Kevin Tavin

Drawing(Past, Present, and Future) Together: A(Graphic) Look at the Reconceptualization of Art Education

Abstract IN THIS GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION, TWO CHARACTERS/CARICATURES DISCUSS, CONTEMPLATE, AND FANTASIZE THE HISTORY OF THE FIELD OF ART EDUCATION, ITS CURRENT STATE, AND FUTURE MANIFESTATIONS. THE CONVERSATION IS ILLUSTRATED AROUND THE POSSIBLE RECONCEPTUALIZATION OF ART EDUCATION. THROUGH TEXT AND VISUAL METAPHORS, THE PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS, THEORETICAL FORMATIONS, AND DISCURSIVE TERRITORIES OF THE RECONCEPTUALIZATION OF ART EDUCATION AND THE CRITICALLY COMPATIBLE FRAMEWORKS THAT INFORM ITS LIKELIHOOD ARE DRAWN TOGETHER. MAJOR THEMES AND MOVEMENTS SUCH AS VISUAL CULTURE, ARTS BASED RESEARCH, COMMUNITY-BASED PEDAGOGY, ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECO-ART EDUCATION, AND LACANIAN PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY ARE SKETCHED OUT.

Scopic Regime Change: The War of Terror, Visual Culture, and Art Education

This study examines visual dimensions and pedagogical repercussions of the war of terror. Iconographies of threat and prophylaxis are explored through a discussion of the actuarial gaze and the terr(or)itorialization of the visual field. Specific visual culture fallout from the war of terror is examined, including artistic responses and educational (ir)responsibilities and possibilities. Technologies of forgetting and artistic and pedagogical strategies of remembering are also considered. The essay concludes with an examination of implications and possible future directions for contemporary art education in a post-9/11 world.

Six Acts of Miscognition: Implications for Art Education

Employing Lacanian theory as a necessary supplement to contemporary approaches in art education, this article provides a critique and response to art education discourse around “cognition.” This response unfolds in six acts: (1) Unknown knowledge, (2) Unmeant knowledge, (3) Missing metaphors, (4) Stupidity, (5) Symptoms and sinthomes, and (6) Truth untold. These six acts presuppose the given symbolic order of cognitive theories in art education and attempt to disturb the fantasmatic kernel of these theories for the larger field. Together, the six acts articulate the concept that every act of cognition in art education is also an act of “miscognition.”