FRANZISKA PIRSTINGER - InSEA Europe

FRANZISKA PIRSTINGER
Aesthetic Education in European Dimensions
Strategies, impact, challenges
For me the artistic subjects are catalysts aiding the educational process. In this sense, the arts
promote learning and education. Art is and must be the ‘nourishment’ of education in today’s
schools. It cannot be simply the ‘icing on the cake’. Half a century ago, Josef Beuys spoke of
a ‘plastic deformation’ of the younger generation, a rigidification, encrustation, saturation and
tension, which needs to be loosened, so that thought, perception and action can be applied to
benefit our human civilization as a whole.
One vision of the European project Camille Claudel is the qualitative improvement of art
education within schools. If teachers themselves receive a high level of education, they will
be well-prepared for teaching in the classroom. The program helps maintain cultural diversity
in Europe while also encouraging today’s talented young people to express themselves
through art, thus guaranteeing a Europe of culture
Camille Claudel is the name of a great international symposium for future educators of
art and also the name of a visionary festival. Camille Claudel is an international, multicultural
meeting place for students training to be art teachers. It allows them to come together
and further their individual talents. Camille Claudel stands for the sheer, inexhaustible capital
of human creativity that is available to every single one of us.
Camille Claudel stands for teachers who endeavor to develop new methods, stimulate
creativity in their students, convey technical skills and give impetus to artistic thinking.
Camille Claudel strengthens the intercultural dialogue between European students by giving
students from multiple countries the chance to work together in teams and employ different
artistic methods. Camille Claudel enriches the cultures and societies of Europe through the
development of open-minded, internationally experienced and highly qualified art students.
Camille Claudel preserves the quality of college education in the field of art in Europe
through complex, varied and demanding course offerings.
By creating feelings of team spirit and solidarity between students from many
countries, Camille Claudel makes a worthwhile contribution to international understanding,
peace and social justice.
Strategies:
1) bringing together young people
When 55 students meet with 10 international arts professors, it is a big event, but when they
work together under unusually cold weather conditions, enduring the most basic of living
conditions, it is something spectacular. This was not like summer camp, or even a youth group
retreat, this was hard work!
2) Building multinational groups
During the workshop, 11 multinational groups were lead by international Professors aiming to
trans-nationally realise aesthetic projects from the perspectives of six different nationalities,
relating them to the social and economic situation of the geographic area.
3) find an inspiring place to work
Asta from Lithuania can hardly believe what she sees around her: “It is so indescribably
beautiful here, I can’t find the words to describe how I feel, it is more than what I can
comprehend and understand. It is like a promised land, an escape from known narrow
borders…”
We need to find a location where we are free from acoustic, visual and other potential
irritants of our consumer society. We need a location where we can clear our minds from

the mental chitter-chatter that tends to lead us in our decision making process. At our chosen
location we experience `deceleration`, learn to recognise a long forgotten ‘slow pace’, and
become aware of a deprivation of outside stimulus, which all becomes a luxury to us.
When one spends 14 days living a humble existence in nature, one confronts his/her own
powerlessness and the fascinating invincibility and beauty of nature.
4) Sensitisation of Perception
For the team of professors, the first goal is concentrate on the senses –to instill sensory
perception into consciousness. To walk barefoot on a lawn dampened lightly with dew, to lay
your bare body on the soil in the fields or on the hot sand in the quarry, to climb over sharp
rocky cliffs or walk through thorny bush, to enjoy the sunrise over the lake Neusiedl near the
quarry, or to catch the suns rays as they dance in the high grass on the fields, or from those
that are reflected from the many sandstone sculptures throughout the hills… First we have to
get rid of any internal conflicts as we are not aware of societies influence on us, and how rash
and half-heartedly we seek to find solutions.In an interplay between thinking and feeling –
between using the body and the mind, and through intensive reflection of all that is
happening, and all that we do, we learn to be creative. When we work in groups we see that
creativity is not simply a psychological, but rather a social experience. It is not something
that we can pull out of a filing cabinet, but rather something we find in our personal
interaction with others.
5) Endurance and expertise
One of the main challenges for Professors during an extended project is to awake the students’
passion for artistic tasks. They must learn to work for the pure pleasure of creating, to use the
technical term – intrinsic motivation Most people don’t fail by seeking the solutions to the
problems but because they give-up to soon.
Without having ‘bashed in our brains’ and having felt complete physical exhaustion, we
would not have reached this point of awareness.
“Rock hard and almost unconquerable, I approached my small bolder. Will I be able to chisel
my idea of what this bolder should become, with only this ancient iron tool of antique
creation – or will this rock change my idea, change me - Tears are shed and pain felt after
one solid week of hard work, then finally a sculpture is visible – a communication between the
stone and my perseverance and ability.” Anna/Sweden
6) Flow Experience:
When the skills of the students and the task to fulfil form an integrated whole, the result will
be a flow-experience. The student attention will be fully concentrated on completing the task
at hand. We see that the attentive students` perception of time has diminished and they were
so fully concentrated that they didn’t respond to any interruptions. In this state, we are totally
involved with what we are doing and fully concentrated. This is a time of high motivation
and a strong willingness to perform.
7) Practice of techniques:
.The beginning of creativity is the handicraft – without the technical know-how to execute the
techniques of etching, painting or sculpture that the professors fanatically try to communicate,
students would certainly not be able to produce such successful graphics, paintings and
sculptures. Without learning the fundamentals, even a promising talent could not succeed. On
the other hand, with adequate training involving the technical skills, even a mediocre student
can produce astonishing works showing a great deal of creativity.
8) Ask the right questions:
The professors do not provide students with answers to problems; they try to stimulate the
students into asking themselves the ‘right’ questions. Art and creativity connects the known
with the unknown, making the boarder between that which is conscious and that which is

unconscious, transparent. It awakens a persons curiosity, allowing them to explore areas that
were previously unknown to them.
10) Products:
We tried to artistically realise, what we authentically experienced, rather than copy something
we already knew. To do this, we had to break with known norms. We did not concentrate on
any particular norm of beauty, or the production of a piece of artwork, but rather on reflecting
on what skills we already had, while venturing into new experiences. When confronting these
new experiences, we sometimes experienced frustration, exhaustion and the possibility of
failure.
11) Teachers expertise:
Teachers tried to steer students away from quickly trying to achieve a preconceived notion of
producing the perfect artwork using known methods. We tried to show them how to take a
slower path towards reaching their goals. We did not protect the students from the possibility
of failure or hard work, but rather encouraged them to find a way to authentically express
themselves.
Whether or not a picture was painted on a traditional canvas, on the body, or scratched onto a
copperplate, or printed on the computer or an object was made from felt, or the wind was
allowed to finish a painting or blow it away; we experienced different forms of expression
which were individual and representative to the international reactions to a theme. In contrast
to that first traditional sculpture symposium back in 1958, the students expressed sculpture in
the form of performance, installation and contemporary land art. The art educators saw
themselves as guides along the path of discovery between the artists’ view of the world and
the forming of students’ aesthetic experiences.
Challenges and impact:
This process was often exhausting, both for teachers and students, as it went beyond the
expression of our normal artistic capabilities. Artistic creativity is not a by-product of any
experiment, or the result of chance; it is the consequence of a particular kind of attention that,
reflects on itself, and its authenticity and intensity.
The problem of speaking different languages was very big, but hardly a deterrent. A special
kind of ‘prototype English slang’ energed, which accompanied the language of the eyes,
laugh, good humour and actions of the individuals, including an extraordinary amount of
picture and sign language, which everyone used to communicate parallel to verbal
communication. In this way, we were able to express the unspeakable.
Challenge and impact of this program can be best expressed in student coments:
During this symposium we learned the real value of the Euro is not how many Euros you or I
have, but that what we have, we exchange equally for mutual benefit. By exchanging our
ideas, we increased the value of what we had before by 100%. We also realised that by
exchanging our ideas, we help to positively improve the world. “I couldn’t believe how
different the people of Europe were – but I realised that we all have the same wish - to make
the world a better and more positive place to live in. We saw that it is long way to ‘Europe’,
but at least together; we took a step towards a European vision. The professors started a fire
in the hearts of the youth here this week – and it will not be extinguished.”
Claudia, a student from Belgium, completed a piece of artwork at the top of a cliff. It was a
long process that included fear, exhaustion and enduring extremes in the weather, which
nearly made her give up altogether. Somehow she found the strength to succeed: “Now I
know who I am and what strength is inside of me. I know that in the future, when I realise
how important something is to me, that I can give it more to achieve my goal. I reached a
milestone with this and I will value it for the rest of my life. In the future I will not give in so
easily when trying to achieve my goals.”

We can describe the attitude of these European students as young, dynamic and optimistic.
After two years students are still contacting us and describing the deep impact on their
personal development. Many students met new friends and found their artistic break through.
Each one learned their own personal lessons about what creativity is, and how much
individual potential each one has in reaching it, and in using it responsibly to shape the world.