Postmodern Principles and Principles of Possibility by Olivia Gude

Reading Response: Postmodern Principles and Principles of Possibility by Olivia Gude

Art education in the 21^st century is moving in a more complex direction but at the same time a more intellectual direction. Instead of art only being water like substance as artist and teachers we are looking for meat to feed our students. When I say this I mean art education of the 21^st century wanted students to know more about art them line, shape, color or contrast but how the artist was, how did this effect his or her work, how did society or the culture at the time effect the artist, how did the piece of work shape history during that time and lastly focus on the technical aspects such as line, shape color ect. The eight “hybrids of the visual and the conceptual” principles that Gude organized in her article “Postmodern Principles” show that direction that art is starting to go in this century. These items are not just about how an images looks but what those visual things do for the meaning of the art. Appropriation, juxtaposition, recontextualization, layering, interaction of text and images, hybridity, gazing and representin’ are all items that are visual tools but evoke meaning along with ascetics.    

I’m really excited that this is the direction that art education is moving. Art has always been a place that emotions, opinion and change should lay; I believe it’s the art therapist in me. So the fact that art is starting to focus more on the underlining meaning of art excited me. My teaching philosophy is deeply rooted in Progressivism and Constructivism. Students should create their own knowledge and understanding. The progressive side in me wants my students to learn by going different art samples, playing with materials to see what they do and how they work together. It’s almost like a trial and error concept; this idea works with the concept of “playing” on of Gude’s principles of possibilities. The constructivism side of me wants my students to create their own knowledge from their hands on activities or “playing”. The idea of a journal or artist journal is really important. This is my student’s textbook; I want them to create their own textbook with ideas that are important to them, readings that help them expend their creativity or ideas about something, and a place they can test out different media and record them. They should be very active in their learn process and constructing their on textbook is a start. This idea of teaching makes me connect with Gude’s forming self, and investigating community themes principle. In the process of creating their own knowledge and experiencing things that work and don’t work they are forming who they are in the art world, also in society (if thinking about teaching art on a larger scale). Reading these two articles this philosophy is just becoming more prevalent in my ideas about teaching.