Working Group Theory of artistic thinking (chaired by Carl-Peter Buschkühle)

What is meant by ‘visual literacy’ and what is the relation of this term to the fields of aesthetic and art education? What are the educational challenges and resources of learning in the visual realm and what goals should it achieve? What competences are significant for an education in ‘visual literacy’ and how can appropriate learning take place in this regard?

The group will reflect these questions under leading sub-themes:

– Critical review of the term ‘visual literacy’ in regard to the extend of learning in aesthetic and artistic contexts

– The question of art as a special aesthetic field and its relation to media-images and design, including the question of significant elements of artistic thinking and its specific contributions to education

– The relation of art, aesthetics, and ethics. This will serve as a first focus of discussion, because these contexts will connect visual learning with possible influences it may have in educating personal and societal competencies of the individual.

– Revising the structural model of competences as presented in the prototype of the Common European Framework of Reference for Visual Literacy (CEFR_VL) based on results of the reflections in the theory group

Members of the group are preparing a workshop on the InSEA-congress in June 2018 at the Aalto University Helsinki about ‘Art Education and Ethics’. The next meeting of the group will be on the ENViL-convention in Paris in March 2018. Currently a publication about ‘Art, Ethics, Education’ is in preparation.

If you are interested in collaboration, please contact Carl-Peter Buschkühle.

Members of the Working Group: Dennis Atkinson (em. Goldsmith College London, UK), John Baldacchino (University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA), Carl-Peter Buschkühle (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany), Bernard Darras (University Paris I/Sorbonne, France), Marc Fritzsche (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany), Maria Letsiou (University of Thessaloniki, Greece), Martina Paatela-Nieminen (University of Helsinki, Finland), Diederik Schönau (em. ARTEZ, Netherlands), Raphael Vella (University of Malta), Ernst Wagner (Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Germany)

cpbuschkuehle@aol.com