What is Visual Art Phenomenon?

1. What is Visual Art Phenomenon? The Phenomenological Group http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J699edhfT0o

2. Visual Art? Marcel Duchamp, “Fountain” 1917 Burnett Newman “Voice of Fire”(1989)

3. Aesthetics Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804) • “An aesthetic judgment, in Kant's usage, is a judgment which is based on feeling, and in particular on the feeling of pleasure or displeasure.”(Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy)

4. The idea of visual art as human product Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) • Art is a product of human thinking, and this gives it its spiritual (or, put another way, mindly) quality. Insofar as art is itself a product of mind, it is actually closer to us (more real in a sense) than what we ordinarily describe as ‘nature’. (The 10th Guild)

5. Art as an experience Could art be an experience? • To better appreciate the aesthetic art practice one must first be associated with it • I will now take 4 suggestions for images to represent in gestural format.

6. Gestural Drawing Exercise • Exercise in preconceptions of drawing and imagery • You will be timed • You will not be allowed to look at your hands or paper until complete • You will not be allowed to lift your pencil from the paper when drawing • Everyone must participate [excluding myself]

7. Discussion of exercise • What was your thoughts going into this exercise? • Is your final rendering recognizable? • Did anyone cheat during the exercise? • How does this relate to phenomenology?

8. “Bracketing” • To remove all biases when rendering phenomenological research. • Uses an objective approach to understanding the phenomena being studied • Allows the researcher to move about the research unobstructed with familiarity • Gives the subjects free reign of expression without a quantitative interference

9. Water Color Watercolor is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork, in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood, and canvas. For our purpose it will be on paper.

10. Water Colour Techniques There are many ways to render a water colour paintings, and the following are examples: • Wet on Wet (Wet in Wet) • Lost and Found (Hard and Soft Edges) • Dry Brush Technique (concentrated colour) • Negative Painting (paint the space around it) # 1 (Wet on Wet) # 2 (Hard and Soft) # 3 (Dry Brush) # 4 (Negative Space)

11. Water Colour Exercise • You will tape the paper you have been given into 4 sections • In each section you will demonstrate the 4 techniques of water colour use in this presentation using any colour you want. • Using water and very little paint work from light to dark • When completed remove the tape and sign it. * Please remind me to put slide show to the techniques slide if I haven’t done so already*

12. Discussion of Experience • How did you feel about doing the painting? • Is there a difference from drawing to painting in your opinion? • What colors did you choose to represent each technique? (Red, blue, yellow, etc…) • Is Phenomenology a credible research methodology for visual arts practices, in your opinion?

13. Examples Carl Larsson (1897) Albrecht Durer (1502) Joseph Mallord William Turner (1802) Carl Larsson (1904-05)

14. Visual art as Thematic • Using the micro-project portion of this course I put into practice a phenomenological study of First Nations identity in a Regina high school. • During the study, the issue of First Nation non involvement was evident in the attendance…the class went from having 5 First Nations to just 1 within the span of the initial first 4 weeks. • This negated the concept of using a theory based on First Nations identity • Coincidently the themes of identity began to emerge in how it is acquired • By utilizing the remaining students the theory moved to “How do students in grade 11 eleven describe identity in a visual format? How do they relate their identity their present circumstance?” • The results were based in themes: • Students who were able to relate meaningful visual representations suffered a traumatic event in childhood, thus instigating • Students who could not relate a meaningful visual description of their identity relied on their social grouping to define who they were.

15. Student examples • In a simulation of the Mayan Codices Students were asked to represent their identities. • This is one finished product using the medium of clay • When philosophizing about the concept of identity certain students expressed more than expected in their journals as to what the symbols meant to them.

16. More Examples

17. Visual arts Education as phenomena The essence of experience can only be represented with a shared experience. Themes in visual art occur when there is a common objective. Visual Arts phenomena occur on an individual basis. Visual art as an effective method End products of the method display thematic occurrences Collective artworks are still individually possessive (subjects take the research home) Color usage allows for individual expression. Conclusions

18. Suggested Reading O’Leary, Zina. The Essential Guide to Doing Your Research Project. Los Angeles, Sage. 2010. Print Somekh, B. & Lewin, C. Theory and Methods in Social Research. Los Angeles, Sage. 2011. Print Laverty, S. Hermeneutic Phenomenology and Phenomenology: a Comparison of Historical and Methodological Considerations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods 2(3). September 2003. Retrieved on February 16, 2012