Critical Multimodality at the Museum: How a Community-University Partnership Supports Transformative Praxis

• In Event: Toward Critical Multimodality: Exploring Theory, Research, and Practice in Transformative Educational Spaces

Abstract

This interactive breakout session highlights how pre-service teachers’ (PSTs) visits to a local art museum supported course learning about multimodality and social semiotics (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001) with a critical lens. In a content area literacies course, PSTs engaged in readings and activities to support learning about multimodality. Following a class session focused on remixing and hacking (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008), PSTs selected works of art from a museum to remix or hack to address issues of power (and marginalization) in their content areas.

This session builds from the idea that museums as sites of learning have been found to assist preservice teachers with development of practices, theory, content knowledge and reflection in support of teaching and learning (Gupta & Adams, 2012). Since museum spaces allow visitors to interact with pieces of art through various modes, this research builds upon understandings of multimodal meaning-making and social semiotics (Bezemer & Kress, 2016; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2001) as theoretical frame. Multimodal literacies can support critical investigation of the historical, sociocultural, and contextual dimensions for understanding and interpreting visual images (Serafini, 2014). Additionally, art objects can serve as a foundation for hacking and remix to address issues of power.

Reflections are drawn from an ongoing, community-university partnership between an art museum located on a university campus and a teacher-educator. Data include 14 students’ art object hacks/remixes from Spring 2019, reflections from student interviews, and reflective journal writing about museum learning. Field notes from multiple museum interactions are also used as triangulation.
PSTs remixes and hacks addressed a variety of issues related to schooling and content areas such as Renee, a music major, who addressed objectification of women in art by overlaying a tailored female suit on a portrait of a nude woman. Renee noted she “could definitely see remixing incorporated into my teaching. For instance, giving women power in places that they may not have originally been given power would be possible by re-voicing parts of music and designating powerful parts to women.” Kerry, a math major, addressed issues of ecological conservation in light of population growth, remixing a glass artwork depicting a clean ocean shore. She used clip art to add an undersurface layer, noting, “the top display symbolizes a clean, waste-free ocean that permits the sea animals to live happily and freely, without human interference. The bottom display distorts our expectations of sea life polluted with human trash that obstructs the quality of life for the sea animals.” PSTs also hacked and remixed art to address gun violence, underrepresentation of women in STEM and psychology fields, and race, gender, and sexuality in English and theater.

Museums as sites of learning can provide a space for students to engage in criticality as they hack or remix art objects to address issues of marginalization within their content areas towards equity and justice, aligning with the goals of this workshop. Simultaneously, museum engagement also opens space to critique the troubled history of museums in regard to narratives of dominance, which marginalize underrepresented intersectional identities (Robert, 2014).

Author

• Matthew R Deroo, University of Miami