Sophie Demetler

8.11 Mutual Conditions: Collaboration as a Tool in Art and Design Education (Paper)

Sophie Demetler – University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

Eva Greisberger – University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

Mirjana Mihajlovic – University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria

Abstract:

Contemporary art and design education is anything but one-dimensional. It is quite the opposite: Not only is it characterized by an abundance of challenges, but it seems as though it emerges in the confrontation and engagement with them. The examination of approaches to contemporary art education therefore implies a repetitive questioning, a reorganization and reorientation of the content, topics and themes. While the term cooperative, according to Gesa Krebber, describes working in a common cause, collaboration is characterized by the fact that the cause is only created through the interaction of many (Krebber, 2020). Collaboration has therefore become an integral part of art education and is essential as a profession-specific approach for art and design educators.

Together with students from the Department for Didactics of Art and Interdisciplinary Education at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, this proposal presents results of a course that discusses current approaches to art education in the context of shifting grounds. The aim of the course is to take a closer look at subject didactics as a theoretical and practical interface, that can only unfold and effectively meet challenges through the interaction and collaboration of different protagonists, including teachers, students, trainees and or scholars. Which concepts in art and design didactics can be helpful to meet current educational requirements in a collective way and which educational tools can be commonly developed and used? Starting from those questions, the proposal states that the complexity of subject didactics can only be met by interweaving the communal.

The contribution aims to depict and discuss main results of the course, such as a subject-didactic map developed by students. Mirroring the idea of shifting grounds, this map shows international protagonists in art and design didactic and highlights symbiotic connections. The map not only serves as an orientation in the didactical discourse of art and design, but underlines the necessity of collaboration to foster contemporary approaches within the didactics of art and design.

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