collage was used as the main arts-based method to develop responses from the participants and to visualise the participant data. This research asked mid-career art educators with busy lives and demanding occupations to consider who they are and express their views through art. These images of identities reflected the complex in-between-ness of professionalism in education.

The concept of this diploma thesis is based on folklore, folklorism, national art, folk customs and traditions, specifically in the region of Moravian Slovakia. In the theoretical part, I define these terms. I point out the misuse of folklore for political or advertising purposes. I introduce artists who have dealt with the processing of folklore in the visual arts, and at the same time I introduce contemporary artists who have been inspired by Moravian Slovakia folklore motifs. In the research part, I chose the method of structured interviews of five respondents active in the field of folklore, and my goal was to subsequently analyze these interviews and identify meaning nodes. What is most important for the respondents is not a surprise to me, but a confirmation and sorting of ideas so that it can be a solid basis for pedagogical activities. The practical part offers a pedagogical portfolio, which is verified in practice, and there is an effort to use its didactic potential in primary school. KEYWORDS folklore, folklorism, qualitative research, folk art, ornament, pedagogy, Moravian Slovakia, traditions and customs, art

Este trabalho investiga uma ação educativa em arte em espaços não formais de educação originária de uma política pública da Secretaria do Menor do Estado de São Paulo (gestão 1987 a 1994). Levantou a hipótese de que esta experiência com ensino de arte concorreu para a formação de seus profissionais e trouxe contribuições para as práticas que exercem nas instituições escolares às quais estão vinculados hoje. Configurou-se como pesquisa qualitativa e a metodologia empregada ressaltou o levantamento de dados secundários, como as publicações oficiais da época, mas também dados primários a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas com profissionais que tiveram papel fundamental na criação, implantação e prática nos Programas de Complementação Escolar. Concluiu que esses professores realizaram uma experiência de ensinar e aprender de maneira significativa e que a concepção Arte como pesquisa, no espaço educativo indicou orientações didáticas para o trabalho em arte que enfatiza um espaço/tempo privilegiado para os menores desenvolverem ação criadora e trabalhos nas linguagens artísticas e, às equipes profissionais, a práxis educativa. A concepção Arte como pesquisa, no espaço educativo apresenta um modo de ver a arte na educação, com um projeto pedagógico em arte comprometido com a experimentação, descoberta, invenção e processos criadores das crianças, adolescentes e jovens, como também dos professores. / This paper investigates an art-centric educative action in informal venues of education, originating from a public policy created by the Secretariat of Minors of the State of São Paulo (management of 1987 to 1994). It hypothesizes that the experience with art education concurred with the development of its professionals and brought contributions to the practices of the educational institutions to which they were bound presently. It was configured as qualitative research, and the methodology applied highlighted the survey of secondary data, such as official publications of the time, but also primary data in the form of semi-structured interviews with professionals who had fundamental part in the creation, establishment and practice of the after-school Programs. The conclusion was that these professors held a teaching and learning experience in a significant way and that the concept of Art as research in the educative environment implied didactic orientations for the work in art that emphasizes a privileged space/time for minors to develop creativeness and action in artistic languages and, to the professional teams, the educative praxis. The concept of Art as research in the educative environment presents one manner in which to see art in education, like one pedagogic project in art committed with experimentation, discovery, invention and creative processes in children, adolescents and the youth, as well as with professors.