Context
Within formal arts education there appears to be a division between pedagogical approaches that are either subject-focused or student-focused. Subject-focused approaches are characterized by emphasizing form and technique(s) in the practice of creating art works, and stressing historical, social, and stylistic contexts in the practice of reflection and analysis. These are conservative approaches that tend to create distance in order to maintain objectivity and foster a factual and knowledge-based education. On the other hand, a student-focused approach instead emphasizes art as means for (self-)expression and self-realization. In creating art, this entails that teaching techniques according to a strict, chronological curriculum is suspended in favour of a free imagination. In the act of art reflection, then, the question of what an artwork means to you becomes more important than the matter of historical and/or social value. As Biesta points out, this division is representative of a general polarity between curriculum- and learner-centred pedagogies; a rather fruitless opposition as both curriculum and learner are necessary constituents of education. When the pendulum swings over to the curriculum side, there is a risk of art being reduced to artefact, stripped from its intrinsic value and meaning. Yet, when the pendulum swings over to the other side, towards the free expression of the learner, there is a risk of self-centred relativism with each expression and each assessment considered equally valuable, thus risking nihilism and apathy.

Rationale
According to Biesta, this artificial divide between curriculum- and learner-centred pedagogies can be solved by centralising the world, or in particular our relationship to the world. Self-expression could be suspended and instead of a self-reflective, inward-looking approach we could foster an outward-looking, materialistic one. In this paper we will explore such a practice from a post-hermeneutic perspective, in which the concept of art reflection as encounter is explored. Within modern hermeneutic practices art reflection is considered as a dialogical process between the object (the work of art) and the subject (the viewer) as a form of interpreting the text and the creator’s underlying intentions. While philosophers like Gadamer (1976) and Ricoeur (1986) describe this process as a relationship between text and reader (or viewer/listener/participant etc.), and as a circular alternation between text and context, in a post-hermeneutic practice the various counterparts of text and reader and text and context are considered as entangled entities. It is this entanglement of actors that can be considered as the focus of our arts educative approach, as a way to centralise the world and all its complexities.

The main goal of this research project is to explore how we can apply this post-hermeneutic framework to practice and translate this to concrete arts educative methods. What does it mean to focus on entangled actors and centralize the world in arts lessons in secondary schools? In order to answer this question, we are performing a qualitative practice-based study in which various forms and exercises are tested and evaluated. Inspired by Latour, we have made use of a ‘mapping exercise’ to highlight various actors and their relations that constitute the work of art. Art reflection then becomes a collaborative process as an active engagement in which as a group a work is studied through a bottom-up approach. It is not a matter of ‘discovering’ meaning through the analysis of its components; meaning emerges through the network of relations, rather than as the sum of its parts. This presentation will mark the first year of our two-year project and as such provided a work-in-progress proof of concept. In this first phase, our methods included a literature review and initial testing of mapping exercises and approaches to art reflection from a post-hermeneutic perspective.

Throughout this project we aim to develop an approach to arts education that goes beyond explaining a supposed original intention of the author or creator. It is not about uncovering the ultimate message or the (life) lesson we can derive from the text or artwork either. Such an approach would lead us into moralism and diminish the richness of the texts and artworks. Instead, it starts with a fundamental receptiveness to the materiality of the words, sentences, images, and sounds—and what they have to tell, show, and make us hear. As if they say "voici" (De Duve, 2000), inviting us to read, look, or listen again... "come closer and allow yourself to be touched." The mapping exercise did highlight new perspectives. Reflecting on art becomes not merely a matter of expertise and metacognitive skills. It requires so-called 'study-work', i.e., a more active, relational engagement in which the reader or viewer is open to the influence and agency that the text or artwork might impart. This approach moves beyond passive interpretation and embraces a dynamic interaction in which both the subject and the object are engaged in a mutually constitutive process of meaning-making. Yet, we are unsure whether this approach offers a novel experience that is fundamentally different from more traditional sociological and historical approaches. The mapping exercises seemed to expose the contextual relations, but in doing so fails to fully absolve the object-subject dichotomy. During this presentation we would like to delve deeper into the dynamic peculiarities of this exercise and explore its potential through variations and deliberations.

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