This forum revisits a Special Issue entitled ‘Politicising Artistic Pedagogies: Publics, Spaces, Teachings’ published in late 2021 in the journal Art & the Public Sphere, edited by Ian Bruff and Mel Jordan. The special issue sought to disrupt more conventional understandings of art, politics and pedagogy through the deliberate juxtaposition of contributions that would not normally be seen together.
The Call for contributions to the special issue explicitly adhered to inclusive and pluralistic understandings of art, politics and pedagogy. For example, art takes a number of sensory and aesthetic forms, ranging from traditional representations such as painting through to more somatic experiences produced via contemporary technology; all aspects of life are political and not just those that are part of the ‘politics’ cage of government, elections, parties etc.; and we are engaged in educational relationships in all aspects of life, meaning that questions of pedagogy are entwined with societal hierarchies of knowledge. The response to the Call was so large and impressive that we agreed to create two special issues, with this first collection gravitating towards broader, societal themes and questions (the second, which has more of an art discipline/practice focus, will be published in mid-2022).
The blog posts draw on articles which speak to the special issue’s key themes of publics, spaces, teachings: for example, on questions of public/social participation and potential politicisation through artistic practice; on the entanglements between urban built environments, state power and capital accumulation; and on the relationship between our pedagogical commitments and teaching practices.
This forum features posts from:
- Ian Bruff and Mel Jordan, ‘Juxtaposing, discomfiting and disrupting conventional understandings of art, politics and pedagogy’
- Adam David Morton, ‘Memorialising Monuments’
- Maja Zonjić, Caitlin Baker-Wanhalla, Serena Cooper, Olivia Dobbs, Romy Gellen and Charlotte Hawkins, ‘Period Poverty and Pedagogy of Care’
- Ian Bruff, ‘Living by Our Senses: Extreme Metal Music and Critical Thinking’
- Matt Davies, ‘Political tactics, Pedagogical tactics: subsuming labour in Perdido Street Station and in the classroom’
- Antoinette Burchill, ‘Conflictual sociability? Protest as a paradoxical practice’
The set image reproduces El Lissitzky, ‘Teyashim’ (Four billy goats) [1922]