Cross-field aesthetics course: Connectivity in the educational field - Relational aesthetics
Professor Chen Qingxiu, Department of Visual Arts, National Chiayi University
1. Preface
When the Ministry of Education launched the 12-year National Basic Education Plan in 2014, it simultaneously implemented the aesthetic education plan, hoping to achieve "beautiful citizens", "beautiful homes", and "beautiful kindness" by cultivating students' basic knowledge and literacy of aesthetics. society” vision (Ministry of Education, 2013: 3). In this educational innovation, the reason why aesthetic education is highly valued is not only to fully implement the balanced five educations, but also to realize that aesthetic literacy and related creative imagination are important for national development and competitiveness in the new era. Energy, in other words, Taiwan’s education is working hard to add more diverse and beautiful perceptual elements to the traditional rational cognitive system, hoping to make the overall teaching and learning richer, more creative, more connotative, and more textured. Based on this, the Ministry of Education further promoted the "Cross-field Aesthetic Education Experimental Curriculum Development Plan" in May of the same year. The core point of the plan is to actively connect and integrate the art fields including vision, hearing and kinesthetics as the main catalyst. courses, and try to jointly operate integrated aesthetic courses and teaching with warmth and texture. The promotion of cross-field aesthetic education shows strong courage and expectations. It is a positive action that believes that aesthetic education is an important factor in activating the teaching of various subjects and an important nutrient for cultivating individual quality and comprehensive learning (Ministry of Education, 2013).
However, cross-field/discipline curriculum integration is not a new concept. In the 1990s, Western academic circles had enthusiastic discussions on integrated curriculum. Taiwan’s nine-year consistent curriculum reform launched in 2001 also has the spirit of cross-field integration ( Zhang Jintian, 2017). Having said that, if you look closely, you can also find the differences. The integrated concept of cross-disciplinary aesthetic education has gradually shifted from the integration of knowledge to the connection and integration of interpersonal relationships. This is a return to the integration ability of "people" themselves. , and it emphasizes that individuals and others work together to build a learning platform. So we see that cross-disciplinary aesthetic education is mainly developing aesthetic tentacles from the art field to other disciplines, trying to establish directional dialogue-style friendly relationships and connections, and constantly interacting through mutual listening and dialogue, mutual support and collaboration, hoping that Stir up the beauty, creativity, quality and beauty of each other.
Cross-domain aesthetic education is about the practice of connective-relational aesthetics. Through the design and planning of curriculum and teaching situations, it can disturb the spring water of cross-domain integration more comprehensively and deeply, so as to inspire beautiful and true feelings. ripple. Next, this article will first sort out the positioning, basic concepts and structure of connective-relational aesthetics and its possible application models in cross-field aesthetic courses from an educational perspective, and then analyze and summarize several cases of cross-field aesthetic courses in elementary schools. , then compare and discuss theory and practice, hoping to sort out practical rules and methods, and finally a conclusion.
2. Connectivity in the Educational Field - Relational Aesthetics
1. Positioning
"Connectivity-relational aesthetics" is a combination of two very popular art theory terms in recent years, namely connective aesthetics proposed by Suzi Gablik in 1992 and Busio's "connective aesthetics". Relational aesthetics mentioned by Nicolas Bourriaud in 1998. The focus of Gablik's connective aesthetics is to emphasize the social participation of art. She believes that art must maintain a deep connection with society, not only between people, but also with the environment/world outside of humans. Gabelik also quoted Camus's words to emphasize: "Art cannot be a monologue... The person who has the least power to be alone is actually the artist" (translated by Wu Mali, 2004, 98). That is to say, artists cannot isolate themselves, and art must assume social responsibilities. Art may not be able to immediately correct social bad habits, but it can act as a keen sensor, monitor, and listener of those around us in life. Gabrielk used Suzanne Lacy's The Crystal Quilt as an example to illustrate how listening and dialogue methods can be used to construct ritually symphonic art works. She emphasized that art is based on "dialogue and listening" and provides a therapeutic space where self and others intertwine and experience the flow and sharing of coexistence (translated by Wu Mali, 2004).
Busio's relational aesthetics, also known as Relational Art, focuses on artistic works based on the concept of people's interaction and their social situations. Such works attempt to overturn the aesthetic, cultural and political perspectives of modern art. Busio emphasized that the formal content of "relational aesthetics" is unstable and diverse, and will change depending on the social field and interactive communication mechanism in which the artwork is formed. This aspect is derived from the unique ingenuity of the creator and his mastery of Some kind of relationship connection method; on the other hand, it is because the dialogue relationship and interactive network triggered by the viewer joining the work connection are different (Bourriaud, 2002). In his book Relational Aesthetics (2002), Busio analyzes such works to illustrate his arguments for relational aesthetics, for example, Busio's analysis of Felix Gonzalez-Torres Many of his works have been deeply discussed. Among them, the famous candy work, "Untitled/USA Today, 1990", is a work in which a pile of candies is placed in the corner of the museum, and the audience can take away the candies. , Bourriaud said: "Gonzérizi-Toles's art transforms the arrogance of space into a symbiotic negotiation and structure. In addition, it also involves the moral concepts of the audience" (Bourriaud, 2002, 56).
As mentioned above, connective aesthetics and relational aesthetics each have their own theoretical focus, but they still have something in common with each other. For example, both are related to the dialogue and connection of art, as well as the social nature of its formation, but the former focuses more on social responsibility. and participation, believing that art can play a social healing role; while the latter emphasizes that individual concepts are constantly stimulated and inspired to grow in the network of continuous communication, communication and exchange. This article connects the two together with the purpose of explaining the state of transformation and flow of aesthetic experience from connection to relationship formation, while also indicating the direction of teaching application and operation.
2. Basic concepts and structure
Although connectivity-relational aesthetics is organized from the theoretical perspective of contemporary art, it seems that it can also be used to explain the practical situation of cross-field aesthetic courses. Before discussing examples, we must first have an attitude and regard cross-field aesthetic teaching and learning as one This kind of artistic behavior, the teacher is the art creator, the course is an art creation project, and the students are not only participants, but also the main members in the completion of the work. In other words, teachers first set up aesthetic-related topics and appropriate learning relationship networks, allowing students to naturally interact and dialogue, support each other, assist each other, and complete learning tasks together to build relatively meaningful and aesthetic learning outcomes. Such a learning network is a very lively and organic dynamic relationship, including two main relationship axes. One is the knowledge structure, that is, the explicit course part, such as: learning of principles and principles of aesthetic modeling; the other is the interactive structure of teaching and learning participants. aspect, that is, the hidden curriculum part, such as: the creation of beautiful interpersonal relationships. Taking cross-domain aesthetic courses as an example, the former is the cross-domain connection designed between aesthetic knowledge and technology, while the latter is the aesthetic experience relationship stirred up during the interaction process of participants. Due to the different number of students and different learning backgrounds, each course is The interactive relationships stirred up by on-site teaching will also be colorful, diverse and interesting.
In fact, the "learning community" reform promoted by Japanese education master Sato Manabu has a similar concept of connection-relational aesthetics. As for the term "learning community", its meaning itself refers to the relationship formed by learning. overall. Over the past thirty years, Manabu Sato has been working hard to promote "learning communities". He not only visited more than 2,000 schools and accumulated a lot of practical experience, but also preached his learning reform theory through speeches and books. In "Learning Revolution" In the book "The Vision: Design and Practice of Learning Communities" (2012), Manabu Sato has an in-depth theoretical explanation and case analysis of learning communities. In the first chapter of this book, he clearly points out how to make learning less Reluctantly, the fundamental method is to "start with listening and build relationships." He believes that one of the causes of chaos in individualistic learning-based education is that how to turn chaotic learning into lively and active learning lies in the "relationship of mutual listening", which is also It is the learning characteristic of "passive initiative" (39), and this involves the interaction between many levels, including: schools, teachers, students, parents, communities, society, etc. Regarding the importance of establishing interactive relationships, Manabu Sato specifically mentioned it in an exclusive interview with Tianxia Magazine. He emphasized that schools in "learning communities" have three basic levels of relationship connection. The first is the interactive relationship between active courses and learning, and group-based Learning is the first priority; the second is "good collegiality (interconnection)" between teachers; the third is parent participation, a relationship in which teachers and parents are closely connected and work together for children's education, which is a relationship of mutual trust. .
Regarding classroom practice, Sato Manabu (2014) said that a real classroom should include three aspects: "cognitive technical practice, social practice of dealing with others, and self-internal ethical practice." In terms of functionality, It can be divided into "judgment function (cognition and communication), social function (interpersonal relationships), and expression function (self-identity and attitude expression)." The subtle relationship between these requires teachers to carefully care and elaborate. Therefore, Sato Manabu suggests that the relationship between teachers and students should be transformed into a "mutual learning and growth relationship" and a "symphonic teacher-student relationship (i.e. one-to-many relationship)", and in the classroom, teachers should actively guide "reflection" Sexual thinking", and through "reasonable basis", promotes "dialogue community of social cognitive dialogue (discourse)". However, the key factor that affects the effectiveness of reflective classroom implementation is the teacher's listening ability and the ability to examine the complex relationships in the classroom. Teachers' good listening and inspecting abilities often exert a subtle effect and directly affect students' mutual listening. abilities and attitudes. Manabu Sato compared two teaching examples to explain how these subtle interactive relationships can be managed and effective. He found that creative senior teachers usually make full use of "implicit practices" to carry out complex and lively thinking learning activities.
Although Sato Manabu did not specifically sort out the relational connection models and scaffolding involved, nor did he specifically talk about the hidden aesthetic value, the "learning community" does have a deep meaning of connection-relational aesthetics, especially in many classroom practices. Strategies and methods are of substantial significance to the application of connective-relational aesthetics, that is, using connective-relational aesthetics extended from the theoretical perspective of art as the skeleton, and then filling in the creative and textured practical methods in the "learning community" as the muscle tissue , so that the "connectivity-relationship aesthetics" structure is complete, substantial and three-dimensional.
Reference, case practice analysis: interactive empathy narrative in cross-domain aesthetic classroom
As stated in the introduction, "Connectivity - Relational Aesthetics" is an artistic theoretical perspective that I pay close attention to. I was inspired by participating in a cross-field aesthetic education project, and it was interactively verified, modified and polished during the interaction with experimental schools. Therefore, it is not a fully developed and finalized theoretical model. It is only used as a conceptual mirror to provide a reference for observing how teachers and students interact in cross-domain aesthetic teaching, as well as how peers are closely connected and supportive of each other's layered relationships and aesthetic behaviors. I also use this to record and sort out these interesting learning stories, hoping to reflect the true meaning of "connectivity-relational aesthetics" in education.
Due to space limitations, only two cases will be introduced and analyzed next.
1. Case 1: Dalun Elementary School in Chiayi County
Because a corner of the campus of Dalun Elementary School is adjacent to a pond in a community, it used to be a dead spot on campus. However, through the efforts of the principal and teachers, the corner of the pond was included in the campus landscape planning, and the shore beautification project was actively carried out. Although there are still railings to isolate it, The sense of visual space has been narrowed. This time, through a cross-disciplinary aesthetic education course experimental project, a course on pond ecology and function was conducted. Finally, the teacher led the students to jointly set up a floating island in the middle of the lake. While the teacher was busy tying up the floating boat, I asked Principal Zeng next to me: "Why does your school lead students to set up a floating island in the pond?" Principal Zeng said happily: "The floating island mainly provides habitat for birds. Because the floating island In the middle of the pond, there is still some distance from the shore, so the birds don’t have to worry about being disturbed and feel safer.” I continued to ask: "Do the children know this meaning?" Principal Zeng said: "They all know because the teacher has taught it and analyzed and explained the ecology of the pond and the method of making floating islands in advance." After the floating island was tied up and some potted plants were placed, Principal Zeng and the leading teacher rowed a boat to drag the floating island to the center of the pond. Other teachers and children cheered them on the edge of the pond and arranged the floating island. Ended with joy and joy.
From the floating island setting activities, we can see that in addition to learning cognitive skills about pond ecology and floating island production methods, there is also affectionate learning showing care and protection for the bird habitats in the pond ecology. This is not only reflected in practical actions. I experienced it through participation and also from the interactive situation of the entire teacher-student team. For example, the principal and teachers personally set up safe habitats for birds. They are demonstrating that we humans can give more considerate care to birds or other animals. , how can we maintain a friendly relationship with them, just like what Manabu Sato (2012) calls "nonchalant consideration", that is, teaching does not require preaching or cramming, and students can feel relaxed and comfortable about natural life through participation in actions. Respect, and love for all living beings. Some people may think that setting up floating islands for birds is ridiculous and meaningless. However, it is both an act of kindness and an act of beauty, because it was made by teachers and students together, and was rowed by the principal and teachers who were not very skilled but worked hard. The wooden boat dragged it to the center of the pond and set it up. What a beautiful scene it was. All the participants at the scene were filled with joy and joy.
As the floating island installation moved into action, the students' aesthetic observation perspectives were quickly pulled to the middle of the water. They were unconsciously looking at the new position of the floating island and its relationship with the surrounding environment, and they were constantly drawing their own imaginations in their minds under their sight. The beautiful scenery, and began to think about whether there are really birds inhabiting it? What impact will it have on the ecology of Bitang? Will it be destroyed or disintegrated as soon as the typhoon sweeps away, and then scattered everywhere? At the moment of the event, students may have as many questions as I do, but how to guide students to continue to pay attention to the changes in the surrounding ecology depends on more in-depth courses and teaching. Manabu Sato (2012) said sincerely: "The root of escaping from 'learning' is indifference to other people's things." When students have the idea that "it has nothing to do with me," it is not easy to generate curiosity and interest in learning. On the contrary, if students can be stimulated to feel "relevant to me", they will look for relevant knowledge and technology to participate.
2. Case 2: Yuanchong Elementary School in Chiayi County
The cross-disciplinary aesthetic courses of many participating schools are very distinctive, and the course of Yuanchong Elementary School in Chiayi County is no exception. Although, the course theme - the story of the artist: Listen to Let's Talk about Van Gogh, is not very impressive at first glance. It's amazing, but upon closer inspection, I find that there are many interesting mutual learning relationships hidden in it. What is special about this course plan is that the participating students are sixth grade, lower grade and special education students, and activities are deliberately arranged for the senior students to guide the learning of the lower grade students. The theme of the first unit is the life of Van Gogh. After the art teacher leads the senior students to learn about Van Gogh's life, they then read Van Gogh's picture books to the lower students. The second unit is painting appreciation. The senior students are divided into groups to appreciate and share paintings, while the junior students watch the senior seniors’ explanation of the imitation and creation of Van Gogh’s paintings. This course ends with a painting exhibition. The exhibition was originally mainly composed of paintings by sixth grade students, but later the works of special education students were added. In addition, the sixth grade students were divided into groups and nominated representatives so that they could create works for younger students on the day of the exhibition. A guided tour explaining his experience in imitation and creation. Although the special education student group did not conduct a tour, they also sent representatives to role-play, mainly playing the role of Van Gogh wearing a hat. On the day of the performance, some children even took the initiative to shake hands with him. From the photos, you can feel that this special education student Seems very happy and content.
Since the exhibition mainly focuses on the works of sixth grade students and is personally guided by them, it has the appearance of a graduation exhibition. Perhaps because of the impending graduation and the self-expectations of being a senior, I worked hard to prepare and hope to show The professionalism and role model it deserves. In order to create the image of professional tour guides, each group also went online to search for relevant information. Both the appearance of the tour guide and the content and tone of the tour explanation were carefully researched, designed and practiced. In addition to introducing relevant information about Van Gogh's paintings, the tour guides also clearly explained why they made adjustments and changes in imitating Van Gogh's works. What were their main ideas and intentions? Due to the preparation in advance, the performance of the tour guide was remarkable, which made the lower grade students feel that the elder brothers and sisters in the sixth grade were as powerful as Van Gogh, and they could be as professional as the tour guides in the art museum, unknowingly showing their admiration. expression. In addition, the school also arranges a "sticker and like" activity, which invites all teachers and students in the school to put stickers on the works they think are great. Almost every work is covered with stickers, and the works of special education students are also the same, which have received many praises. Appreciation and affirmation virtually strengthen the artistic interests of the authors.
Although this course takes Van Gogh and his art as the main learning theme and object of imitation, it also uses the "big hand holding small hand method" to catalyze the interactive relationship between seniors and juniors in senior and junior grades, so there are many learning activities. The sixth graders take the lead in demonstrating whether it is understanding Van Gogh's life, appreciating Van Gogh's paintings, or imitating. The seniors in the sixth grade learn first, and then they use what they have learned to help the younger students. Although sixth graders are only eleven or twelve years old, they will still show a strong sense of responsibility and responsibility once they are needed and relied on. Manabu Sato (2012) emphasized that dependence and self-reliance can coexist. Moderate dependence is a good agent to promote "collaborative learning" and is a counter-incentive to self-reliance. In addition, letting special education students play Van Gogh will create a similar relationship. Children will think that although special education students like Van Gogh have mental illness, they have painting talent and are worthy of the respect and love of others. Indeed, there are many classmates Like their paintings with stickers and express your kindness through actions.
4. Conclusion: Walking with Beauty
The above cases show two hidden courses and different interactive learning relationships. In addition to illustrating the connectivity in the classroom - the specific practice method of relational aesthetics, it also highlights its intrinsic value and allows us to see how mutual learning relationships can inspire beautiful qualities. Sex and behavior (virtue), as well as how to practice mutual help and mutual learning, and create a dialogue and empathy space for kindness. In short, whether it is the relationship between people and themselves, people and people, or people and the environment, they can all be outlined by the principles of beauty. This also allows us to see another dimension worth exploring in cross-field aesthetic courses. However, as mentioned before, the connectivity of cross-field aesthetic courses - the practice of relational aesthetics itself is an artistic behavior. The teacher team is equivalent to the artistic creation team, but what they sculpt is not only the material media, but also the students' behavioral concepts and emotional attitudes. , and therefore, in addition to the sensitivity and execution of artistic beauty, teacher artists must also have the attitude of listening, communicating, democratic openness, caring and mutual learning. Through such light and delicate weaving, texture can naturally be created Tasteful results.
Judging from the current situation, most teacher teams may not be clearly aware of the potential benefits of connective-relational aesthetics, nor may they be able to equate good conduct or good behavior with aesthetic experience, but they each weave beautiful stories in their experimental courses. Learning Relationships, purely relying on the goodwill of "being good for students", does its best to integrate various available resources. The more common one is the connection with human resources. Among the schools I assist, many have links with community humanities and arts. Cooperation with workers, such as inviting outstanding bonsai artist alumni, community calligraphers, sculptors, puppet performers, or cultural and historical workers to assist in teaching, demonstrate artistic creation methods, and at the same time show the artist's style and set an example for students; It can be seen that teachers are no strangers to using resource connections to weave learning relationships, but the real problem is how to choose and how to arrange to construct a proper relationship network, so that students can develop opportunities to connect, explore, imagine and recreate, and Let the internal key influencing factors continue to ferment and play a role in learning. These are worthy of attention and consideration.
Although this article mainly talks about "Connectivity - Relational Aesthetics" for teaching and learning in the classroom, the entire cross-field aesthetic education project is not the practice of "Connectivity - Relational Aesthetics". It not only establishes regional inter-school alliances, but also conducts zone studies. In addition to empowering training, professors from the Normal University of Education of China Normal University are invited by the General Planning Committee to conduct collaborative talks in various schools, so that they can get close to the education scene, listen to and talk to each other, support each other, work together for "aesthetic education", and "walk with beauty" together. It is the embodiment of "connectivity-relational aesthetics".
This article is included in "What Class Is This - Imagination and Practice of Cross-Field Aesthetics Courses", Taipei: National Taiwan Normal University, 2018
