OVERVIEW

For artistic education, it is considered the learning of drawing and painting techniques and anything else to express ideas and emotions. The 5 senses allow us to come into contact with the world and through the learning of expressive ways to relate to it.

We do not want to talk about artistic education today, but about creativity.

Our job is to clarify how and how a child learns about the world through the images.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The activity of the Image Education laboratory focuses on two moments, one theoretical and the other practical. With the theoretical phase we intend to investigate the concept of image in its widest meaning. With the practical phase we want to give substance to the ideas elaborated through the active manual experience both inside the laboratory and with possible external stages. We intend with image a form that contemplates art and something else that art is not, therefore a concept that considers objects dealing with art as it has always been understood but also with something that differs from this definition. Our goal is not to train artists or art critics but to formulate logical bases to understand the learning processes of children through the use of images, to clarify how and in what way a child learns to know the surrounding world to be able to help him, through creative methods, to express his own self and compare it with the world. The aim of the course is in brief to introduce a critical conscience that allows us to design basic image education courses, on the didactic level, for learning and cognitive evolution both for the nursery school and for the primary.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

For artistic education it has always been considered the learning of drawing, painting, construction and other techniques to learn also to express one's feelings as well as to know in a more detailed way the panorama of Cultural Heritage.

Today we more properly intend to investigate the meaning of education to the image, because "image" is, or has become, a larger and more comprehensive concept of what "art" is.

The contemporary language of visual art has taken on such a wide and diverse dimension, beyond any rule and code, that any aspect of mass creative production has the license to be able to define itself as artistic.

For clarity with respect to the poetic, philosophical, stylistic and historical content of the art product it is, from the critical point of view, more correct to talk abut image, as this concept does not have the aesthetic and ethical implications it has, or should have , the art.

It is with this dimension of the image that we must confront ourselves; a form that contemplates art and something else that art is not, therefore a concept that considers objects dealing with art as it has always been understood but also something that differs from this definition.

We therefore think of visual communications that refer to functional values such as advertising or signs that enter into everyday linguistic jargon without aesthetic or ethical value but valid in terms of communication.

In short we can say that when we refer to the image as an art we are expressing a  judgment value, whereas considering the image as an abstract concept that visualizes a form, whatever it may be, we can avoid expressing aesthetic or poetic or ethical judgments .

The student's learning must therefore highlight a critical conscience that allows him to read the images in their most objective value and the ability to arouse, with their use, a communication that contemplates both the objective and emotional aspects of its content, this in order to develop the logical-cognitive abilities of their future students.

TEACHING METHODS

Classroom lessons - laboratory with use of pc for projection of cards with Power point program.

Classroom activities for the production of manual graphic experiences for the construction of didactic images with the use of graphic-pictorial material.

Production of an essay of about 30 pages, through the critical processing of images belonging to one's personal experiences.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The lessons will be held in a classroom suitable to contain a group of 25 people respecting the health indications following Covid 19. Therefore some activities will be carried out with the changes relating to the contingent situation.

The activity of the Image Education laboratory focuses on two distinct but interconnected moments, one theoretical, the other practical.

The theoretical phase intends to investigate the concept of image in its broadest sense, thus including Gestalt which go beyond the concept of visual art according to traditional canons; this through the study and comparison of the signs of rock art, children's drawing, the art of madness and the expressive modalities of contemporary art.

With the practical phase, we want to give concrete form to the ideas developed through effective manual experience with the production of creative graphic, pictorial and plastic material both within the laboratory and with any stages in educational workshops present in some city museums.

1- U.D. Meaning of L.E.I. and setting the work on the image.      

Art and image, connections and differences. Comparisons and considerations on the image and its meaning in relation to the concept of art. The total image. Practical theoretical indications on the construction of a book of significant images and their critical definition. On the basis of this work the evaluation of the students will be formulated in part.  The importance of drawing in the evolution of the child. The stadial theories. Luquet, Lowenfwld and Brittain. Practical phase: 1- self-portrait with pen, time 10 '. 2- self-portrait with pencil and rubber, time 10 '. 3- possible correction of the drawing produced on a sheet of gloss overlaid with felt-tip pen, time 10 '. 4- self-portrait with closed eyes, with pen, time 10 '. 5- self-portrait with an unusual hand, with a pen, time 10 '. Comparisons and considerations.

2- U.D. Children's drawing in their physical and mental development. The stages of development and their representations in nursery and primary schools. Kellogg's "formal" school compares with Lowenfeld's "psychosocial" school. The birth of culture and conceptuality in the graffiti of homo sapiens. Considerations on the sign and the form through comparisons between the stellar theories of Kellog and the proposals of Anati and Leroi-Gourhan. Pictograms, ideograms, psychograms and mitograms. The tale of graffiti. Practical phase, in pairs. The concept of Chimera; animal man association in the design of children and Paleolithics. Anthropozoomorphic elements to be reconstructed in a visual representation using collage and mixed media.

3- U.D. The creativity factor in the design of the sick. Self-reflection and care linked to the release of energy through the creative act. Considerations on the psychopathological sign. Art Brut. Comparisons with elements of the language of modern art.  Practical phase, in pairs. Personal verification of projective tests. Visual writing: creating sentences and transforming them using the rebus formula.

4- U.D. Modern and contemporary art; his birth as liberation from the canons and the official rules. The new materials, new senses and meanings of the work. The new languages. Practical phase: The shadows cast to life size: collective work in groups of 4 participants with references to techniques related to historical artistic movements.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

These are the recommended reference texts, although some are out of print. In my lecture notes, which I will publish after the lecture, a summary of the concepts elaborated by the cited authors can be found.

As for Munari and Dorfles, republished, the acquisition is suggested.

THE ART OF THE SPOLES AND IRREGULAR ART, G. Mangiapane, A.M. Pecci, V. Porcelain (edited by) Art of margins. Art Brut collections, relational creativity, education to difference

Milano: Franco Angeli, 2013.

Wiktor Lowenfeld, W. Lambert Brittan - Creativity and mental development, Ed. Giunti Barbera 1984
  R. Kellogg Analysis of child art, Il Punto Emme edizioni. 1979, Milan.
A. Leroi-Gourhan, The roots of the world, Jaca Book, 1983
E. Anati, The roots of culture, Jaca Book 1992.
E. Anati, Origins of Art and Conceptuality. Jaca Book, 1988.
Claire Golomb, L’arte dei bambini, R. Cortina Ed., Milano 2004
Bruno Munari, Fantasy, Laterza Economics, Bari Rome 2017

 Gillo Dorfles, The becoming of the arts, Reprints Einaudi, 1975, Turin.
 Gillo Dorfles,  Fatti e Fattoidi, The pseudoevents in art and society, Neri Pozzi 1997, Vicenza.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

GIACOMO MONTANARI (President)

CARLO MERELLO (President Substitute)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

 October, on a date to be defined

Class schedule

VISUAL EDUCATION

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

Discussion on what produced during the teaching of the subject, questions on the theoretical program carried out, evaluation of the graphic-critical essay, evaluation of the laboratory activity.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

Logical critical capacity, general culture on the topics covered in the laboratory, expressive and communicative skills, ability to relate topics belonging to different cultural contexts, ability to search and acquire information independently from sources not indicated and operational experiences.

Exam schedule

FURTHER INFORMATION

It will evaluate the work produced in the laboratory and at home based on the instructions given by the teacher