Developing an Arts of Living/Deconstructing Care

• In Event: Learning to Live Well: Developing, Deconstructing, and Sustaining an Aesthetic Way of Life With/in Arts-Based Curricula

Abstract

1. Objectives

This study is a work of a/r/tographic research which tries to open up, trouble, and de/reconstruct how an ethic of care can be lived in and outside the art classroom. Together with my middle school aged art students, I explore through art making and photographic journaling how we come to develop an arts of living by developing practices that shift our perspectives in order to deepen our understanding of others.

2. Perspectives

The idea of developing the self through the practice of art relates to the Foucauldian notion of care of the self (Foucault 1985/1986; 1984/1997). Care of the self is a theory on self-formation through practices, not simple self-knowledge through reflection. To define an arts of living, I pull from John Dewey’s (1934/2005) definition of aesthetic experiences as activities that bring about a completeness of living, uniting the senses and reclaiming the place of art in everyday life. This study presents deconstruction as a praxis experienced through the process of art making.

3. Methods

Using and practicing the renderings found in a/r/tography (Springgay, et al., 2005), I began to work through questions of authentic caring in my personal and professional life. A critique in caring explored questions like what does it mean to not care? What are ways in which we reason ourselves out of caring? What are ways in which caring becomes dangerous? Like love or fear, caring must be experienced to be learned. The benign nature of caring is challenged and deconstructed in and outside of the educational setting.

4. Data sources

The goal of the research, to open up the definition and experience of care in the art classroom, guided the collection and analysis of data. Student created artwork, reflections, and discussions became sites for disruptions—moments when a student would enter into a space that was open to transition and questioning. Photographic journaling and fabric arts were my renderings, providing daily connections with art practices that gave space to probe the depth and darkness of caring.

5. Results

Developing an arts of living began when students were comfortable enough to put into question that which they believed to be true. I believe this occurred through two important elements in the curriculum: 1) the opportunity was provided to experience moments of disruption with/in the material and through reflective practices, and 2) art making was approached from the perspective of exploring a theme, not merely re/presenting images. These curricular elements were analyzed with/through my work as an artist in deconstructing fabric.

6. Significance

In deconstructing care through art practices, I was able to participate in a “reconstructive doing” (Dewey, 1934/2005, p.64), or an experience in which I could come to know a dark side of caring and live with/in it. This work attests to the transformative power of attending and purposeful lingering. In lingering with this work of a/r/tography, I discovered ways in which the curricular objectives of teaching the authentic nature of caring may be experienced in the middle level art classroom.

Author

• Karinna J. Riddett-Moore, Bay Creek Middle School