Judith Mottram

Creativity and Art Education Gaps Between Theories and Practices

This chapter reports on a study within the fine art field on whether models of creativity as described in other fields are reflected within university studio art teaching. As this discussion is located within a multidisciplinary collection of essays on creativity we first highlight two points reflecting assumptions about artistic creativity held beyond the field and based on historically located perspectives no longer operational within the field. The first is the idea that art might have a concern with beauty, and the second that creative capabilities are a special gift. Both would be contested to varying degrees within the world of art in the university or contemporary gallery. We also note a range of different perspectives on creativity within the fine arts, drawing on assumptions not necessarily framed by an understanding of contemporary thinking about creativity.

The pedestal and the pendulum: fine art practice, research and doctorates

Abstract This article reports on the issues arising from the AHRC Research Review: Practice-Led Research in Art, Design and Architecture, published in February 2008 by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council. These include the continuing question of defining activity in the field, the underdeveloped scholarly infrastructure, and the nature of the contribution to knowledge made by the artefact or designed object. The article also draws upon an analysis of completed doctorates in art and design made possible by the Art & Design Index to Theses (ADIT). This earlier project, which set up a scholarly resource for the research community, enables the growth of doctoral activity in the fine art field to be measured and the range of approaches to enquiry to be evaluated. The analysis of doctoral work to date indicates the extent to which professional practice has begun to be incorporated into doctoral projects. An uncritical revisionism or relabelling of activities within the realm of professional practice and doctoral study is evident in the data consulted in the two studies, reflecting the continuing prominence of the exhibition as a means of disseminating the outcomes of creative practice.

Adapting research activity AHRC review of practice-led research

In 2005 the Arts and Humanities Research Council initiated a review of practice-led research in art, design and architecture. The purpose of the review was to develop a ‘comprehensive map of recent and current research activity in the area’. What quickly became obvious to the team that won the bid to run the review (led by the three authors) was that to map activity one first had to attempt to define it. The term ‘practice-led research’ means many different things to different people and so immediately raises debate. The positions range from those who believe that the act of making or designing alone constitutes research, to those who believe that research (as analytical activity) is incommensurable with design (as synthetic activity). For the former, the knowledge contained within the artefact is self-evident and beyond the need for additional explication; for the latter, knowledge resides outside the artefact and in the realm of its dissemination and interpretation. The importance of the AHRC review is not that it will settle these arguments, but that it will provide a much firmer context in which to place them.

Textile fields and workplace emotions

SummariesThe development of the design solution for textile screen and panel coverings for the Axiom Office Furniture Programme is described and the relevance of existing knowledge of colour theory and visual perception is considered. The design process made a conscious attempt to establish the potential for emotional correspondence between end users and the product. Consideration of theories of perception confirms that the design solution may achieve this objective.RésuméLa mise au point de la solution design dans le domaine des revêtements en textile pour les panneaux et les cloisons qui font partie du Programme “Axiom Office Furniture” est ici décrite. Aussi la pertinence des connaissances actuelles en ce qui concerne la théorie de la couleur et la perception visuelle est considérée. Au cours du développement du design on a fait exprès des efforts pour réaliser un cadre pour l’établissement d’un lien émotif entre l’utilisateur et le produit. Une considération des théories de la perception confirme que la solution design pourrait atteindre ce but.ZusammenfassungDiese Arbeit beschreibt die Entwicklung von Designentwürfen für Wandbespannungen und Abdeckungen aus Textilien für das Bürornöbelprogramm von Axiom, insbesondere mit Blick auf Farbtheorie und Farbwahrnehmung Die Möbeldesigner haben bewusst versucht, die emotionelle Verbindung zwischen den Endverbrauchern und dem Produkt in Betracht zu ziehen.

Panel: research into art and technology

The panel will discuss the nature of research in creative practice. The participants will draw upon their current studies and experiences of projects that investigate creativity and the role of digital technology.Edmonds and Candy are applying a practice-led research approach to the study of collaborative work between artists and technologists.Mottram discusses practice-based research approaches and discusses the particular role of digital technologies in such research.Howarth is concerned with theories of perception and art and ongoing research into the interplay between mind, body and technology in fine art.Pettigrew is investigating how children act as creative artists using computers and proposes that children are different from adults.

New knowledge and new technology : restructuring fine art education

Abstract For more than thirty years, conventional art school wisdom has dictated that ‘learning through practice’ is the best way of accommodating the increasingly diverse preoccupations of art students. Of all undergraduate courses, fine art courses can be seen as the least structured, concerned mainly with providing time, studio space, and a context for self-directed development. In focusing on the individual, the issue of exactly what constitutes ‘subject knowledge’ in fine art is sidestepped. With important new developments in disciplines that inform visual understanding, such as perceptual psychology, imaging science, and computing, and the gradual displacement of traditional, craft-based studio practices by digital technologies, the limitations of self- directed learning are likely to become more evident, and the issue of subject knowledge needs to be addressed. Through a review of existing data relating to course curricula and graduate employment, a common core of relevant conceptual and technical knowledge will be identified. The authors will argue that it is possible to establish a teaching context which promotes the integration of thought and practice. The challenge is to devise a structure which will enable students to understand, assimilate, and contextualize new knowledge, and to acquire the transferable skills, both intellectual and technical, which will enable them to adapt and thrive within a rapidly changing visual culture. It will be argued that new technologies can catalyse these changes, providing visual ‘points of entry’ into relevant fields of contemporary knowledge, and enabling meaningful connections to be made between the history, theory, and practice of art.