Cybernetic Cultural Art Education: A Framework For Understanding Activity In An Art-Based Networked Public
Open Access
- Author:
- Hughes, Heather Bette
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- December 21, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Christine M Thompson, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Christine M Thompson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Yvonne Madelaine Gaudelius, Committee Member
Keith D Bailey, Committee Member
Scott P Mcdonald, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Activity Theory
Art Education
Cyber-Ethnography
Information Visualization
Social Media - Abstract:
- This study is an original exploration of an art-based online social network, or networked public, conducted to understand what is happening in the techno-cultural spaces beyond the contexts of formal schooling. Specifically, this study considers how members of the network negotiated their experiences in community through social media, and what this means for art education in the twenty-first century. As Internet technologies are being used more frequently, in more ways, by more people every day, teaching professionals need a more comprehensive understanding of how and why social media are being used and what this means for teaching and learning. This understanding is especially important for art education as a field that encompasses the study of material and visual cultures, particularly since these cultures have become increasingly digital and virtual. This study was informed by activity theory, cyber-ethnography, and information visualization, as well as by research on social media and pedagogy. For the purpose of excavating characteristics of the social network as both a previously unexplored landscape and cultural group, I collected data for the study on a daily basis over the course of five months through questionnaire responses from members of the social network, observations of the publicly visible activity happening in the social network, and analytics reports of the publicly invisible activity happening in the social network. I then processed these data into visual and conceptual models of community activity over time using iterative, layered, descriptive, inferential, qualitative analyses. The findings from this study characterize the members of the network and their interactions in the network. They include information about changes in the size and demographic properties of the social network over time, as well as trends on when, how, and why members utilized the social network. My discussion of these findings culminates in the definition of cybernetic cultural experience, cybernetic cultural systems, and pedagogies of convenience, relevance, engagement, and possibility, which together outline the novel idea of cybernetic cultural art education. This idea reflects the relationships perceived within the framework of contemporary techno-cultural spaces beyond the contexts of formal schooling, and provides a new model for understanding them. The importance of this study is that it maps a previously unmapped space for networking around art to represent the socially mediated activity through which members of an affinity group participated in opportunities for learning about art. By doing that, this study helps us understand current and potential educational experiences mediated by social technologies beyond school, and opens up opportunities for further exploration of cybernetic cultural art education.