At a Glance
The project considers the dimension of aesthetic education from two angles. On one hand, teaching at schools of art and in art lessons is invariably based on aesthetic practices and therefore cannot exist outside the structures of the aesthetic. On the other, contemporary art often uses didactic and pedagogical models, thereby creating its own educational situations. From this, two fields of research can be derived:
First field of research (Silvia Henke): Aesthetic of Education
Based on Schiller’s concept of aesthetic education, which is experiencing a bit of a renaissance in contemporary art theory, the project aims to investigate didactic figures (parable, model, didactic play, example) of relevance to aesthetics and education. In addition, it describes moments of aesthetic education in the classroom and in artistic practice based on investigations of micro practices and devises new situations in which theory and practice can be brought together. The project also aims to expand the concept of “practice” while at the same time concretising it.
Second field of research (Wiktoria Furrer): Radical Pedagogies in Art (PhD)
This field of research focuses on artistic practices that employ pedagogical models and participatory formats such as workshops, platforms, labs, collaboration, temporary schools and artist-run institutions. As performative, process-oriented, dialogical or investigative settings with corresponding micro practices and methods like e.g., Oskar Hansen’s “Visual Games” or “The Silent University Principles and Demands” by Ahmet Ögüt, they revolve around working with experience spaces and forms of cognition. Combining aesthetic and social processes, radical pedagogies posit the emergence of an aesthetic way of thinking that extends all the way to an aesthetic of existence.
Both projects contribute to the refinement of the practice and micro-practice of aesthetic thinking that can be used in art education at universities, baccalaureate schools and extra-institutional education and communication contexts. The project is closely interlinked with the sub-projects led by the other universities collaborating in the framework of regular conferences, meetings and workshops. The aim is to derive concrete impulses and initiatives for aesthetic thinking at art schools from the project’s findings.
