Below are critical responses to Kerry Freedman’s Teaching Visual Culture.
Author(s): Freedman, Kerry J.
Source/Date: Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art/2003
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Chapter 2
Title: Finding Meaning in Aesthetics: The Interdependence of Form, Feeling, and Knowing, Chapter 2 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Freedman (2003) addresses the “issue of the ways in which aesthetics are included in curriculum” (p. 23). She discusses why there is a disconnect between formal qualities in art and the multiple interpretations of aesthetics that surround these qualities. She also argues that the multiple aesthetic theories that exist “can and should be drawn upon in teaching” (p. 41).
Short Overview (including any important quotes): This chapter aims to alter perceptions of the meaning(s) of aesthetics. Freedman (2003) argues that “art is not only about the isolated effects of formal qualities, and several aesthetic theories exist that can and should be drawn upon in teaching” (p. 41). Some of these theories include symbolism, expressionism, pragmatism, formalism, and postmodernism. Symbolism aesthetic “illustrates the importance of social mediation between the internal, subjective and the external, objective realms” (p. 28). It utilizes form to convey symbolic connotation. Evolving from this ideal, formalism emerged and “helped to establish an artificial dichotomy between form and content” (p. 29). This new aesthetic meaning made way for “extensions of interpretation outside the work” (p.29). The definition of formalism, as learned in the majority of schools today, never quite reached the level that Clive Bell had intended it to. Instead of “broadening the possibilities of art, promoting a type of diversity in the visual arts” (p. 29), it has taken to mean to interpret art as form without meaning. Sadly it is this definition that “became the definition of aesthetics in education and in the process reduced the importance of social and cultural meanings of art in education” (p.30). Meaning and context are often discarded in curricula. The problem education faces today is not its emphasis on form, it’s its “overreliance on formalism” (p. 33). In order to expand learning and understanding of art through the structure of education, integrating the contexts of visual culture and extended meanings with formalism is important.
Response/Critical Reflection: Ignorantly, before I read this chapter, I had very little awareness of the amount of interpretation that came with the word aesthetics. I never thought deeply enough about how it fits into the art vocabulary and curriculum. Freedman (2003) is absolutely correct in stating, “generations of students have been taught to interpret Bell’s writing as form without content, thus ignoring what is ‘significant’ about form” (p.29). I know this because I learned this way. Only in my upper years in high school and college have I come to discuss the importance of context, culture, and meaning in addition to form in art. Although this book is very wordy and confusing at times, I believe its messages are important. I think it is important to understand why we have learned about aesthetics the way we have and this chapter does a very thorough job of examining this. All of the art movements in the past have led to our education curriculum being set up the way it is today. Even though I believe that being able to isolate and analyze strictly ‘formal’ qualities is an important quality to possess, it is even more important to be able to go beyond the formal qualities and discuss cultural contexts and meanings of art. How a piece of art looks is just as significant as to why it was made, when it was made, and with what medium. All of these indicators, and more, form the context to understanding and interpreting pieces of art to their fullest capacity. As Freedman (2003) acknowledges, “ we come to know art through the dynamics of experience” (p. 42). The experience of studying art with strictly formalism aesthetics has changed, and curriculum should too. As a future educator, we need to discuss context to help our students develop a critical eye in looking at and thinking about art with their own voices. Having unique, individual thoughts and responses to art is a part of what makes the field of the arts so intriguing. So many different opinions and preferences and perspectives are out there. We must teach our students to embrace this and really investigate into why artists create the art that they do, using the techniques and choices that they do.
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Finding meaning in aesthetics: the interdependence of form, feeling, and knowing. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 23-42). New York: Teachers College Press.
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Chapter 3
Title: The Social Life of Art: The Importance of Connecting the Past with the Present, Chapter 3 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Freedman (2003) emphasizes the importance of making connections between contemporary visual culture and the past. Students should be able to develop an understanding of visual culture, no matter how complex (p. 43). She does this by picking apart art histories and discussing making judgments of art through quality and context.
Short Overview (including any important quotes): This chapter tackles the tough matter of understanding art and why we, as viewers, perceive art the way we do. Freedman (2003) states, “Studying history helps us to understand the cultures and societies that provide us with the conceptual locations we now inhabit and illustrates the limits and possibilities of human behavior” (p. 43-44). Without understanding and knowing where and when a piece of art comes from, its contexts and meanings are lost. The author quotes Arnheim (1974), “All aspects of the mind bear on its art, be they cognitive, social, or motivational” (p. 49). “Every visual experience is embedded in a context of space and time” (Freedman, 2003, p. 50). Every viewer sees a piece of art differently because of their backgrounds – individual experiences shape perceptions. “It is the connection between the then and now that extends and creates greater knowledge” (p. 55). It is because of these connections and individual perceptions that traditional art history education has to be altered, for “it has limited appreciation of the profound consequences of influence by certain social, gender, and cultural groups” (p. 48). “An education in visual culture must be thought of from interdisciplinary and extradisciplinary positions that allow information from inside and outside of school to be connected to school subjects” (p. 49).
Response/Critical Reflection: My favorite quote from this chapter states, “History is not the past; it is a reconstruction of the past” (Freedman, 2003, p. 44). This quote serves to remind readers that everything learned from history is only one side of the story – and there is always at least one more side you are unaware of. I think this chapter, compared with chapter two, was a much easier read as I did not have to reread passages at a time. And Freedman discussed what I have felt about art history for a long time. It needs to be adjusted! All of my life I have basically only learned from the Western canon. And this canon consists of art deemed important by upper class white males. Not that I do not appreciate this art – oh I do. I think Michelangelo’s Pieta is one of the most beautiful pieces of art I have ever seen. That being said, I am so uneducated about non-Western art. How am I supposed to judge a piece of art with little to no knowledge about its background, culture, and influences? How do I judge the quality of a piece of art without first knowing its visual culture contexts in relation to others of its kind in both time and space? I would love to help to begin to “conceptualize quality not as great (inherent) value, but as powerful (social) influence” (p. 54). Redefining how people view and think about art might be the first step in integrating art into more schools and curriculum. Art is such a universal concept. It is our knowledge of art and its history that seems to be so narrow. We need to expand this knowledge so that “students understand that many conditions influence judgments of goodness and that those judgments are made based on the relationship” (p. 54) of understanding contexts. It is connections that make fully understanding contexts so important.
References: Arnheim, R. (1974). Art and visual perception: A psychology of the creative eye. Berkley: University of California Press.
Freedman, K. J. (2003). The social life of art: the importance of connecting the past with the present. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 43-62). New York: Teachers College Press.
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Chapter 4
Title: Art and Cognition: Knowing Visual Culture, Chapter 4 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Although the relationship between cognition and art is still being highly researched and developed, there is a significant one there – one where we come to know art in different ways. Being able to recognize and appreciate art is an important skill to have that many have yet to cultivate fully.
Short Overview (including any important quotes): This chapter addresses how people come to know and understand art. “In general, we see to recognize, rather than to appreciate” (Freedman, 2003, p. 64). “Our first response to visual form in the environment is to determine whether it is familiar and whether and how we will engage with it” (p. 64). People are not likely to engage with things they do not like or understand. There has to be a certain balance between “things that are intriguing but not overwhelming” (p. 64) to begin to appreciate visual culture instead of just recognizing certain visuals. To fully do this, we must process contexts “as part of the processing of images and objects” (p. 65). It is when people are engaged, emotionally and cognitively, that learning is at its highest. People learn best through recalling information from their individual past experiences and applying it to the subject at hand. “We are only able to understand the visual arts because of the information we have previously stored about visual features and meanings” (Solso, 1994, p. 67). “The more places associations can be established, the more learning that takes place” (Freedman, 2003, p. 67). Essentially, we learn from everything around us and that has happened to us, consciously or not. Every new experience is that of one to learn from. We take our own meaning from art, regardless of what the artist had originally intended because our individual perceptions vary because our backgrounds vary. The most difficult part about this fact is applying it to a successful educational system. “The most essential part of art expertise (that is, the way to get from skill proficiency to the creation of art) was not handled effectively in education” (p. 73). Teaching visual culture “involves changes in the instructional methods used to enact curriculum, changes that should respond to the new understanding of cognition, as well as traditional methods that have been demonstrated to work” (p. 85).
Response/Critical Reflection: Overall, this chapter was enlightening. It said everything I had already known in a way I could never have expressed in words. It also elaborated on a lot of psychological aspects of learning and art understanding, which I found very interesting. The quote that struck a cord for me the most though was, ““in general, we see to recognize, rather than to appreciate” (Freedman, 2003, p. 64). How true is this? How often do we take for granted all of the exposure to art we have in our lives and just pass it by? We see a piece of art and automatically begin to criticize and pick apart its formal aesthetics without taking the time to appreciate the piece in front of us. Recognition is an important part of acknowledging that art exists and has some sort of meaning personally. It is the first step to appreciating the piece for what it is. But many people, myself included, fail to make the connection between recognizing that art as something we identify with, taking the time to explore why we identify with it. When we stop and investigate why we take certain meanings away from different pieces of art, it is then that we begin to fully appreciate art for what it is. Wanting to become an art teacher, it is important for me to understand that people do not come with inherent skills of appreciation and understanding for art. These skills have to be honed and discussed and cultivated. Art is art for a reason. It is up to us, as educators and students and people, to determine why it is art and articulate our reasonings while also appreciating it.
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Art and cognition: knowing visual culture. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 63-85). New York: Teachers College Press.
Solso, R. (1994). Cognition and the visual arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
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Chapter 5
Title: Interpreting Visual Culture: Constructing Concepts for Curriculum, Chapter 5 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Visual culture exists everywhere. We no longer live in a world where we “have to visit an art museum to see forms of visual culture” (Freedman, 2003, p. 86). “Visual culture is about the people who view it, show it, buy it, study it, and criticize it” (p. 91). There are so many aspects to visual culture that it is often hard to understand and teach its effects successfully.
Short Overview (including any important quotes): We live in a world where oppositional ideas thrive: “Pleasure versus pain, important versus trivial, freedom versus control, and individual versus society” (Freedman, 2003, p. 89). These conflicts are present in people’s everyday lives, especially through the media. Often we forget that teaching visual culture includes the media too. Advertising “techniques influence people’s perception of art; art becomes a commodity” (p. 89). Although some may fight the idea of media and advertising as art, there is no denying their influence on the art world. Art is more accessible than ever – and it leads to “ emotional, cognitive responses and interactive, multileveled meanings” (p. 90) for those that take the time to learn something from the visual culture they are exposed to everyday. We must allow our students (and ourselves) to “become conscious of associations and connections they develop that go into building their knowledge and judgments” (p. 93). “The skills required to produce, analyze, and express this expanding realm of visual culture are complex, crossing many types of old boundaries, and indicate that a broadening of curriculum is essential” (p. 87).
Response/Critical Reflection: “As well as its surface form and content, visual culture is about the people who create it, view it, show it, buy it, study it, and criticize it” (Freedman, 2003, p. 91). This notion stood out the most for me in this chapter. Too often, I believe, people in the art community forget they are a part of a community. I know I do all of the time. It takes a whole population to create a visual culture. But it takes an even larger one to maintain and sustain that visual culture. Wanting to be an educator, I usually focus on the students of art and the histories and contemporaries. This chapter made me remember that these are not the only groups of people that make up our visual culture. Art is so integrated into our daily lives that it is often hard to remember that what we see in advertisements, news spreads, commercials, billboards, and logos is all art. And it is our job to think critically and respond appropriately to this visual culture. We need to be “constructing knowledge of suggested meanings” (p. 104) and “actively engage in reflecting” (p. 104) on our visual culture influences and on our own art. Finding connections and meanings in others’ art that pertain to you personally is the objective all artists strive for. It is up to all who are influenced by visual culture to help obtain these objectives so that art can permanently be a part of our culture. Teachers have an enormous influence over creating connections and meanings in art with their students. Hopefully curriculum can be adjusted appropriately to maximize active learning.
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Interpreting visual culture: constructing concepts for curriculum. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 86-105). New York: Teachers College Press.
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Chapter 6
Title: Curriculum as Process: Visual Culture and Democratic Education, Chapter 6 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Freedman (2003) states, “Curriculum can aid in the development of new knowledge both by presenting new information and by connecting it to prior knowledge” (p. 118). The majority of curricula falls short of this expectation, failing both students and their educators. “If we choose, we can promote ideals that have been important to the arts and to democratic curriculum, such as intellectual freedom, creative imagination, and social responsibility” (p. 106).
Short Overview (including any important quotes): In its best form, curriculum should “communicate our best thinking to our fellow human beings” (Freedman, 2003, p. 106). But more often than not, our curricula fall extremely short of this ideal benchmark. Instead we settle for “curriculum that focuses on the technical aspects of art and on ‘accurate’ interpretations” (p. 109). Educators often forget that they are “free to provide an education that will help students to make informed decisions about their visual culture choices” (p. 106). Developed curriculum should be overarching and well-intended and thought out. It should be “conceived as a process through which students learn” (p.108), not a narrow text of specific information. The best is actually “highly selective, has blurred lines, and is unpredictable” (p. 110). “Curriculum could be seen as a collage-like combination of information – which is necessarily ambiguous and suggestive of multiple meanings” (p. 111). Although products are harder to measure when curricula are designed this way, the students’ learning is most often greater. “Objectives can be planned, but important learning outcomes cannot always be predicted and, in art education, the best outcome are often those that are beyond ‘the box’ of the objectives in their creativity, imaginativeness, and originality” (p. 112-113).
Response/Critical Reflection: My favorite point about curriculum that Freedman stated was, “Acts of teaching and learning are part of the process of curriculum” (p. 110). So often, lesson plans are fleshed out as strictly linear and one-level. Instead, “the best objectives are those that are beyond ‘the box’ of the objectives in their creativity, imaginativeness, and originality” (p. 112-113). I love the idea of an always-evolving curriculum where it “should include expressive objectives that emerge from an educational experience” (p. 112). As educators we are free to provide our students with knowledge “to make informed decisions about their visual culture choices” (p. 106). That’s the ideal outcome isn’t it? To leave students with more confidence and knowledge than before. Having a somewhat ambiguous curriculum is equally terrifying as it is liberating. “Students connect art knowledge they learn outside of school with knowledge that students want to learn and educators hope they will learn” (p. 114). “No other part of education can help students understand the power of the visual arts in human life or so well explain the interactive relationship between cognition and emotion, thinking and feeling” (p. 115).
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Curriculum as process: visual culture and democratic education. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 106-127). New York: Teachers College Press.
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Chapter 7
Title: Art.edu: Technological Images, Artifacts, and Communities, Chapter 7 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: Freedman (2003) states, “The interactive capabilities of computer technology coupled with the vast amount of imagery and information available on the Internet give students a wide range of resources” (p. 138). Since access to technologies has become the norm for most, the meaning of art has come into question and is often re-contextualized. It has also shaken up how art is thought about and taught in the classroom.
Short Overview (including any important quotes): “The scope of student artistic production at all ages reveals broad interest in and increasing knowledge of technological media” (Freedman, 2003, p. 138). Technology is everywhere and students, especially, must be aware of the effects that it has on their education and interpretations of art. “Teachers will have to increase attention to the interpretive and critical analysis of imagery and other visual forms of information” (p. 139). For both parties it is important to understand that “technological imagery blurs the boundaries between truth and fiction by acting as both” (p. 129) and that “newer technologies desensitize them to reality” (p. 129). Visual culture viewed through technology questions everything known to be ‘real.’ “Teaching with and about visual technologies will need to be thought of as less a predetermined sequence of learning events and more of a creative, social process” (p. 146). Only then can we have a “highly interactive relationship between imagery and audience in which cultural and personal meanings are created” (p. 135).
Response/Critical Reflection: Technology is a part of life – there is no escaping its effects on our world as we know it. For art education purposes, the only thing to do is embrace its uses and “learn how to analyze images created through the use of advanced technology” (Freedman, 2003, p. 139). As a part of society today though, “computerization enables a hyper-reality that is, in a sense, more real than reality” (p. 129) making most of the visual culture exposed to us come into question. Revealing its tendencies of hyper-realism, we as the audience are forced to reflect on our own lives and how that visual culture influences our daily lives. Not that all technological visual culture has a negative connotation – we must be aware of how it is influencing us. On the contrary, technology has the power to “convince, persuade, seduce, make what is fiction seem to be fact, and to make reality appear unreal” (p. 143). “To deny the power of such rich visual culture would be foolhardy” (p. 131). As future educators, we must use this power to our advantage and create an environment where “both cultural and personal meanings are created as a result of social knowledge” (p. 135) in our students’ art.
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Art.edu: technological images, artifacts, and communities. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 128-146). New York: Teachers College Press.
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Chapter 8
Title: Contributing to Visual Culture: Student Artistic Production and Assessment, Chapter 8 from Teaching Visual Culture: Curriculum, Aesthetics, and the Social Life of Art
Main Idea/Purpose: It is important to create “the foundation of a learning community and a socially interactive environment that involves individuals and groups in viewing, discussing, analyzing, debating, and making art” (Freedman, 2003, p. 147).
Short Overview (including any important quotes): Freedman (2003) states, “ Studio production is vital to helping students understand the visual arts” (p. 167). Although much of our current curriculum focuses on individual development, “the studio in an educational setting is not one of a single artist alone” (p. 147). Group learning “should make each individual learn more than each could alone” (p. 161). Students should be able to talk coherently about artwork, whether it is their own or others.’ “When students make artistic images and objects, they should articulate related concepts and skills, state reasons for their decisions, and explain what they believe to be successful or unsuccessful about the work” (p. 154).
Response/Critical Reflection: As a future educator and a student immersed in the art education program at NIU, I fully appreciate the emphasis this program puts on studio production as well as pedagogy to be completed. It is of the utmost importance that art teachers go beyond their scope as a teacher in the studio because “artistic production is a critical path to understanding” (Freedman, 2003, p. 147). How can one fully know visual culture with out experiencing its creation? Through art production, we “can express concerns, ask questions, interpret imagery, and make judgments” (p. 148). Critiques “provide another modality for learning” (p.155) and are a great way to assess your own progress by explaining yourself to peers while also hearing what their judgments and suggestions are. We “should be encouraged to develop a critical awareness, including making critical statements” (p. 154) about our own artwork. Once you are able to reflect critically upon yourself, it is easier to understand the critiques you share in the classroom. Assessment should be “rich and informative” (p. 151) and “should include observations, clinical interviews, reflective journals, projects, demonstrations, collections of students’ work, and students’ self-evaluations” (p. 150). As a future teacher, assessment should always be contemplated and reworked to create the most fulfilling form experience for both parties. I believe both critique and assessment should be an extremely involved process. How else are we able to determine the end product for what it’s worth?
Reference: Freedman, K. J. (2003). Contributing to visual culture: student artistic production and assessment. Teaching visual culture: curriculum, aesthetics, and the social life of art (pp. 147-168). New York: Teachers College Press.
Sarah Kedzior 