Pedagogy informed by grass roots, media art practice in an ecological age

Ruth Catlow: Furtherfield.org and Writtle School of Design

The World Alliance for Arts EducationTowards a Paradigm of Creative Education for the 21st Century

A thought

Questions of agency and right action between- individual, community, organisation, institution, corporation, state -

are central at this time of species and environmental crisis

What do we mean by ecological practice?

Practice that attends to the nature of co-evolving, interdependent entities and conditions

Furtherfield.org supports experimental practices at the intersections of art, technology and social change.

Grass Roots, Networked and Opencommunity of practice and appreciation, online since 1997;

for creation, collaboration, review and critique.

From On Distributed Communications by Paul Baran, 1964

Inspired by network metaphors and deployed across the scale-free networks of the Internet and World Wide Web to which a new node (e.g. personal computer or server, web page or media file) may always be added.

Networked (and Open!)

Furtherfield.org participation and learning: creative and critical engagement with practices in art and technology.

Constructivist, practice-based learning: learning together

The learner's experience

Learners come together with diverse backgrounds, expectations, enthusiasms, skills & ambitions.

We support them to engage with a learning experience so that they might:

Identify and develop their personal ambitions in a contemporary context.Develop their knowledge, skills, experience.Become empowered to make a conscious, responsible contribution to shaping the world.

Learning comes mainly through student engagement in meaningful

activity.

Often involving solving ‘real’ problems.

Often in collaboration with peers – or at least together with them.

In their time as learners the students have an impact on the learning

environment.

Constructivist, practice-based learning:learning together

Constructivist, practice-based learning:learning together

We want to support: Deeper approaches to learning. Reflective learning and practice. Greater integration of theory and practice. Collaboration (and engagement with social & professional contexts). More independent and interdependent learning.

Practice-based Learning in Context

Modelling how practice-based learning can workin the context of social software and communities of practice

Practice-based Learning in Context

Coming back to that thought

What role might a pedagogy informed by grass roots critical and creative practice play in the renegotiation of agency and right action between- individual, community, organisation, institution, corporation, state -

at this time of species and environmental crisis?

Coming back to that thought

What role might a pedagogy informed by grass roots critical and creative practice play in the renegotiation of agency and right action between- individual, community, organisation, institution, corporation, state -

at this time of species and environmental crisis?

Thanks! Further info & referencesContact Ruth at ruth.catlow@furtherfield.org

Constructivist practice-based learning and e-learning JISC funded research with Roger Rees and Miles Metcalfe at Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication 2006-8Research project details:Designs on Learning - http://tinyurl.com/ycgodxuLearner Integration - http://tinyurl.com/yez3dey

Furtherfield.org community of practiceFurtherfield online Media Arts community http://www.furtherfield.org/Media Art Ecologies http://www.furtherfield.org/mediaartecologies.phpParticipation and Learning http://furtherfieldpal.org HTTP Gallery http://www.http.uk.net/

Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization, from Steps to an Ecology of Mind by Gregory Bateson, 1970