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Section 2: How High-Quality Arts

E D U C AT I O N
Education Can Prepare Students
Visual Arts and Multiliteracies
for the Future in a Digital Age
Visual Arts and Multiliteracies in a Digital Age Mar y Stokrocki
Mary Stokrocki
Professor of Art Education, Arizona State University
Mary.Stokrocki@asu.edu In the future, the POTENTIAL range
of digital worlds for art teaching
Living in Actual and Digital Visual Worlds:
One Big Goal for Art Education is endless…
Brent Wilson
Professor Emeritus of Art Education, The Pennsylvania State University
bgw1@psu.edu D igital media, created using electronic communication
tools, surrounds us as a paradigm shift in education
Envisioning a Future Techno-Infused simultaneously is taking place (Alexenberg, 2006; Lu, 2010;
Eco-Pedagogy Stokrocki, 2007; Sweeny, 2011b). Children as young as 6
Karen Keifer-Boyd years old are dressing their avatars (visual persona that they
Professor of Art Education and Women’s Studies customize), decorating their rooms, and networking with
The Pennsylvania State University friends on Club Penguin and the Pet Society (just two of
kk-b@psu.edu many popular virtual worlds for children). For adults, one of
the most prominent digital sites created almost entirely by
its “inhabitants” is Second Life (SL), with “an all time high of
126 million users hours in …2009” and an economy of “half
a billion US dollars, making Second Life the largest virtual
economy in the industry” (Linden, 2010). Even senior citizens
are starting their own geezer brigades on SL. Aside from
their entertainment value, these worlds offer art, business,
and educational opportunities for adults and youth, as well
as occasions to network with people around the world. The
educational resources are endless, including components
such as cultural understandings, medical advice, library
components, and artmaking and exhibiting artwork, to
Download your electronic version now! name a few possibilities. By the end of 2011, Gartner Inc.
(2007) predicted, 80% of active Internet users would have a
Examine evidence for the capacities that presence in some virtual world. Teaching therefore requires
art education develops in students and
uncertain and changing pedagogical practices that are open-
what it can prepare them to do in Learning
in a Visual Age.
ended, daring, and risky (Barnett, 2007). So how do we teach, applications using Photoshop; cultural literacies involve
learn, and assess results in these new digital worlds? understanding meanings within a given context, such as
a video game in leisure activities; technological literacies
Digital Culture contain visual and print texts, rules, and play maneuvers as
Players participate and immerse themselves in the new found in digital storytelling. Such practical understanding
digital worlds through building digital culture. Digital entails soliciting peer cooperation and collaboration to try
implies electronic technology and its major components. out new games, critiquing them, offering suggestions, giving
Jenkins (2004) includes behaviors such as “play performance, advice about character and thematic building, and soliciting
simulation, appropriation, multitasking, distribution, contributions from peer audiences.
cognition, judgment, transmedia navigation, networking,
and negotiation” (pp. 3-4). Intellectual practices range from So HOW do we teach, learn, and assess
collaborative problem-solving to computational literacy, and results in these new digital worlds?
even informal scientific reasoning (Steinkuehler, 2009) that
Using SL as an example, art educator Lu (2010) offered practical
involves several diverse types of digital media. These range
learning principles for designing digital events for students in
from serious video games (Parks, 2008) and digital animation
virtual worlds. Those principles include learning by exploring,
(Davenport & Gunn, 2009) to virtual worlds (Stokrocki &
developing a sense of self through avatar identity, collaborating
Andrews, 2011), to name a few. These media enable students
with others, collecting or uploading individual artworks,
to form various virtual communities that are linked with
creating personal rooms and sculptures, and expressing
Web 2.0 tools. Digital media are emerging into new complex
and recording adventures through snapshots and writing
pedagogical learning sites that are products of informal visual
reflections. Other art educators also have presented virtual-
culture influences that support equal, collaborative efforts
world learning experiences for students; Liao (2008) focused
from group members (Wilson, 2008). Contemporary culture
on avatar identity, and Carpenter (2009) designed a classroom
can be viewed as “the collective heritage of a group, that is, as
where students could be observed continuously without the
a catalog of ideas and practices that shape both the collective
teacher interfering in their individual learning modes.
and individual lives and thoughts of all members,” as well as
something that “only exists in the act of being performed, and
Digital world users communicate through chat and instant
it can never stand still or repeat itself without changing its
message functions, discover new sites, design new spaces,
meaning” (Bauman, 2004, Note 1, p. 21). Such digital culture
share services, and exchange goods (Wilbur, 2008). They
immersion requires use of new literacy forms.
also learn to communicate in a form of hybrid sentence
structure that contains abbreviations, facial expressions
Media Literacies
pictorially represented by punctuation and letters, shortened
Traditionally, art education literacy usually involved reading
words, and specific vocabulary with spelling errors (Black &
and writing to obtain knowledge, even including vocabulary
Steinkuehler, 2006). Similar to video games, virtual worlds do
involving video game terminology. New forms of graphic
not substitute for literacy activities, but rather produce new
literacy now are emerging that are referred to as digital or
ones collaboratively (Gee, 2007).
media literacy (Snyder & Bulfin, 2007). Media literacy can
be integrated with text-based forms to participate in a new
New Communication Arenas and Visual Literacy
global society that is currently emerging (Delacruz, 2009).
With literacy forms and functions rapidly changing in
Duncum (2004) argues for multiliteracies, “the making of
today’s postmodern world, multimedia fluidity in different
meaning through the interaction of different communicative
communication arenas have expanded into multi-literacies
modes,” including music, gesture and motion, sounds, and
that include video, pictures, music and dance, computer
pictures (p. 253). Virtual worlds, including video games,
languages, Internet casual speech, and games, as well as
require operational, cultural, and technological literacies
in print (Thomas, 2007). Most of the May 2009 issue of
(Guzzetti, Elliott, & Welsch, 2010). For example, operational
Educational Researcher involved discussions over how to
literacies include translating tutorials, procedures, and
expand on these new literacies that “include new skills,
strategies, dispositions, and social practices that are required concerns; and connectivism that stresses human powers of
by new technologies for information and communication” pattern recognition. This call for networks of people, tools,
(Burns, 2006). Such new literacies are multifaceted, multi- and technologies, as well as school programs to build better
dimensional, and include multiple points of view. modes of learning through media literacy, matches well with
future goals set for contemporary art education theory and
Students also must be visually literate to navigate the practice.
real world, which includes decoding, understanding, and
analyzing the meanings and values communicated by A number of questions arise about art education’s role in this
images. “Just as readers of text draw inferences and construct new digital culture environment.
meaning from written representations of language, viewers How do art teachers and school systems find a workable
of images also draw meaning” (Burns, 2006, p. 2). Art teaching balance between digital learning and real-life fact/process
and learning contexts are the primary place in today’s schools learning? Digital learning can supplement real-life teaching
where art students discuss the elements and grammar of since it offers unique art instruction skills for diverse
images, composition and camera perspectives, symbols, audiences. These new technologies enable average people to
props, clothing, color, light, text, and similar concepts. They archive, add comments to, and alter content. Innovative and
learn to read digital instructions as well, and create their pervasive networking forms, personified by weblogs, have
own Web pages and digital journals (Thomas, 2007), all of blossomed from the bottom up, and participation requires
which require diverse forms of learning. Higher education that art teachers and art students mutually learn together
art educators are in the process of inspiring schools to (Kellner & Share, 2005). There now is a remix of old and new
adopt some of these ever-expanding educational forms in media constructed to respond to demands of novel ways of
a variety of ways for students to explore and experiment by communication through combination of recycled pieces of
promoting imagination and immersion in cultures otherwise information and materials.
inaccessible, and to integrate their art learning with other
technologies and disciplines (Salman, 2009). For example, when art educators Stokrocki and Andrews
(2011) mentored disenfranchised youth to use SL to develop
New Forms of Visual Art Learning their future art careers, the educators provided steps to
Learning involves processing new knowledge, behaviors, achieve discrete goals: learn basic communication skills,
skills, values, or preferences in different ways. The formation acquire computer and digital literacy competence, develop
of learning based on the written word is changing, as images life skills, imagine a place for dreams, envision a home, and
dominate text and as screens overtake paper as the most build a business. One participant advertised his “in-game
frequent means of distributing information (Kress, 2003). Since architecture” via poster, and built a twisted tent-like form as
digital worlds can be game-like, Gee (2007) presents three his sustainable home. (See Figure 1.)
kinds of current modes of learning in which art education
plays a major role: situated cognition (that is, contextual How can art education help teachers with instructional
learning including material, social, and cultural forms); new assessment? U.S. education is dominated by standardized
literacy study that involves economic, historical, and political curricula, instructional systems, and assessment procedures.
Due to the complex and rapidly evolving technologies,
Figure 1: One participant advertised his standardized assessments have overlooked the richness and
“in-game architecture” via poster, and built a unpredictable nature of inquiry that includes experiential
twisted tent-like form as his sustainable home. and uniform reactions alike (Dewey, 1938). Learning evidence
need not be only standardized, it can be holistic, multi-
methodological, and qualitative, full of experiential evidence.
That experience encompasses the visual, audio, verbal, and
now kinesthetic, as virtual worlds enable art teachers to
view their students’ three-dimensional accounts of learning.
 transcend individual expression to incorporate collaborative
Students also must be VISUALLY LITERATE
design, exhibition spaces for uploaded artworks, three-
to navigate the real world, which includes
dimensional constructions built by avatars, and virtual field
decoding, understanding, and analyzing the
trips to different sites for building career awareness in the
meanings and values communicated by images.
arts. In the future, the potential range of digital worlds for art
Many art educators are examining these newer literacy teaching is endless, as art educators enable their students to
communication modes of engagement that can include learn, plan, construct digitally, and transform their plans into
accounts of individual technological experiences or personal real-world possibilities.
learning environments in art (Castro, Danker, Delacruz,
Fuglestad, Roland, & Stokrocki, in press). Art education is
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 Why Should Living in Art and Visual Worlds Be the Primary
Living in Actual and Digital Visual Goal for Art Education?
Worlds: One Big Goal for Art Education We live in an enormous global visual culture; we exist in

B rent Wi lso n worlds filled with visual images. But how aware are we of
our visual worlds? How well do we live in these worlds? How
well do we use them to enrich our lives? Do we use these
How aware are we of our image-worlds to create knowledge? Do we use them as
VISUAL WORLDS? ways to know our values, our futures, and ourselves? Do they
enrich our lives through joy and pleasure? If not, then what

W
might art education do about it?

hen we establish goals, we envision ideal Artworks and other visual cultural artifacts always exist in
futures. When The Consortium of National Arts Education larger social and cultural contexts. Most school programs
Associations (1994) published the national standards for could provide an opportunity for these complex visual
visual arts education, my first reaction was, “These standards cultural entities to be both studied and lived in. Students
are like the trees, but where is the forest?” There were could be taught how to participate wisely and knowingly in a
literally dozens of objectives, many of them desirable; but variety of art and visual cultural worlds. Indeed, our students
missing was a larger vision that would bind the standards already live in some of these worlds, but it is the task of art
into a coherent whole. I set about writing my one big goal educators to broaden both students’ participation and their
for visual arts education (Wilson, 1996). That goal, stated awareness of that participation. What are these art and visual
in four parts, placed visual artworks at its center. I posited cultural worlds like? What are their components, and how do
that K-12 students should learn to (1) mindfully create their they function? And most importantly, how does one learn to
own artworks; (2) insightfully interpret artworks of others; live fully and well within one or more of these worlds?
(3) draw meaningful relationships among the artworks they
have created and interpreted and many other cultural texts Sociologist Howard Becker’s now classic Art Worlds (1982)
in the arts, humanities, and sciences; and (4) write all of these acknowledges that the term “art world” is often used
texts within the texts of their lives—during, and especially metaphorically to refer to an elite entity, for example, the
beyond, schooling. Implicit within this goal is the notion that “New York art world.” Nevertheless, he takes a considerably
artworks are the source of both knowledge and satisfaction. more egalitarian view, arguing that there are many art
In other words, artworks expand our cognitive orientation, worlds. In discussing these art worlds, Becker analyzes
our worlds, our futures, and the values that guide our lives relationships among players such as artists, art historians,
(Kreitler & Kreitler, 1972). curators, aestheticians, gallery workers, art supply and
equipment manufacturers, and dealers—the participants
I still believe that my formulation is a good one. Nevertheless, who are every bit as much responsible for “making” artworks
the world has changed remarkably since I wrote my big as are artists. But he might have given more attention to
goal; art education has turned its attention to visual culture other art world participants, such as collectors, patrons, and
(of which artworks are still a primary component), and the the great number of different designers of art exhibitions,
image-pervaded Internet has mushroomed. I now see a books, catalogues, and advertisements. And, of course, new
different forest. My revised goal for art education places at art world roles continually emerge; in the 1980s, Becker
its center teaching students to live in art and visual cultural could not have known of the proliferation of Web designers
worlds—teaching them how to find fulfillment, joy, happiness, and Web-based digital artists today.
satisfaction, and aesthetic and intellectual rewards through
living their lives in these worlds. Just how many art worlds are there? Becker concludes
that the question is unanswerable; it depends upon how
those who study artworks slice and dice them. He argues
that art worlds are fluid and dynamic, changing sometimes
gradually and at other times dramatically. “Art worlds, then, things that make her happy and unhappy, references to
are born, grow, change, and die… Artistic work lasts when it YouTube videos and recently published works of adolescent
has an organizational basis that preserves and protects it” (p. literature, Swedish secondary school program options,
350). It is this complex set of components—participants and popular culture preferences, and friends. It sounds like a
the roles they play, their functions, and the institutions in mish-mash, but her writing (in English) is as sophisticated
which they work—to which I will return shortly. as her collage; together, they provide an interpretation of
her visual image. Seventy-four Polyvorians have viewed
Like Becker, philosopher Nelson Goodman posits a multiplicity her collage, and 47 indicated that they “liked it.” Among the
of worlds in addition to the common everyday world in which viewers who favored HellNoKitty’s collages were her peers
naive realists think we live. Goodman begins his book Ways of and manga fans, a PhD candidate in biophysics, teachers of
Worldmaking (1978) with this phrase: “Countless worlds made various subjects, a painter with an MFA, a makeup artist, a
from nothing by use of symbols” (p. 1). This is what Goodman gallery worker, a translator, and several designers—from at
has to say about the composition of worlds: least 20 different countries.
The many stuffs—matter, energy, waves, phenomena—
that worlds are made of are made along with the worlds. HellNoKitty’s profile page informs us that her collages have
But made from what? Not from nothing, after all, but from been viewed more than 23,000 times and favored (liked)
other worlds. Worldmaking as we know it always starts from 8,000 times. She has 506 contacts that follow her work; her
worlds already at hand; the making is a remaking. (p. 6) collages have won prizes in 38 user-organized contests; she
has created eight collections (with names such as “blood,
Goodman’s and Becker’s views of the multiplicity of worlds war, and cookie dough” and “in chaos we find safety”); and
make it easy to include digital worlds within the growing she publishes her collages in more than 30 different groups.
realm of art and visual cultural worlds. Indeed, so far as art She makes insightful comments about others’ collages,
education is concerned, digital image worlds, especially those and sometimes models her works on their collages. Other
found on the World Wide Web, point to the future! Arguably Polyvorians use her works as models for their own—she is a
they provide the best means for teaching students how to
live in all other art and visual cultural worlds.

Polyvore: A Brief Case Study of a Digital Art World

Polyvore is a Web 2.0 site (O’Reilly, 2005) for creating and
publishing fashion-related collages and digital artworks
(Feldstein & Wilson, 2010; White, 2009). Polyvore users
have literally created a digital art world that has all the
components and functions found in the contemporary art
world (Thornton, 2008). Here is an overview of Polyvore seen
through the activities of a 15-year-old Swedish girl, whose
user name is HellNoKitty. In late summer, 2010, she published
a digital collage titled “Devil Released” (see Figure 1).

The work is composed of 24 separate images and fragments

of text clipped from the Internet and reworked in the
Polyvore editor. (The editor is similar to a Photoshop
program that even a 2-year-old could manage.) To make
her collage, she resized, rotated, positioned, cloned, flipped,
flopped, and layered images and words—it is as if she has  

painted with them. Along with the collage, she published an Figure 1: Electronic collage titled “Devil Released”
eight-line original poem and a series of prose pieces about published by HellNoKitty on Polyvore in late summer, 2010
(retrieved from www.polyvore.com/devil_released/set?id=21525559).
teacher. HellNoKitty is an active and skillful participant in a roles, and rewards associated with all art worlds. I think that
complex digital art world. students in art classes should spend at least part of their
time as explorers, creators, and participants in digital worlds
Everyone CONTRIBUTES to the such as Polyvore. And they should learn how these digital

community, and everyone GAINS worlds relate to various other actual arts worlds in which
they might live their lives while in school and beyond school.
from the community.
If I were in an art classroom today, I would add my students
Polyvore’s Pedagogical Significance to my list of contacts—and await with eager anticipation
HellNoKitty’s Polyvore art world has all the components their creations and interpretations. In this pedagogical third-
and functions of a complete art world. Participants perform site (Wilson, 2008), I would enter into my students’ ongoing
multiple roles: they are creators, collectors, appreciators, lives in art and visual culture—to the extent that they wish
interpreters, critics, art writers, documenters, connoisseurs, me to—while they are my students and more importantly,
curators, designers, teachers, colleagues, collaborators—the beyond my classroom. I want to know what my students
list could go on. And even more importantly, Polyvore is an are doing in art worlds, both now and for the remainder of
egalitarian art and visual cultural realm. Artists, designers, their lives. The Internet makes it possible for me to remain
architects, and professors interact on equal footing with my students’ teacher—and for them to be my teachers
elementary and secondary school students, college for the rest of my life as well. What a marvelous future to
students, PhD candidates, stay-at-home-moms, biologists, contemplate!
physicists, and opera singers—you name it, they are there.
They bring with them their interests, knowledge, texts, R e f e r e nc e s
and expertise. As a consequence, collages are juxtaposed Becker, H. S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley & Los Angeles, CA:
University of California Press.
with poems and short stories written by participants; users’
creations are presented with selections from the worlds Consortium of National Arts Education Associations (1994).
National Standards for Arts Education. Reston, VA: Music
of music, literature, history, and philosophy; and users are
Educators National Conference.
continually informing one another about artists whose
Feldstein, A., & Wilson, B. (2010, June). Polyvore
works they have discovered. Other participants write and
collaboration: Innovation in informal online affiliation
illustrate the lives of the famous and the infamous. Popular
networks. Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(5),
and arcane images and bits of information flourish side 6561-6570. Retrieved from www.sciencedirect.com
by side. In short, visual texts are permitted to interact with
Goodman, N. (1978). Ways of worldmaking. Indianapolis, IN:
virtually every other text imaginable. Everyone contributes Hacket.
to the community, and everyone gains from the community.
Kreitler, H., & Kreitler, S. (1972). Psychology of the arts.

The situation I have just described fulfills my one big goal Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

for art and visual cultural education—on Polyvore, within an O’Reilly, T. (2005). What Is Web 2.0? Retrieved from
art world context, participants are creating and interpreting http://oreilly.com/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
visual texts and linking them to other texts. In doing so, they Thornton, S. (2008). Seven days in the art world. New York, NY:
create new knowledge, connect it to their unfolding lives, W. W. Norton & Company.
and share it with others. White, C. (2009). Cut and paste. Art Forum (March), 210-215.
Wilson, B. (1996). Arts standards and fragmentation: A
In my ideal art and visual culture classroom, students will strategy for holistic assessment. Arts Education Policy
learn to live in art and visual cultural worlds; they learn Review, 98(2), 2-9.
to perform multiple roles within these worlds. Complete
Wilson, B. (2008). Research at the margins of schooling:
and fully functioning art worlds such as Polyvore provide
Biographical inquiry and third-site pedagogy. International
a marvelously efficient and comprehensive means for
Journal of Education Through Art, 4(2), 119-130.
revealing the components, structure, content, functions,
 cultural knowledge and experiences of diverse students are
Envisioning a Future Techno- validated in learning environments where their differences
Infused Eco-Pedagogy are valued (Gay, 2000). Instead of a bell-curve view of

K are n Ke ife r -B oyd learners, a multifaceted crystal is a more appropriate analogy

for varied strengths and richness that teachers can mine from
individual differences.
Artwork that embodies individual experience
in relation to SOCIETY can TEACH By composing images from our experiences, we frame or
emphasize our sensations, memories, dreams, fears, and
viewers to discern injustice…
desires. Transformative artmaking occurs when we are aware

T
of our frame of how we know the world, and begin to open
our own borders through a process impacting and impacted
he first decade of the 21st century has ushered in an era by interconnected eco-political-social systems (Ellsworth,
of global interaction with much disparity in access to water, 2005; Grosz, 2008; Massumi, 2002). In this relational process,
food, shelter, healthcare, education, and communication the body is a point of departure that is extended through
characterized by war, poverty, illness, and global warming. art creation, making paramount the interdependency of a
Diverse social circumstances, access to education, and person and his or her relationship to the environment. Such
consequences of individual and social actions impact lives embodied and relational art transforms what seems normal
around the world. I speculate that high-quality arts education in our daily lives. Transformative learning involves exposing
can prepare students—those entering pre-kindergarten a discrepancy between actual experience and what a person
today and graduating in 2025—for a future in which they has assumed to be true (Cranton, 2002). Art educators
promote a world that is democratic and sustainable. capitalize on these transformational qualities of art in their
teaching so that students learn about the power of art in
The Self in Relation to the World their lives and the lives of others.
The arts are crucial to the “health of any democracy internally,
and to the creation of a decent world culture capable of In culturally response-able and sense-able art education, art
constructively addressing the world’s most pressing problems” teachers guide a reflective process in art practice in which a
(Nussbaum, 2010, p. 7). Artwork that embodies individual student’s life is related to larger socio-political systems, which
experience in relation to society can teach viewers to discern “involves coming to understand oneself in relation to others”
injustice, which is necessary for divergent thinking that re- (Darling-Hammond, French, & Garcia-Lopez, 2002, p. 201).
envisions and re-constructs a just world. Such a culturally High-quality art education provides situations, processes,
responsive art practice listens to disenfranchised voices and and environments to conceptualize one’s self in relation to
complicated histories; bears witness to power structures the world, and to connect artmaking to issues that matter.
that control people, cultural narratives, and worldviews of
a society; stops traffic of harmful activities and products; Empowerment emerges from a sense of self-worth, and
and envisions global ecological well-being. These relational opportunities to be heard and to choose (Buskins & Webb,
practices of contemporary artists are sources for exemplary 2009). Collaborative art creation is a reflective process that
aims, content, pedagogy, and outcomes in conceptualizing can be empowering and transformative. An example is a
art education classrooms as experiential investigations of transcultural dialogue project that I facilitated while living
interrelationships of self and the world through sensory and in Uganda in 2010, connecting art students at Makerere
increased interaction with the environment. University in Kampala, Uganda, with art education students
at Penn State University in the United States. I designed a
Culturally relevant arts education that prepares students system for participation and collaborative artmaking that
for the future uses sensory experiences as touchstones for utilized social networking tools. The Ugandan participants
developing self-knowledge. In culturally responsive teaching, selected websites that represented the visual culture of the
United States, while the United States participants selected
websites that represented the visual culture of Uganda. The
project participants looked at what was bookmarked to Interdisciplinary inquiry is NECESSARY
represent their country, read the rationales for the selected to solve COMPLEX problems.
representations, and responded whether, how, and to what
Current educational policies involving standardization,
extent the representations related to their own lives. The
conformity, control, and narrow views of idea construction
participants, in negotiation with each other, created visual
and communication in art, language, science, and math
art that synthesized the topics and perspectives that arose
systems are unharmonious with a future in which life is
in their text-based dialogue. An excerpt from the dialogue
electronically interconnected. Educational preparation for
provides an example of how the dialogue itself functioned to
interdisciplinary partnerships and collaborations is needed
make assumptions transparent and to question beliefs.
as a result of the increasing interdependence of resources
Ugandan participant: I always had two impressions and work environments (Zhang & Kramarae, 2008). There are
of the USA. My first impression of the USA was a place exemplar artworks that do this, and serve as models for an
dogged with violence, shootings, and intolerance towards art education in sync with future needs. For example, Cary
minorities… the other side was an ideal place to live, where Peppermint and Leila Christine Nadir’s 2009 artwork, Eclipse,
by everyone seemed well off… Paradox indeed. I have is a participatory-driven Internet program that alters and
always tore myself between what impression to go by and corrupts photos of United States parks posted on Flickr,® a
which one to discard. popular photo-sharing website. The artwork is programmed

United States participant: I too find myself making certain to obtain real-time pollution data from the nearest city to the
assumptions of places I have never been. For some reason I park via an application developed by the U.S. government
always seem [to] put the United States above everyone else (airnow.gov). An image is then produced that is a corruption
but I know this is wrong of me to do because I do not have of the original photograph “through a set of programmed
the experiences to do so… I hope that some day I will be algorithms that affect color, saturation, and contrast and that
able to rid my views of other countries and get the chance impose intermittent mirroring, deletion, or cropping of the
to travel and experience a different culture. file’s data” indicating the level of pollution (Peppermint &
Nadir, 2009, 2).
Such relational artwork creates new insights, invites
participation, and can evoke transformative learning when Interdisciplinary inquiry is necessary to solve complex

individuals discuss their perspectives with each other and problems. Contemporary art is a prime example of how

create art together about their diverse perspectives. artists currently draw upon diverse knowledge systems in
novel and critical ways. By using the processes and practices
Interdisciplinary Inquiry of contemporary artists, visual art education introduces and
Pedagogy concerns the content and methods of teaching and provides practice in interdisciplinary thinking and inquiry.
learning, and, more broadly, the nature of knowledge and Artist and educator Suzi Gablik (2002) wrote about many
learning. How can art education pedagogy prepare students contemporary artists whose art brings people into embodied
for the future in which knowledge, like art, is inseparable relationships with their social and physical environments. In
from their values, beliefs, and sensitivities of how they know The Reenchantment of Art, she draws our attention to the
the world and themselves? I envision a future techno-infused power of art as interdisciplinary inquiry that transforms and
eco-pedagogy in which knowledge, disciplines, and courses connects self and world, “art, which speaks to the power of
are not organized by discrete timeframes, and students are connectedness and establishes bonds, art that calls us into
not grouped by age but rather by investigation of topics. relationship” (2002, p. 114). For example, an art education
Moreover, alphanumeric grades become obsolete; instead, student who worked on a collaborative site-specific artwork
evaluation based on criteria set by the student in dialogue with artist Lynne Hull, and with other students in his class,
with others in areas of student interest is presented to global commented: “Working with Lynne I realized… how little I
teams of mentors via electronic multimedia portfolios that pay attention to my own environment and how much it has
reflect student learning and thinking. an effect on me” (J. McCollister, personal communication,
January 2000). The sculptural artwork of a windmill and and customize them with minor changes. The current
hitching posts created as nesting sites for migratory birds in a practice of built-in obsolescence in manufacturing products
dry playa lake in the high desert of West Texas involved artist will change to repair and recycling, since physical storage
Lynne Hull working with playa lake specialists, biologists, and of products and parts will not be needed. Global capitalist
others in creating art literally for the birds (Keifer-Boyd, 2001). ventures will likely focus on supplying the 3D printing
machines, designs, and raw materials. Quality art education
Augmented Reality and 3D Printing
will prepare people to work directly with raw materials—e.g.,
Visual arts education also involves creation with media and
clay, silicon embedded with circuitry, and banana fibers—to
how visual artists use materials related to their time and
understand potentials and consequences of materials from
place. In the next 20 years, augmented reality and 3D printing
social, health, and environmental perspectives. Art educators
will change our relationship to knowledge, artmaking,
will be prepared for these new ventures by teaching students
and purposes of art education. Augmented reality involves
how to study potentials and limits of materials and, in the
culturally infused technological interfaces that superimpose
process, making visible their lives in relationship to other lives
sensory enhancements (visuals, sounds, touch, and smells) in
situated in intersecting social, political, and environmental
the physical environment in real time. Augmented reality is
systems around the world.
everywhere already. For example, many people use iPhone
and iPod touch-screen Web browsers or handheld language
Augmented reality and 3D printers are two examples of
translators during cross-cultural conversations. The next
future trajectories that bridge cyberspace and the physical
generation of augmented-reality systems will be directed
world. New media artist and educator Elizabeth Ellsworth
individually by complex body gestures to perform actions
(2005) finds pedagogical value in transitional spaces in
that project information (Bonsor, 2001). Quality art education
which “‘augment[ation] through invention” can allow one
in the future will enable all people to contribute to critiques
to “engage in political practice” (p. 127) and connect with
and creations that, in turn, broaden and diversify viewing
environments both at home and around the world. Students
augmented by computer-generated sensory input. Without
in U.S. kindergartens today will experience cyber and
intervention in a social system that creates poverty, however,
fiber material as integrated media for creating art; as they
the disparity will become greater between those who
grow into adults, they will live in the transitional space of
produce and have access to such sensory enhancements and
augmented reality. High-quality art education programs that
those who do not.
prepare students for the future can facilitate transformative
embodied learning that will lead the way in creating just and
Some people have built their own 3D printers from discarded
democratic methods of teaching and learning.
technology parts and have produced outcomes that are
examples of augmented reality. In sculpture and engineering
References
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