The contemporary art education as (un)doing in the era of eco-social crisis
Keywords:
ekososiaalinen oikeudenmukaisuus, individualismi, jatkuva kasvu, keskusta-ajattelu, kulutuskeskeisyys, mekanismi, nykytaide, rationalismi, taidekasvatus, välinellistäminenAbstract
This article investigates how contemporary art education can challenge modern assumptions – rationalism, individualism, instrumentalism, consumerism, mechanism and the idea of continuous progress as well as centric thinking – and that way work as EcoJustice education. The EcoJustice framework can help us to investigate how the social and ecological problems have the same roots in modernist thinking, and it also provides tools to challenge the modernist concepts of human and reality. First, the article examines how a multi-sensory and collective art project can problematize the overpowering effects of rationalism and
individualism and help us to grow towards a more holistic worldview. Second, the article investigates the possibilities of immaterial art and the processual nature of art in an attempt to challenge instrumentalism and consumerism, and in contrast to highlight the intrinsic value of things. Third, the article suggests that art education should be defined again, in the way that it does not stress the instrumentalist attitude and the belief to continuous progress towards art making and learning, but in contrast, it would encourage people to throw themselves to unknown and gain new understanding through the experiences. Fourth, the article investigates how contemporary art education teaches criticality towards anthropocentrism, androcentrism, and ethnocentrism and that way helps people to value diversity and mutuality in both people and natural environment. Finally, the article suggests that the potentiality of contemporary art education lies in the alternative models of thinking and the practice of undoing, in order to build a more sustainable way of life.
