Art as Experience: Practicing a/r/tography

Learning Area Visual Arts & Design (Additional) 2, Semester 2 - September 2020

View the ‘Letters to the people I’ve loved’ & lost zine here.

Throughout my Visual Arts teacher education, I have inherently considered myself an artist first and an educator second. However, through arts-based research and the process of making the zine ‘Letters to the people I’ve loved & lost’, I have begun to learn that these identities are unified. This has been informed by the methodology of a/r/tography (Gouzouasis, Irwin, Miles & Gordon, 2013) and has aimed to offer a personal narrative on lived experience. 

A/r/tography is the practice of incorporating both art making and writing as methods of research.  Springgay, Irwin and Wilson (2005) define a/r/tography as “living practice, a life writing, life creating experience into the personal, political, and professional aspect of one’s life. Through attention to memory, identity, autobiography, reflection, meditation, storytelling, interpretation, and/or representation, artists/researchers/teachers expose their living practices in evocative ways” (p. 903). The practices of the artist, researcher and teacher are interwoven, influencing and forming each other. It is for this reason that who I am as an artist directly informs who I am as an educator and researcher. In this context, art is not merely a complementary part of a larger project, but an evocation in itself that inspires new ways of thinking and understanding. 

Prior to becoming an educator, my artistic practice developed from ideas of self-perception, identity and experience. Having struggled with poor mental health since early secondary school and later being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, art became a way to express my views about myself and the world around me. The process of art making became more important than the art product. I commonly explored ideas about reflection, feeling out of place, recovery and growth. My art practice was directly influenced by my life and experiences. This allowed me to easily adopt the ideas of a/r/tography upon becoming an emerging Visual Arts educator.

Visual Arts education provides an opportunity for self-exploration of identity and expression. The renewed interest in creativity and the Self in recent years is mostly fixed in the fields of social cognition and differential psychology, with a focus on creativity as a subdomain of the self and identity (Barbot & Heuser, 2017). It is not uncommon for artists, both visual, literary or musically, to view their work as having self-expressive qualities or links to their own identity. As Samuel Johnson wrote, “I write, therefore I am,” altering Descartes’ famous dictum: “I think, therefore I am” (Dollinger, Dollinger & Centeno, 2005). 

Fostering creativity within a secondary school setting is crucial to identity formation (VCAA, 2020). Adolescence is marked by extreme biological, cognitive, psychological and social changes, which impact the development of identity and creativity. In Western societies, this period of identity formation is often marked as a time of “crisis” (Erikson, 1968) as one undergoes a significant amount of conflict and exploration within the self, fueled by the question “who am I?” or “what can I become?”. Adolescents have an increase in “divergent feelings” (Claxton, Pannells & Rhoads, 2005) such as curiosity, complexity and risk-taking. The VCAA Critical and Creative Thinking cross-curriculum capability (2020) supports and encourages these thoughts and feelings by guiding an understanding of the thinking process and developing the ability to manage and apply these thoughts intentionally. Identity formation can be seen as a creative process in itself where adolescents explore multiple alternatives or versions of themselves and synthesize these elements to eventually formulate an integrated product. 

My role as a Visual Art educator is to facilitate a safe environment and opportunity for students to explore these feelings and possibilities in a critical and reflective way, through the process of self-discovery, experimentation and exploration. The VCAA F-10 Visual Arts curriculum (2020) is designed to develop students’ “confidence, curiosity, imagination and enjoyment '' through engagement with the Visual Arts. Art making that is relevant and relates to student experiences encourages students to reflect critically on their personal goals. A blank page is a place where identity “can be described, drawn, reflected on, analyzed, and put back into the classroom” (Burnaford, Fischer & Hobson, 1996).

Utilising the methodology of a/r/tography, ‘Letters to the people I’ve loved & lost’ is a reflection of my teaching pedagogy and demonstrates an approach to learning that is not found purely in theory but in/through and as experience. In ‘Letters to the people I’ve loved & lost’ a series of 7 mixed-media artworks are accompanied by a letter to a person who I have lost in some way throughout my life. Through a combination of drawing, collaging and writing, I have reflected upon my own experiences as an adolescent and how they have influenced the person I have become. The final letter is a letter to my younger self, indicating how we are constantly growing, changing and learning, and the person who we used to be may not be the person we are now.

Each artwork, including a front and back cover, incorporates the use of handmade paper. The process of making paper involves collecting a variety of scrap papers, soaking them in water and blending to form a pulp, and then using a mould and deckle to create a new sheet of paper. I have also used the technique of collage to build up the artworks. I have used pre-existing materials and combined them to make something new. These two methods reflect the combining and layering of emotions and experiences that contribute to life and identity formation. 

The purpose of writing letters acts as a method of and for reflection. “Reflection is essential in problem solving and in addressing challenges throughout one’s life” (Schon, 1987). Reflection is a specific skill that has to be learned in order to heighten awareness of self and contexts. It is considered crucial for growth and personal development of the artist and adolescent, enabling them to map their development within an ever-changing landscape (Guillaumier, 2016). The process of reflection fosters the practice of conceptual and critical thinking. By incorporating the act of reflection within the act of art making, I have established it as a ‘doing’ activity. This demonstrates how to align and integrate reflection with creativity so that it does not become abstracted from the context of practice. 

The choice to reproduce these artworks and letters in the format of a zine allows for multiple copies to be printed and distributed, allowing for a wider audience reach. This is an example of learning by sharing experiences. Zines, often considered a “low art” presentation (Thomas, 2009), are self-published books that threaten conventional boundaries. They “reject the standards, methods and visual vocabulary of mainstream publishing in the art world” (Piepmeier, 2008). The zine’s intimate, ephemeral qualities creates a relationship between the reader and the creator. Acknowledging, exploring and sharing experiences is the foundation to my practice as an artist, researcher and teacher. Art provides an opportunity to not only explore one's own experiences, but to share and learn from others. Our individual perspectives are crafted by our own experiences in the world. We live our lives in our own heads, accompanied by our own monologues. Acknowledging that one’s views are not exclusive and sharing and listening to others’ views allows us to be more open to the world’s possibilities (Takacs, 2003). 

The process of creating ‘Letters to the people I’ve loved & lost’ allowed me to understand how art making can be a method of research, and how I can embrace that in my teaching practice. Prior to adopting the a/r/tography methodology, my idea of research was very cut and dry. But the act of making art allows for a way of thinking that can be drawn upon and used as a tool for learning. My artistry influences how I think about things. I am a very organised, detail oriented person, and that is evident in my artwork and my teaching. I like to plan things meticulously rather than take risks. During the making of this zine, I had to employ problem solving skills. This was a very vulnerable subject that I chose to discuss within this series of artworks, and at times found myself too emotional to continue with my plan. This meant I had to figure out how to differentiate the task I had given myself to something that was within my abilities. This is something I would not have been prepared for prior to beginning this project, but rather something I learnt through the art making process. 

Being a practicing artist as well as a Visual Arts educator provides an opportunity to lead and teach by example. A/r/tography allows artists as art educators to develop their art, research and teaching methods simultaneously while affecting and influencing each other. These practices are no longer seen as separate actions, but are unified. By adopting this methodology of arts-based research, I have used the process of art making to reflect my values and teaching pedagogy, while creating an opportunity for personal growth and furthered learning.