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GLOBALISING ART, ARCHITECTURE AND
DESIGN HISTORY |
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Collections as a
Resource Changes in the
Curriculum Teaching Islamic Art:
Experiences Issues and Possibilities Views Of Difference
Post-Colonial Theory in the
Undergraduate Curriculum Latin America in
Context Service Teaching into Art
History Art from Africa
Italy to Africa
Collections as a
Resource What are the opportunities afforded by museum collections as a teaching resource and what could be some useful strategies for their access and use? The University of Glasgow could have good methods easily applicable to other schools. (In this case relating to Chinese, Ancient Egyptian, 19th Century Eastern European design).
To promote student access to objects is an essential part of the study of History of Art, and good relationships to a number of institutions are important. The main aspects would be: University/Museum Partnerships
Other Possiblities
Changes in the
Curriculum The aims of the session were to explore existing conceptions
of the curriculum and of curriculum change. To identify the issues to be
addressed in curriculum change, as well as what kinds of help or support could
be useful.
For & Against Change?
© Pauline Ridley, ADC-LTSN Centre, University of Brighton
Implementing Curriculum Change Individual (minor amendments to single module)
New module or major revision to existing module:
Problem-based learning/case studies/ projects:
Radical overhaul of whole curriculum:
Teaching Islamic Art: Experiences,
Issues and Possibilities RH first outlined some of the basic problems arising from Eurocentricity, such as its effect on collecting (as in the Pitt-Rivers 'model'), the feminisation of the Orient, the fetishisation of the East, and themeparkalisation (as in 'Taj Mahal Restaurant'). RH discussed the minuses of teaching
another culture's art, the first one being the need to learn about another
religion and another language. Another difficulty was the need to address a
series of absences:
There is also the need to address a series of misconceptions:
However, there are important pluses as well:
RH then talked about his own experience teaching Islamic art. Lectures Essays Tutorials/Seminars One important thing to keep in mind is that subjects such as Islamic art benefit from the enormous freedom of not having to deal with three hundred years of accumulated scholarship. There is elbow room to address bold new topics and engage in new avenues of research.
Views Of
Difference CK displayed the packages of texts and books for OU students
in the History of Art. The discussion was aimed at determining how the 'OU way'
might be helpful to 'conventional' institutions. The Views of Difference module was the OU's first attempt at looking at issues of cultural difference. The book/course shows students how Euro-colonial ventures had spread the idea that there is no such thing as non-western 'art' - setting out how this happened and how it is contested. CK felt that the extent to which this element of the course was successful was due to its logical role in the series with the other five books. Students need to see relevance. Problems with introducing the modules:
CK reported that the OU tutors all came from early modern/modern courses previously taught by the OU. Sessions had been held with tutors to offer support and advise on how to approach this new material. They had experienced a few 'teething problems'. CK reported that only 10% of students undertake the exam question based on this book, however those that do attain the best marks. 2,600 OU students in the first year - 200 OU students a year with a grip on these issues. The other factor in assessment is a 2000 word essay on each book, the students do as well as (or better than) on the other five books. CK suggested that the selection of exam questions may be related to varying levels of tutorial support throughout the course. Blocks 1-3 have the most tutorial support; this then reduces into the summer. CK felt that Views of Difference had to be placed where it was in the programme as the students needed a background on which to build when tackling these issues. Craig Clunas raised the question of the flexibility of the course material - the new books represented a huge investment that must then be difficult to 'fine-tune'. At Sussex, course documents that were word-processed could be easily changed, with any problems 'fixed' next year. CK said that the current books were expected to have a ten-year life (for 10,000 students) therefore in this respect being 'resource-poor' might be an advantage. CC felt a "slight sadness" with regard to the context of this element of the course. The other books addressing issues such as Gender and Art (in the West); The Status of the Artist (in the West) seemed to imply that these issues didn't apply to China etc. CK agreed that this should be the way forward. There had only been two other teachers assisting here with this element, both architectural historians. She felt it had been necessary to make a start, in order to see the way forward - this built up a sense of gap/lack/distance to be bridged. It was important to get the ball into play, make the best of it (despite arguments about tokenism) better to do something rather than nothing.
Post-Colonial Theory in the
Undergraduate Curriculum Questions raised during discussion: Why are there different understandings? Is there a lack of traditional HoA in this curriculum?
Is there a place in here for the "thingness of things"?
Is it designed for a specific kind of student? Or does
it just happen to categorise in a certain way? Will this create a certain "gap" in the choice of career
for the students?
Latin America in
Context There are various aspects to keep in mind when developing this kind of courses. Who are the students, what are their needs and their involvement? Universities need to construct curricula that give the students a possibility for something extra. Essex University for instance has comparative studies. The existing ideas people have of certain mystical places may attract them to these courses and should perhaps be used. (eg. for Latin America = the Aztecs) In the past decade the shifting or art and design has in ways also made things move forwards with this subject. Universities should make new subjects less threatening and more inviting. Geographical division for the delivery of these subjects is not the best option (i.e. China, Africa, Latin America, etc.), courses should be divided thematically with specific issues in mind. Another possibility is cross-over touching when specific known artists or movements are talked about. What is hoped with different curricula? Ways of expanding new groups and giving new ideas. One of the main problems with non western art is that it is seen as one and overarching, which it is not: there is no such thing as Latin-American art or Islamic art, these are divided into subgroups and different countries. One possibility is converting other subjects into something that deals with the global arts. What GLAADH could achieve is to have some effect in changing job descriptions towards diversity and make universities more open to 'unusual' specialisms. Rather than having non-specialists deliver new areas, it is better to open universities to specialists who are already 'out there'. Why is it that traditional art historians often have the good positions? It is not that important to have new subject areas within departments, but the recognition of them would be important.
Service
Teaching into Art History Malcolm Gee spoke on the current and potential impact of ‘service teaching’ (art history teaching for art practice students) on the Art, Architecture and Design curriculum. A lively discussion was had with two others (Oriana Baddeley and Leon Wainwright) around the following issues:
In some departments, the student cohort is ethnically diverse and this would seem to prompt change. But in certain other departments where the student body is very international (rather than simply ethnically diverse), it should be recognised that these students on the whole do not expect to come to Britain to study about material from their home countries. We might also ask, what kind of cultural diversity are we talking about: one that responds to the requirements of the student makeup, or one that goes in advance of the growing contemporary relevance of eg China or Islam?
This should not come about through ‘positive discrimination’, but of looking to adjacent areas of expertise, a main area being art schools and departments. Art schools are noted to be places where marginal subject areas have flourished, following their staff being displaced from art history departments because of little demand for them there. A different structure in art schools of employing as much as 50% visiting lecturers creates wider possibilities. The curriculum there is less fixed by virtue of this. The history of the past twenty years is seen to be important in this respect; we ought to look at where the teachers of culturally diverse material have been located in art practice departments, eg. John Clark, Jean Fisher. The idea that art history departments without changing their staff makeup should suddenly transform themselves and diversify amounts to an oversight of the potential contribution of experts based in art schools. This led to the question of:
Service teaching has a tradition of introducing questioning frameworks around diverse materials, by inviting a different relationship with objects influenced by students’ practice-oriented interests. On art history courses – conventionally found that what takes place is the unpacking of error-bound assumptions with the imposition of knowledge, whereas with practice based courses what is presented is the opportunity for interpretation and its exploration. At the same time, there are crossovers between these. MG – irresponsible appropriation of diverse forms and materials is common amongst fine art or fashion students – the problem becomes one of making students care about how to appropriate from diverse materials. At the same time, the current emphasis on theoretical and contextual teaching in art schools has come to mean that there are less people teaching with any practical (eg. fine art) training. This itself has come about as a result of current shifts of interest amongst fine artists in favour of ‘theory’, for instance post-colonial theory. Interesting mapping of activities here over past few decades where art practice students having been introduced to diverse materials and interests, through their own subsequent professional practice have come to reproduce the demand for diverse theoretical teaching.
When we talk about resources we should also include those people who have long standing teaching experience in diverse subjects, but who have been displaced from art history degree departments. How are they to be transferred? Several ways: in terms of partnerships between institutions, eg. V&A and Sussex; by tapping into the nexus of people on the writing and lecturing circuit. Setting up a register of expertise on the GLAADH website could be a way of making public the presence of that nexus, and opening up paths of collaboration. Job advertisements in art history departments continue to be for posts in traditional areas. What would be truly innovative is a change in attitude whereby specialists in diverse areas are recognised as capable of teaching European or North American areas too, as a reversal of the expectation that European-focused experts should be able to try their hand at teaching more diverse topics.
Art from
Africa John Picton gave a presentation on teaching and learning about art from Africa, emphasising the accessibility and relevance of African materials and histories. Questions and contributions that followed came from Cath King, Sandy Heslop, Leon Wainwright, Paul Stirton and Robert Hillenbrand.
John began by saying that he teaches with the advantage of being at SOAS and African-focused colleagues, but "there’s nothing I do that anyone else couldn’t do". The West and Africa have had long contact, and a number of thematic areas typical of a course on European-focused art history might easily bring this into view. John gave the examples of the narrative of 16th and 17th century Europe in which Africa has a part; of art and national identity which intersect distinctively in West and notably South Africa just as complexly as in Europe; of the 20th century, photography and so on. Things that we should be aware of, however:
John showed a number of slides to support his discussion, focusing on:
Some questions and contributions followed touching on:
More details on that discussion: Robert asked: What sorts of questions do first year students commonly ask? John replied that they want to know why his teaching is so anthropological. The answer being that until recently Africa didn’t have much written about art, and instead had to rely on writing based on ethnographic sources. Much of the teaching deals with overcoming the implications of precisely this historiography. Students come to see that art history and anthropology have fluid boundaries and that their distinctions deserve to be problematised. Sandy suggested that one might have to approach the study of Africa by focusing primarily on objects, since the historical material that would otherwise contextualise them is largely absent. Cath stressed the value of oral texts for this task of contextualising. John agreed, saying that although published textual materials exist only thinly, if at all, this does not imply an absence of discourses from African environments that focus on choices of the materials of visual practices, for instance, or the popularity of one or other artist/practitioner. Leon suggested that a methodological outlook that sets out to examine objects themselves through description might be a suitable starting point for teaching and learning at Level One. Robert mentioned that he finds it useful to encourage students to look and describe objects and images. John agreed that this was a useful way in, since students approach African material with a great deal of familiarity of its representational aspects. Paul asked about access to material in museums. John said that asking students to draw objects is useful, but this isn’t practicable with large groups. Museum displays commonly become a focus for critique in his teaching.
Italy to
Africa Evelyn Welch talked about her personal experience of broadening the curriculum and teaching a subject that was outside her own specialism. The department had decided that it would experiment with examining a wider diversity of artistic traditions in introducing students to the discipline. One approach was that of building on the expertise which members of staff might bring given their previous education. In this case Evelyn Welch had been educated in the United States and considered the possibility of developing her knowledge of the art forms of what might be thought of as her own pedagogical traditions. However she had finally decided to take a rather different route - that of researching a set of traditions which related to the theme of her chosen research specialism in the artistic traditions of the courts of Italy c 1300-c 1500. Consequently she had re planned her course on Court Art so that she could draw on case studies which included the court arts of the kingdom of Benin as well as the courts of Renaissance Italy. Evelyn presented us with all the reasons why she felt she couldn’t teach African art:
Responding to and overcoming this challenge has meant:
Evelyn reflected enthusiastically on the experience of teaching about African material, citing it as valuable for student learning, and personally rewarding.
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