Art PedAgogy At euroPeAn universities

Art Pedagogy at European UniversitiesInsights into art pedagogical (study) practices at universities in Europe

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www.edition-kupaed.de

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Aims And contents

BoArd of trustees

Regina Zachhalmel (Wien/A), Ruth Kunz (Bern/CH), Vera Uhl Skrivanová (Usti nad Labem/CZ), Christine Heil (Essen/D), Manfred Blohm (Flensburg/D), Christiane Herth (Paris/F), Gabriella Pataky (Budapest/H)

This series of publications aims at providing ex-emplary insights into different aspects of art pedagogical educational practices at universities. This may include:

—  Art projects within the framework of art pedagogical studies —  Projects/ envisaged projects dealing with issues of design, architecture, everyday life and their imparting —  Insights into exhibition practices and their imparting —  Art pedagogical aspects of students’ theses — Empirical research practices in the field of art pedagogy — Art pedagogical surveys conducted by students —  I nsights into seminars — Perceptions of place, subject, biography, socialization, art, media within art pedagogical educational processes.

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unintentionAl Acting A practical seminar as an introduction to Performance Art with examples of the-ory and practice held at Institut für Ästhetisch-Kulturelle Bildung (Institute for aesthetical-cultural education) of the University of Flensburg/ Germany.

Elke Mark

The practice-oriented seminar spanned several semesters and was open to students of Arts and Visual Media as well as to Master students of the study course Kultur – Sprache – Medien (Cultural Studies – Language – Media). The participants were encouraged to get involved with a changed perception of a situation with the aid of performative strategies and own creative impulses and to develop alternative acting concepts and attitudes. In an advanced seminar offered in the sub-sequent semester, videos and other digital technologies were used in order to reflect issues of physical presence and its medial translations. Positions of artists who deliberately make use of videos for their artistic way of working were deepened (among others Muda Mathis, Gary Hill, Stereoptik).

“The more I succeed in perceiving sophisticated plans, ideas and concepts just as a framework, to lea-ve them behind in the moment of my performance, of my attentive working, and to let myself be guided by intuition and encounters from one moment to another, I feel close to unintentional acting. This is a form of work which leaves room for yet unthought ideas, which creates space for the development of un-predictable processes which I follow and go along with. A knowledge that will open up for the attentive player and that finds its potential in encounters. My radius is widening, is expanding around me, finds overlapping themes, resistance and attraction poles in space and in acting. If I succeed in following this

description of the project

projectleader

contents of the seminar

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rhythm, in finding, adopting and developing the melody, a powerful coherence will unfold which at-tracts and involves the beholder – unintentionally.” (Strategies of performative working by Elke Mark)

A lot of work approaches are to be found under the umbrella of Performance Art. They excel by procedural events, physical acting and material analyses, combined with a sense of spatia-lity, atmosphere and time. Emerging temporary, often sketched and at the same time poetical and radical images and scenarios question traditional perceptional habits and strategies for ac-ting in both the protagonists and the beholders. The weekly seminar sessions always comprised practical and theoretical elements. The seminar imparted basic knowledge of the origin and the historical development of Performance Art and introduced the ways of working practiced by individual artists and their positions (among others Allan Kaprow, Rebecca Horn, Ester Ferrer, Andrea Fraser). The practical part concentrated on training one’s sense for own perceptional ha-bits, reflections of one’s own acting in (small) groups as well as the draft, the development and the realization of own individual approaches. After exercises of communication and presence, material analyses and motion studies, body (and material) were rearranged with each other and translated into actions relating to time and space.

A course – in the place of an intensive compact seminar of several days’ duration – which was offered in a weekly rhythm of two hours across the semester created a challenge. Ways had to be found to tap into the experiences made in precedent sessions in spite of the longer intervals between the individual sessions.

Exercises staged at the beginning of every session invited the students to create a free space of thinking and acting based on the awareness of their current own physical constitution and moods by using their voices, their gestures, their imagination, movements and rhythms. This was

course of action

during the

seminar sessions

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followed by an invitation to short “meaningless” improvisations with simple, ordinary materials, individually or in different group constellations, until the practical work increasingly generated the first traces of own individual work approaches. Reflection and a continuous relation to the body “weight” initiated a process in the course of which the students took up and deepened their personal “thread” of their individual repertoire of language, gesture, sound, text and humor. The almost tangible experience of a changed tension and atmosphere in the room, directly percep-tible by all participants in moments of a “successful presentation” of a performance is a reliable indicator for a fascinating event which triggers change in the sense of an “opening” of new fields of experience, which encourages experimenting and motivates a reflection of one’s own attitude. This unpredictable process starts anew with every new performance: to follow internal impulses and to achieve the utmost congruence of internal participation, focusing and perception of the environment. Last but not least it was the reflection and the exchange of experiences with regard to the performances practiced and observed in a “value-free” environment – in spite of occasional irritations, exhaustion and excessive demands, e.g. by a repeal of so-far (reliable) structures – that contributed to a fascinating and relaxed seminar.

At the end of the semester, the students invited the public to a presentation of their works at the university’s exhibition venue MODUL 1 located in the city of Flensburg and to interventions in a public space. The variety of the students’ individual positions could be made visible in a very successful way.

My interest was aroused by the description of this seminar. How can it be possible to act un-intentionally? Are not all our actions linked to a certain intention? And what is Performance Art after all? This field of arts had so far not yet been in my focus. So I was simply curious what this seminar would hold for me. In the course of the seminar we dealt with different performance artists and Elke introduced the topic with ease. “How do you feel today? Please underline your condition with a gesture.” Well, how do I feel? What would I like to express and am I really ready to share this with the others? At the beginning of the sessions I felt a certain kind of reluctance. But this vanished as time went by. I think it is thrilling that a space was created which encoura-ges to try out oneself, to see how the effects are changing as soon as details are altered or when

students’ comments

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something is consequently repeated. Outsiders would perhaps call this unintentional acting. I, however, think that there is an intention behind all this, if only the intention to try out myself. (Katharina Sophie Herr)

The weekly seminar session always started with the elementary question for the individual con-dition: To find a form of expression of “How are you?” seemed to be dreadful during the first seconds. However, this exercise yielded a sense for the space and one’s own body and so the question could be answered without considering the others. Elke Mark developed framework conditions by theoretical and historical insertions in the field of Performance Art. By looking at other artists, at their dogmas and agendas, we understood that we had to place our own con-cerns above our shamefulness. Thus the reflection is on us and can be expressed without any embarrassment. I think it is wonderful to offer such an opportunity in the otherwise quite static environment of a university and to offer free space to the students to be sensitized for one’s own physical condition – and for the Performing Arts. (Liza Manczyk)

Arno Böhler, Christian Herzog, Alice Pechriggl, (Hrsg.) (2013): Korporale Performanz. Zur bedeutungsgenerierenden Dimension des Leibes.

Barbara Engelbach (2001): Zwischen Body Art und Videokunst.

Körper und Video in der Aktionskunst um 1970

Erika Fischer-Lichte (2004): Ästhetik des Performativen.

Christian Janecke (2004): Performance und Bild. Performance als Bild.

Elisabeth Jappe (1993): Performance, Ritual, Prozess. Handbuch der Aktionskunst in Europa.

Jens Kertscher, Dieter Mersch (Hrsg.) (2003): Performativität und Praxis.

Gabriele Klein, Wolfgang Sting (Hrsg.)(2005): Performance

Positionen zur zeitgenössischen szenischen Kunst.

Sybille Krämer (2004): Performativität und Medialität.

Marie-Luise Lange (2002): Grenzüberschreitungen. Wege zur Performance.

Sybille Peters (2011): Der Vortrag als Performance

Paul Schimmel (Hrsg.) (1998): Out of Actions: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979.

Richard Shusterman (2005): Leibliche Erfahrung in Kunst und Lebensstil.

Johannes Lothar Schröder (1990): Identität. Überschreitung - Verwandlung:

Happenings, Aktionen und Performances von bildenden Künstlern.

Uwe Wirth (2002): Performanz. Zwischen Sprachwissenschaft und Kulturwissenschaften.

Christoph Wulf, Jörg Zirfas (2007): Pädagogik des Performativen. Theorien. Methoden,

Perspektiven.

BiBliography

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The University of Flensburg is the northernmost German university with around 4500 students.

Please refer to http://www.uni-flensburg.de

The subject Arts and Visual Media leads to a Master study course for prospective teachers at

primary and secondary (I) schools. On the other hand, students of the international Master stu-

dy course “Kultur – Sprache – Medien” (Cultural studies – language – media) may also join the

courses.

External learning environments are a crucial part of the BA study course as the subject is con-

ceived as a polyvalent study course. This means that the BA study course is not exclusively

conceived as a precursor for teacher study courses. The students of the 6-semester BA study

course normally acquire 10 CP per semester in the subject Arts and Visual Media. The next step

is a 4-semester MA study course for prospective teachers (including one practical semester).

For further information on the BA Arts and Visual Media please refer to:

http://www.uni-flensburg.de/fileadmin/databox/studium/ordnungen/bdw_2013/Modulkata-

log-Kunst_BA-BDW_2013-08-14_BETA.prds

For more information on the MA study course “Kultur – Sprache – Medien” please refer to:

http://www.uni-flensburg.de/?1208

All photographs: Eva Ahlborn

information onthe university of flensBurg

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The contributions to the series “Art Pedagogy at European Universities” will as a rule be published monthly.

Board of Trustees:Regina Zachhalmel (Vienna/A), Ruth Kunz (Bern/CH), Vera Uhl Skr ivanová (Usti nad Labem CZ), Christine Heil (Essen/D), Manfred Blohm (Flensburg/D), Christiane Herth (Paris/F), Gabriella Pataky (Budapest/H)

Reponsible for the article:Elke Mark

Translation into English:Regina Spöttl, BA

Photographs in this aticle:Eva Ahlborn

Layout/Production:Werner Fütterer

ISSN 2195-0709

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