The Power of Imagery as Aesthetic Response

• In Event: Aesthetics of Multimodal Play: Exploring the Expressive Creativity of Court-Involved Youth

Abstract

“[Aesthetic response as authentic learning] transcends mundane school learning and creates vital connections to one’s community and environment” (Graham, M. 2007).

In this paper, I will explore the aesthetic responses of adolescents engaged in variations of multimodal experiences as authentic learning experiences which cultivate imagination, narratives, identity, and belonging within a community based media literacy workshop at the afterschool program. As in, Lin, Grauer, and Castro (2011) argue, “situating community-based media arts programs outside of formal school settings provides diverse spaces for youth to introspectively respond to and reflect upon their experiences in relation to the complex world in which they reside” (p. 3). The aesthetic manifestations, which have flourished from a succession of multimodal collage activities, reveal narratives that may otherwise be untold. These artifacts, created by youth, evolved from their process and their meaning of human experience “exploring notions of place and self” (Rolling, 2012). Mere collage making materials sparked intrinsic motivation that engaged youth in modes of learning composed of experimental, psychological, emotional, cognitive exploration and development.

My argument supports that the vision of self is embedded in the arts, as the arts have the ability to cultivate and construct identity (Nathan, 2013). Aesthetic response provides a unity that evokes imagination, critical thinking, and storytelling and, as “the use of visual methods allows those who might otherwise go unnoticed to be recognized and afforded voice in the body politic” (Lutrell, 2010, p.233). Through aesthetic response youths’ voices are recognized in new ways and moved me, as the facilitator, to re-discover their aesthetic judgment, critical thinking, and personal narratives; this re-seeing pushed me to ask, “What kinds of stories might these learners shape?” and “What creative strategies might they employ?”

Findings that emerged from this study are authentic voices that speak to further art forms, sociability, belonging, race, class, gender, and play. Analysis is based on the artifacts that youth crafted in the form of collage in response to aesthetic appraisal, individual and collaborative narratives, portraiture, and events. As Gradle (2007) notes, “Incorporating daily experiences that allow for reflection, metaphoric connections, and transformation to occur, without necessarily leaving the here-and-now” (p.73). Thus, the power of imagery as aesthetic response speaks to an authentic learning environment, one that sparks aesthetic appraisal, student autonomy, innovation, peer relationships and self-evaluations within the ethos of creative exploration and multimodal play.

Author

• Lydia Peace Browne, Teachers College, Columbia University