Teaching

teaching

Teaching Philosophy – pdf


It is my belief that the production, investigation, and study of art can provide an individual, artist or non-artist, with a set of tools for understanding our world and the way in which humans produce meaning and make complicated associations visually, socially, or conceptually. Our world is comprised of images and situations that, under a critical approach, might take on a multiplicity of meanings. Growing agile in the reading and production of a visual language will enable students to more actively engage the world they live in and generate.

My specific pedagogical method is to organize courses in a studio-seminar manner, to produce a laboratory rather than a traditional classroom. The studio-seminar lab is a place for participation, experimentation, and collaboration, under the guidance and direction of an invested instructor. My role here is to both inform (seminar) and create (studio). I achieve such a scenario through various applied processes:

For studio-focused projects I will often allow the student to determine the most appropriate technical or formal approach for their work based on their conceptual interests. In this way, students learn that the formal and conceptual elements of any given work are indivisible. In many cases, this will lead to the integration of technical workshops in the lab. These studio situations aim to produce an environment where students discover what they are learning through making, rather than passively observing.

I use a multi-media approach to the distribution of information in the studio-seminar lab. Some examples of significant information I might integrate into a lab include the methods and processes used by other artists, the role of art institutions in the dissemination of art, or how art relates to a broader cultural world (social, political, and economic contexts). I provide access to this information through readings, field trips to art or cultural institutions, screenings, group discussions, and web-based slide presentations.

As an extension of these forms, I am invested in fostering their growth and confidence as self-educators or producers. I provide for them access to a diversity of research tools including social bookmarking, collaborative web-platforms such as community calendars and social networking sites, digital weblogs or sketchbooks, as well as more traditional forms of research (library). I believe this empowers the student to embark on his or her own journey of discovery that may be guided but not controlled.