Studies in Philosophical Realism in Art, Design and Education

303 Pages·2017·5.43 MB·English

by  Neil C. M. Brown (auth.)

Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education 20
Neil C.M. Brown
Studies in Philosophical
Realism in Art, Design
and Education
Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education
Volume 20
Series Editor
Liora Bresler, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A
Editorial Board
Eeva Antilla, Theatre Academy, Helsinki, Finland
Magne Espeland, Stord University, Norway
Chris Higgins, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.A.
Rita Irwin, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Samuel Leong, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, Hong Kong
Minette Mans, International Consultant, Windhoek, Namibia
Mike Parsons, The Ohio State University, Columbus, U.S.A.
Eva Sæther, Lund University, Malmö Academy of Music, Sweden
Shifra Schonmann, University of Haifa, Israel
Julian Sefton-Green, University of Nottingham, UK
Susan W. Stinson, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, U.S.A.
Christine Thompson, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, U.S.A.
Scope
This series aims to provide conceptual and empirical research in arts education,
(including music, visual arts, drama, dance, media, and poetry), in a variety of areas
related to the post-modern paradigm shift. The changing cultural, historical, and
political contexts of arts education are recognized to be central to learning,
experience, knowledge. The books in this series presents theories and methodological
approaches used in arts education research as well as related disciplines—including
philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology of arts education.
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/6199
Neil C. M. Brown
Studies in Philosophical
Realism in Art, Design
and Education
Neil C. M. Brown
East Balmain , NSW, Australia
ISSN 1573-4528 ISSN 2214-0069 (electronic)
Landscapes: the Arts, Aesthetics, and Education
ISBN 978-3-319-42904-5 ISBN 978-3-319-42906-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42906-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016950848
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017
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Pref ace
Artworks that meant little to me once now mean everything, and I attribute these
changes of heart almost entirely to changes in my understanding. For this reason,
what I want to say about education in art refl ects my desire in becoming more
deeply acquainted with the elusive and enduring autonomy of art. I trust that my
need for understanding grows out of a respect for art rather than a wish for its defi ni-
tive control. While happy to construct, deconstruct, reconstruct and reframe my
understandings of art, I oppose the imposition of these as conceits on the existence
of artworks. The pretence of remaking art into a creature of one’s understanding
means that you can never be wrong about the meaning of works shutting out the
possibility of changes of heart that, in my opinion, nurture the integrity of arts
education.
B ringing together the papers for this book is the inspiration of Dr. Kerry Thomas,
my joint collaborator in the exploration of philosophical realism in art and educa-
tion. In her role as senior curriculum offi cer (visual arts) and then inspector (creative
arts) with the New South Wales Board of Studies, Kerry made possible the practical
implementation and revision of ideas elaborated in the following chapters. Then as
my PhD student and currently as associate professor in the School of Education at
the University of New South Wales, Kerry saw value in telling the story of philo-
sophical realism as an evolutionary narrative of my papers stretching back 30 years.
I am forever grateful to Kerry for her gracious and selfl ess endeavour in this regard.
I also wish to thank Liora Bresler for considering this book for inclusion in the
“Landscape” series.
A rts education is the most eclectic of domains, and its collaborative demands are
correspondingly onerous. I thank all those who have taken an interest in my ideas
including those less well disposed in the early days. I have strived for consistency in
my views, and I hope this is sustained over the quarter century in which they are
presented.
Sydney , NSW , Australia Neil C. M. Brown
December, 2015
v

Contents
Part I The Development of Philosophical Realism in Art,
Design and Education
1 Introduction to Studies in Philosophical Realism in Art,
Design and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1 Purpose of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Philosophical Realism in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 The Threat of Philosophical Revisionism
and the Corrosive Effects of Pluralism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.4 The Contribution of the O ccasional Seminars
in Art Education Series in the Development
Philosophical Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Collaboration with the NSW Board of Studies
in the Use of Philosophical Realism in Visual
Arts Curriculum Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.6 The Chapters in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6.1 Part I: The Development of Philosophical
Realism in Art, Design and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.6.2 Part II: The Critical Application
of Philosophical Realism to Concerns in Art,
Design and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.6.3 Part III: Philosophical Realism and Its Implications
for Practice in Art, Design and Education . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.7 Omissions from This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Constraints on Art in Education: Realism and Art Education . . . . . . 17
2.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2 A Framework of Constraints in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.3 The Wider Relevance of Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.4 Realism and Art Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
vii
viii Contents
2.5 Paradoxical Constraints on Artistic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.6 Constraints of Artistic Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.7 Mapping the Constraints on Artistic Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3 Making Art a Real Thing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.2 Meta-explanation in the Visual Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3 Constraints of Understanding on the Identifi cation
of Meaning in Artworks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.1 Example 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.2 Example 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.3 Example 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.4 Example 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 Art as Visual Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.5 Determinate Meaning Versus Explanatory Meaning . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.6 Language and Realism in the Visual Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.7 The Visual Arts, Language and Davidson’s Event Ontology . . . . 37
3.8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4 Aesthetic Description, Realism and Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.1 Kinds of Aesthetic Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.2 Existence, Realism and Description in Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
4.3 Aesthetic Character as Real Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.4 Realism and the Reliability of Aesthetic Description . . . . . . . . . 51
4.5 Wiggins’ Concept of Authentic Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.6 Petit’s Theory of Rectifi cation and Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5 Theoretical Perspectives: Research into Children’s Cognition
and Knowledge in the Visual Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6 Aesthetic Fallacies in Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
6.2 Representation and Meta-representation of Meaning in Art . . . . 66
6.3 Beardsley’s Three Aesthetic Fallacies
as Representational Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
6.3.1 The Genetic Fallacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
6.3.2 The Affective Fallacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
6.3.3 The Intentional Fallacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
6.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Contents ix
Part II The Critical Application of Philosophical Realism
to Concerns in Art, Design and Education
7 Art Education Curriculum Praxis: A Time for Collaboration . . . . . . 79
7.1 Dialectical Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
7.2 Autonomous Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
7.3 Consultative Collaboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
7.3.1 The “Frames” as an Example of Collaborative
Innovation in the Visual Art Syllabus
of New South Wales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
7.3.2 The Function of the Frames in the Visual
Arts Syllabus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8 Coming to Terms with Visuality in the Content of Art Education . . . 95
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
8.2 The Arts and Visual Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8.2.1 Historical Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
8.2.2 Visual Education and the Emergence
of ‘the Arts’ as a Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
8.3 The Emergence of Content in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
8.3.1 Table 8.1 Columns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
8.3.2 Table 8.1 Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
8.4 Narratives of Visuality in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.4.1 Psychology of Perception, Neurophysiology,
Pathology and Visual Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8.4.2 The Arts, Digital Culture and Visual Education . . . . . . 104
8.5 A Summary of the Narrative Purposes of the Visual
in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
9 The Spectacle of the Artist in Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
9.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
9.2 The Myth of the Myths of Art Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
9.3 The Appearance of Reality and the Reality of Appearance . . . . . 117
9.4 The Reproduction of Practice as the Production
of Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
9.5 The Spectacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
9.6 A Narrative of the Spectacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
9.7 The Spectacle as an Agent of Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
9.8 Change in the Society of the Spectacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123