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Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Aesthetics

Articles 1 - 12 of 12

Full-Text Articles in Education

Gender, Aesthetics, And Sexuality In Play: Uneasy Lessons From Girls’ Dolls, Action Figures, And Television Programs, Courtney Lee Weida Jan 2011

Gender, Aesthetics, And Sexuality In Play: Uneasy Lessons From Girls’ Dolls, Action Figures, And Television Programs, Courtney Lee Weida

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

How does children's play with dolls and action figures engender exploration of gendered identities: from aesthetics and appearances, to social standards, and various rituals and performances? This paper examines recent research in art education and gender studies concerning dolls and figural toys marketed to girls. As an artist and teacher educator, I will draw upon my teaching experiences and examine artifacts of pedagogy from popular material culture. I will address issues of consumption while taking into consideration taboos of gender and sexuality within public and private play. While children's toys as symbolic bodies may pose narrowly gendered and heteronormative models …


The Promiscuity Of Aesthetics, Paul Duncum Jan 2010

The Promiscuity Of Aesthetics, Paul Duncum

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

I contend that the concept of aesthetics lies at the very heart of the art educational enterprise, albeit significantly reconfigured. I begin by offering a highly potted, historical overview of aesthetics that while it supports Tavin’s view of aesthetics as a confused and confusing concept, demonstrates how important it remains. My intention is not to support aesthetics as part of a progressive socio-political agenda, as many art educators do, but because the word aesthetics is today used extensively beyond our specialized area of art education to conceptualize the sensuousness of contemporary cultural forms. A brief investigation of books and articles …


Naughty Pictures: Their Significance To Initial Sexual Identity Formation, Paul Duncum, Deborah L. Smith-Shank Jan 2001

Naughty Pictures: Their Significance To Initial Sexual Identity Formation, Paul Duncum, Deborah L. Smith-Shank

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This study is about the formation of sexual identity through popular imagery in everyday contexts. Do images with sexual content help inform the development of sexual identity and, if so, in what ways? What is the nature of these images? What values, beliefs, and web of life experiences are revealed through early encounter with such images?


Art Education And Technology: These Are The Days Of Miracles And Wonder, Paul Duncum Jan 1996

Art Education And Technology: These Are The Days Of Miracles And Wonder, Paul Duncum

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This paper examines the impact on human consciousness of the exponential proliferation of electronic images, and offers suggestions concerning how educators should respond. A postmodern critique includes the ideas of an inverted Kantian aesthetics which embraces the everyday, a dramatic compression of space and time, and personal disorientation. A further critique grounds these views of consciousness in new economic arrangements and the rapaciousness of capitalism. I argue that the only viable educational response to this new consciousness is a critical examination of mass media imagery. Basic components of media education in schools are signposts of an appropriate response.


Feminist Collaboration In The Art Academy, Cynthia Bickley-Green, Anne G. Wolcott Jan 1996

Feminist Collaboration In The Art Academy, Cynthia Bickley-Green, Anne G. Wolcott

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Women's activity in the visual arts both in and outside of the art institutions of Europe and the United States reveals a history of collaboration in artistic production and political activism This paper analyzes the effects of feminist collaboration upon the disciplines of art, the pedagogy of art, and the administration of art institutions. In Part I, the authors review the impact of feminist collaboration in art history, aesthetics, art criticism, and art production. Part II provides examples of collaborative experiences of women in higher education art institutions and in some art communities in the United States, Scandinavia, and Italy. …


Art Education’S Movement Toward Core Curriculum Membership, Karen A. Hamblen Jan 1992

Art Education’S Movement Toward Core Curriculum Membership, Karen A. Hamblen

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art educational at this time provides a unique opportunity to observe and analyze how a field of study presents rationalizations and takes certain actions to acquire some of the more traditional characteristics of general education. The manner in which art testing has been proposed will serve as a specific example of how quantification, accountability, and predictability of learning outcomes are being used to legitimate art study as a discrete discipline with core curriculum status. To examine legitimating characteristics and processes, the following will be discussed: (a) current trends in art education, (b) characteristics of general education, (c) relationships between current …


Art Education And The Promotion Of Intercultural Understanding, F. Graeme Chalmers Jan 1990

Art Education And The Promotion Of Intercultural Understanding, F. Graeme Chalmers

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

The comparative study of art, of response to art, and the production of art forms which matter can help us to understand each other. Art has always been a powerful force in shaping our vision of the world. We need to understand each other's vision and keep our own alive. We need to combat any art-for-art's-sake attitudes that may be entrenched in schools because it is a rather peculiar notion of art and one that deters a full understanding of the role of art in a variety of contexts and cultures. In contrast, art educators who view art as a …


Collecting Women’S Art And Native American Artificates: Issues For Museum Curators, John Wilton Jan 1990

Collecting Women’S Art And Native American Artificates: Issues For Museum Curators, John Wilton

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Egalitarianism is quite possibly the education buzzword of the eighties. Egalitarianism is belabored in the literature of late that it seems inconceivable that any person or institution with any degree of social responsibility has not yet acted to realign the programs and policies of our biased past. Yet many major social groups still remain disenfranchised in the current American cultural scenario. This commentary addresses the predicament of two of those groups-women and Native Americans. While seemingly unrelated, both groups share a common dilemma: their voices, their opinions and their expressions are not yet respected in the realm of art and …


Examining Environmental Advertising Imagery Through Art Education, Tom Anderson Jan 1990

Examining Environmental Advertising Imagery Through Art Education, Tom Anderson

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

This is an examination of advertising imagery in the United States, with particular emphasis on outdoor advertising, and a proposal for an art curriculum focused on advertising awareness. The method is socially-oriented art criticism funded by some history of advertising and the psychology and philosophy of persuasive, manipulative, and pecuniary symbolism. The intent is first to decode the aesthetic environment (Barbosa, 1988) and then present a structure that helps art students to do the same. The examination begins with the object and returns to the object for validation (Ecker and Kaelin, 1970), but "ends with an understanding of personal experience, …


Another Look At The Aesthetics Of The Popular Arts, Edward G. Lawry Jan 1988

Another Look At The Aesthetics Of The Popular Arts, Edward G. Lawry

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

About twenty years ago, Abraham Kaplan delivered a lively and memorable paper to the American Philosophical Association on the aesthetics of the popular arts. Appearing during the heyday of formalist criticism of the arts in America, the clear condemnation of the popular arts in his opening paragraph surprised no one. But many things have happened in the last twenty years to make us want to rethink the casual identification of popular art with "dis-value" that Kaplan takes for granted: the rise in popularity of folk music, the transformation of rock and roll by the Beatle's and others, the advent of …


Folk Art In Art Education: Toward A General Theory Of Art As A Social Institution, James Noble Stewart Jan 1987

Folk Art In Art Education: Toward A General Theory Of Art As A Social Institution, James Noble Stewart

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

Art may be understood by considering it as a social institution in which particular artifacts are presented as candidates for appreciation. This institution includes the domains of production, distribution, and consumption, all of which are regulated according to rules and standards relating to both art objects and behavioral roles for those people involved. In the paradigm case all participants in the institution are of the same cultural group. This is important for art educators to understand because of the diversity of cultures represented in the classroom. Because a person's greatest opportunity for meaningful involvement in the arts comes from within …


The People’S Show: Promoting Critical Response, Mary Stokrocki Jan 1986

The People’S Show: Promoting Critical Response, Mary Stokrocki

Journal of Social Theory in Art Education

An exhibition of artwork done by local artists was sponsored by a midwestern university gallery to promote greater community involvement. It was open to all artists and all media for a small entrance fee. A questionnaire of provocative categories was given out at the opening to elicit spectator reactions to the work and to help them vote. They were asked to decide which works best represented the particular categories. Responses to the show were mostly positive; however, certain artworks evoked much controversy and publicity. Two artworks, bordering on the pornographic, raised the question: Is art anything one can get away …