Résumés
Abstract
In the Fall of 2021, STEM researchers were invited to participate in a series of SSHRC-funded workshops delivered at the University of Guelph’s School of Fine Art and Music (SOFAM), where they examined a work of abstract art drawn from the SOFAM Print Study Collection (Reflex Victory by Chrysanne Stathacos, lithograph, 1979). The project’s objective was to determine if methodologies used in the analysis and interpretation of art are helpful to researchers who use visual observation as a primary method of collecting data. Our findings indicate that over the duration of the one-hour workshop, participants demonstrated greater confidence in identifying what lay in their fields of vision with precision, exhibited greater comfort in pursuing open-ended inquiry, and became more conscious of the mutable and subjective qualities of their looking. This report shares the story of our experiment and presents our preliminary findings on the value of arts-based methodologies in developing skills in data collection and analysis. This research contributes to the discourse on the role visual art can play in practices of teaching, learning, and research that extend beyond the studio, museum, and gallery space.
Keywords:
- STEAM,
- Arts-Based Research,
- Critical Visuality,
- Visual Priority,
- Interdisciplinary/Transdisciplinary Pedagogy
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Parties annexes
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to contributors of the 2019 Nexus for Innovation event and our STEM workshop participants who generously shared their time and expertise. We also gratefully acknowledge the funding bodies that provided support for the study, SOFAM administrators Nicola Ferguson and Barbara Merrill, and the McLaughlin Library’s Repository Analyst Carrie Breton and Data Analyst Nada Hafez.
Biographical notes
Dr Christina Smylitopoulos (Associate Professor, School of Fine Art and Music) is an award-winning researcher at the University of Guelph and Director-Curator of the SOFAM Print Study Collection. She received the UGFA Distinguished Professor Award for Teaching Excellence (2019), the College of Arts Teaching Excellence Award (2014), and was named Post-Secondary Art Educator of the Year (2023-24) by the Ontario Art Education Association for her work on the pedagogical capacities of arts-based methodologies.
Sarah Mousseau recently graduated from the University of Guelph with an MA in Art History and Visual Culture. She was awarded a SSHRC CGS-M and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship for her research examining the development of identity-based narratives and alcohol consumption in British and settler-colonial visual culture. She is starting her PhD in Art History at McGill University in the fall of 2024. Sarah enjoys spending time in creative pursuits including printmaking, painting, and collage.
Nakita Byrne-Mamahit is a Project Coordinator at the University of Guelph's Research Innovation Office, focusing on Commercialization Outcomes. With a background in B.A. English and Art History and an M.A. in Art History and Visual Culture from the University of Guelph, she promotes University intellectual property. Nakita leverages her experience from visual competencies workshops to bridge gaps in effectively communicating and distributing research-generated intellectual property to the public.
Sarah Oatley is a future educator who advocates for the integration of arts-based methodologies into STEM. She has conducted material and archival research in several Canadian collections and contributed to various exhibitions of fashion, art, and history. Earning her M.A. in Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Guelph, Sarah is interested in the relationships between art, craft, and identity and incorporates materiality into her lessons through object-based learning.
Anna Sutton worked as an undergraduate research assistant to Dr Christina Smylitopoulos at the University of Guelph. During this time, she worked on the study “Building a Laboratory of Visual Competencies: Interdisciplinary Critical Appraisal and Observational Practice” and organized the “Nexus for Innovation: Extended practices of Art Collections” international workshop. A true champion of STEAM, Anna completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History at the University of Guelph and is now pursuing a doctorate degree in naturopathic medicine.
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