Art and teaching: Experiencing visual

representation in the Cultural Studies

classroomEnrique Alejandro Basabe

Gala Rocío Tamagni Baigorria Juan Pedro Schiel Yicarean

Universidad Nacional de La Pampa

Context• Introduction to Cultural Studies. Year 2. Spring term. 2 w. classes• 4 year ELT program at UNLPam• Official contents• Definitions and perspectives on culture and society • Broad description of culture and society of the English-speaking countries

• Reorganized into1. Who am I? Identity2. Who is s/he? Gender3. Who are we? Globalization4. Who are we? 2.0 Social networking 5. Who will I be as a teacher? Education

• Class of 2014: 21 out of 32 sts.

• Visual materials including English, American, and Latin American paintings, films, video clips, and magazine covers

• Drawing and painting as individual and group activities

Conceptual Framework

Visual Literacy•Visual aids traditionally used for content, not for

cultural significance or issues of representation

•Current proliferation of images demands development of visual literacy (Van Leewen,2005)

•Visual literacy as reading strategies for interpretation (Corbett, 2003)

Art• “The task is to restore continuity between the refined and

intensified forms of experience that are the works of art and the everyday events, doings, and sufferings that are universally recognized to constitute experience.” (Dewey, 1939, p. 205)

• “A powerful didactic device capable of configuring even a resistant space against the flood of advertising images and stereotypical representations produced by the market” (Augustowsky, 2012, p. 32).

Design and Implementation

Activity #1Exploring national cultures through art

reproductions

A community’s material achievements represent a social patrimony that serves to perpetuate relationships of power and domination and to distinguish insiders from outsiders (adapted from Kramsch, 1998).

Idilio criollo (Palliere, Argentina, 1864)

Horizontes (Cano, Colombia, 1913)

American Gothic (Wood, USA, 1930)

Activity #2Representing globalization through selfies

•Produce a selfie in a place that shows (a) the effects of globalization on the life of the city and (b) your approach to them (dominant, negotiated, or oppositional).

“We did not only entered Mostaza but also consumed a product and at the same time took a selfie with particular facial gestures reflecting our personal approach towards the brand. To show our negotiated position in the selfie, we decided to produce negative gestures in a place where we were actually acting as consumers. This decision/action showed both a positive/consumerist position and at the same time a critical/negative one, precisely the two aspects a negotiated reading could have.”

Assessment

Activity #1 Activity #2

Visual literacy Teaching Practicing

Art Interpreting Experiencing

Teaching and learning modes

Structured directed learning

Emergent collaborative learning in groups

Conclusions

#1Developing visual literacy

requires a systematic approach.

#2Art needs to be experienced.