How do artist reflect? Relevance and responsibility for art research and education within the academy

Critical reflection is seen as a defining aspect of artistic research. For teaching and learning reflective practice has similarly become a keyword within the art academy – at least in the UK.  This presentation will first briefly survey how reflection currently manifests as part of teaching and learning in the art school, from BA to PhD.

Within the curriculum structure, fine art courses often have both explicit models for reflective engagement, ranging from learning journals, to self-reflective tutorial forms, to less explicit models where there is an expectation of forms of reflection articulated through a particular contextualisation of practice, or engagement with practice.

These models are generally based on the idea of a singular student/practitioner engaging with their own practice and reflecting on their (learning/research) process. These models of reflection are thus generally focused on learning or research outcomes which can be assessed/evaluated, and which can thus potentially be instrumentalised by an education/research institution.

The kinds of reflective practices undertaken by artists are not always the same as the more generic models found in teaching and learning theory and this is crucial when introducing and evaluating structures for reflection within the art school. This raises questions in terms of relevance and responsibility. Who is the art community primarily responsible to, themselves, or to the (research) community at large? And equally, whom might responsible art research be relevant for, and why? Through looking at the notion of reflection within an art pedagogical context, and the issues of potential instrumentalisation this raises, this presentation intends to explore the underlying issues of instrumentalisation that reflection, as well as expectations of relevance and responsibility, can encounter.

Katrine Hjelde, Associate Lecturer, Chelsea College of Art and Design