Digital Photography, Social Media, Art Museums, and Learning
Open Access
- Author:
- Lewis, Lillian Louise
- Graduate Program:
- Art Education
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 17, 2015
- Committee Members:
- Booker Stephen Carpenter Ii, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Booker Stephen Carpenter Ii, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Christine Thompson, Committee Member
Charles Richard Garoian, Committee Member
Sarah K Rich, Committee Member
Steven Douglas Rubin, Special Member
Graeme Leslie Sullivan, Special Member - Keywords:
- Digital Photography
Social Media
Art Education
Art Museums
Visual Ethnography - Abstract:
- This study explores the process of adult participants taking digital photographs of art and artifacts in art museums and the subsequent sharing of these photographs to three social media platforms in an effort to investigate the permeability of learning environments including art museums. Specifically, this study considers how participants’ encounters with works of art and the process of learning are mediated and negotiated through digital photography and social media communities and what this means for contemporary art education. This study was informed by visual ethnography, as well as by research on social media and curricula. I collected digital photography data from Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook for the study from October 2014 through November 2014 followed by e-mail invitations to potential participants to engage in semi-structured interviews. I invited all participants who completed the semi-structured interviews to participate in unstructured interviews as well. Following two participants' completion of follow-up interviews, I described and analyzed the data using visual ethnography methods. The findings from this study characterize a broad understanding of learning through the relationships between curricula and physical and digital communities. These characterizations include details regarding the process of digital photography, participant engagement with social media platforms, as well as face-to-face social engagements as they relate to learning. My discussion of the findings culminates in the definition of curricula as they influence and are influenced by adults in online and physical communities, which outlines potentials for art education at large and art museum education. This definition of curricula reflects the complexity of contemporary permeable learning environments and communities of choice and provides a framework for understanding them. The importance of this study is that it approaches data collection and analysis from a visual and participant-centered position rather than utilizing institution(s) for location of data collection and analysis. Additionally, this study lends important insights into participants’ encounters with works of art and subsequent learning as mediated through digital photography and social media platforms. Through the methodology and subsequent insights, this study supports current and potential educational experiences mediated by digital photography and communities of choice, and opens up opportunities for further research regarding permeable learning environments in art education.