Research in Visual Arts Education - The National Society for ...

MEDIATED ACTION AND AESTHETIC LEARNING
“freedom of speech” by a pictorial language, becomes a pipe dream unless
students are afforded the guidance and time needed not only to master
materials and techniques, but to transform them into media for personal
expression.
Marner and Örtegren further elaborate their sociocultural and semiotic
vocabulary by making a distinction between a vertical/hierarchic and a
horizontal concept of mediation. Thus Marner (2005) criticizes a one-sided
reception of Vygotsky as a pioneer of cognitive science, on a par with
Jean Piaget. Followers of Vygotsky, such as A. N. Leont’ev and A. R. Luria,
have often considered it a major aim of education to prepare the way for
a development from everyday (spontaneous) concepts to scientific (systematic)
concepts. This “vertical/hierarchic” perspective leaves no room for
art, according to Marner. Referring to Viktor Sklovsky, he regards an important
function of art to be that of making the familiar seem strange, to
“deautomatize” perception, to make us look upon the world with fresh eyes.
By “defamiliarisation” (Ger. Entfremdung), art restores our sensibility. This
makes it a necessary supplement to science, with its decontextualization of
experience. By putting art on a par with science, Marner (2005) takes sides
with a “horizontal” concept of mediation.
Aesthetic learning processes
Many cultural, aesthetic and artistic programmes and projects in school
during the last decade apply a horizontal concept of mediation. The
initiatives have taken place under different banners and with different
theoretical underpinnings: Loris Malaguzzi’s poem on the 100 languages
of the child, Howard Gardner’s theory of the eight intelligences, Gunther
Kress’ multimodal perspective on teaching and learning, etc. The Swedish
Committee for Teacher Education (SOU 1999:63), for example, suggested
that “aesthetic knowledge constitutes an important knowledge base for
all teachers – irrespective of school subject or type of school” (p. 55). The
Committee noted that knowing and aesthetic expression are often looked
upon as opposite instead of supplementing aspects of learning. The members
introduced the concept “aesthetic learning processes”(ibid.) to denote
learning that integrates both aspects.
This concept had been used in Denmark, since the 1990s, by theorists
such as Kirsten Drotner, Kristian Pedersen and Hansjörg Hohr. Looking
upon aesthetic activities as specific modes of learning was regarded as a paradigm
shift compared to traditional rationales for so-called free creative
expression. In the Danish minor classic Perspektiver på æstetiske læreprocesser
NORDIC VISUAL ARTS EDUCATION IN TRANSITION 61