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- Convenor:
-
Frances Davis
(Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh)
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Short Abstract:
Much has been written on intersections between art and anthropology but there has been little discussion of the inclusion of anthropology in art curricula. This panel seeks to address this gap, with perspectives on the present place of, and future possibilities for, anthropology in the art school.
Long Abstract:
There has been a breadth of writing and research on the many and varied intersections between contemporary art and anthropology – from the ethnographic turn of the 1990s to shared concerns with issues of representation and ethics of participation – and, in recent years, a proliferation of transdisciplinary projects that bring together artists, anthropologists and others to co-investigate contemporary issues through situated fieldwork practices. However, there has been relatively little discussion of the teaching of anthropology within art school curriculums or of the role(s) of those undertaking this work.
This session seeks to address this gap, bringing together a range of perspectives on the present place of, and future possibilities for, anthropology within the art school (and more broadly within art degrees in other university contexts). Proposals are welcomed from researchers, educators, practitioners, and students whose work, research, or experience speaks to this overarching aim from any angle.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to); the positioning of anthropology within art curriculums – as theory, as method, or as practice – and of anthropologists within art departments; what are the generative possibilities of this extra-disciplinary setting and what are its limitations; how does the inclusion of anthropology within art curricula relate to wider shifts in approaches to art education eg. moves away from medium-specificity; case studies of specific courses, modules, or other teaching activity that engage art students with anthropological ideas and approaches; (auto)ethnographic accounts of undertaking this work.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 28 June, 2024, -Ruth Toulson (Maryland Institute College of Art)
Paper short abstract:
I explore the generative potential of anthropology in an art school. My students turn fieldnotes into graphic novels and use art to illuminate theory. Anthropology inspires my students’ artistic practice, fieldwork has become part of their research practice, and drawing has become part of mine.
Paper long abstract:
Since 2015, I have taught anthropology to art and design students, both undergraduate and graduate, at Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. I am the institution’s only anthropologist, indeed, the only social-scientist. In this paper I explore both the challenges and the joys of teaching anthropology within art schools and the generative possibility of drawing as an ethnographic method. Centrally, I share how my students’ ways of engaging with anthropological texts—from in-class doodles to stop-motion animation—have revolutionized the ways I teach.
Inspired by University of Toronto Press’s Ethno-Graphic series—anthropological monographs in graphic-novel form—and by Andrew Causey’s Drawn to See: Drawing as Ethnographic Method, my students turned fieldnotes into illustrations and used art to illuminate complex theoretical ideas. If one of the challenges for anthropology is the space between the richness and immediacy of fieldwork and the formality of academic prose, I suggest that illustration might bridge that gap. I will share how anthropology readings and ways of thinking have inspired my students’ artistic practice, how fieldwork has become part of their research practice, and how drawing has become part of mine.
Sharon Hepburn (Trent University)
Paper short abstract:
In this paper I reflect on the pedagogy of a course on Culture and the Senses offered to anthropology students, which draws on my practices as an artist. The students engage with the world and reconsider the boundaries and forms of their knowing. It could as well be taught to aspiring artists.
Paper long abstract:
I trained in art in Canada in the 1970s, then turned to anthropology as another way of doing the same things. I saw both as ways to understand and experience how humans come to know the world—social, mental, and material—in a particular way, in a particular body, and take it as a given, a freely standing reality apart from interactive creation.
This paper is about a class I teach on Culture and the Senses. The key idea of the course is that the senses are culturally mediated, and culture is sensually mediated. The key work of the course is weekly exercises in which students, hopefully, glimpse moments when there are shifts in how they understand the world. Not just cognitively, but through, say, tactile engagement or looking in dim light and recognizing how little input their mind needs to organize something they view as constant. Exercises include touching, drawing, photographing, listening, feeling contact of body with environment, and building models through which they consider how “representation” is a cultural practice.
Inspired by my own experience, this paper offers a reflection on anthropology in art education, and vice versa. My artist friends say the student projects are themselves like installations, asking for engagement. I rejoice that the students are out of their minds as they pay attention to the world. I hope that as anthropologists they appreciate that culture is embodied, and that the boundaries of their knowing—of all kinds--are fluid.
Peter Oakley (Royal College of Art)
Paper short abstract:
Through a case study where a PhD student wanted to undertake participant-observation to understand a creative process but also collaborate with a field respondent, this paper will reflect on the practical & theoretical issues generated by conducting ethnographic fieldwork in an Art School context.
Paper long abstract:
Whilst ethnographic methodologies can have a distinct appeal and appear to provide a viable framework for doctoral students undertaking fieldwork in an art school context, the necessary distancing and relativist aspects of a robust participant-observer approach can become problematic when creative activities sit at the centre of the proposed research programme. This paper will unpack this issue, primarily drawing on the case study of a completed PhD where the student's aspiration to understand a creative process sat in tension with their desire to collaborate on a creative project in an equitable way with their key field respondent. How the issue was resolved in practice, the effect it had on the final structure of the student's doctoral project, and the long-term impact the experience had on the doctoral student's post-PhD career will all be addressed. To help triangulate the events being discussed, this paper will include primary material from both the student's and the supervisor's perspectives, as well as drawing on the published thesis and referring to material artefacts created for the doctoral examination and outputs from subsequent activities. The paper will go on to consider the wider theoretical and practical implications of supporting Art and Design students when they show an interest in the anthropological literature and ethnographic methods but are not studying in an anthropology department. It will conclude by reflecting on the strengths and limitations of practicing ethnography in creative industry educational contexts and the insights this can provide for educators and students based in art schools.