Papers by Jan van Boeckel
Introduction to Artizein Special on Art, Ecology and Education Jan van Boeckel Guest editor To me... more Introduction to Artizein Special on Art, Ecology and Education Jan van Boeckel Guest editor To me, one the most compelling expressions of art, ecology and education coming together happened when I attended a lecture, a decade or more ago, by Timo Jokela, a Finnish professor in art education and environmental artist. He gave a presentation on his work, addressing his audience from a platform. In front of him was a glass of water. "This here," he started his presentation, pointing his finger at the water, "is part of my environment." He then raised the glass to his mouth and took a deep sip. He paused a moment. "Now it is part of me." With his performance or, if you will, artistic intervention, Jokela made something clear. The self and environment are always intertwined and inseparable. I found it, in all its simplicity, a great teaching, a compelling expression of the idea that ecology is not something "out there." My own initiation and immersion in the field happened, I now see in retrospect, when I facilitated a course titled "Art in place, linking art and ecology" at Schumacher College in the United Kingdom, in 2006, with guest teachers Antony Gormley, Peter London and Peter Randall-Page. The grounding idea was that aesthetic and ecological sensibilities are two sides of the same coin. I was drawn by the following description: "Nature has always inspired artists, and art offers a medium for a deeper environmental connection. This course will offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between humans and the natural world … the union between art and ecology." In this new issue of Artizein, the triad of art, education, and the natural environment is the central theme for reflection. Contributing authors and artists present ways in which artistic practices can be a starting point, in its own right, to connect with the earth. Through such approaches, new understandings can be gained, including about our self. The authors dwell upon the experiences that have been gained so far. What are the pedagogical underpinnings that can be articulated? And what would be the relevance of facilitating and promoting such encounters in an age of nature-deficit disorder and climate fear? Which challenges come up when participants, through art, are encouraged to open their senses more fully to the world, at a time when psychic numbing and cognitive dissociation seem to be the default mode for many people, faced with the overwhelming news of the scale of the ecological crisis? This issue of Artizein offers a wide range of perspectives. There are 1 van Boeckel: The World Breathing Me
Introduction to Artizein Special on Art, Ecology and Education Jan van Boeckel Guest editor To me... more Introduction to Artizein Special on Art, Ecology and Education Jan van Boeckel Guest editor To me, one the most compelling expressions of art, ecology and education coming together happened when I attended a lecture, a decade or more ago, by Timo Jokela, a Finnish professor in art education and environmental artist. He gave a presentation on his work, addressing his audience from a platform. In front of him was a glass of water. "This here," he started his presentation, pointing his finger at the water, "is part of my environment." He then raised the glass to his mouth and took a deep sip. He paused a moment. "Now it is part of me." With his performance or, if you will, artistic intervention, Jokela made something clear. The self and environment are always intertwined and inseparable. I found it, in all its simplicity, a great teaching, a compelling expression of the idea that ecology is not something "out there." My own initiation and immersion in the field happened, I now see in retrospect, when I facilitated a course titled "Art in place, linking art and ecology" at Schumacher College in the United Kingdom, in 2006, with guest teachers Antony Gormley, Peter London and Peter Randall-Page. The grounding idea was that aesthetic and ecological sensibilities are two sides of the same coin. I was drawn by the following description: "Nature has always inspired artists, and art offers a medium for a deeper environmental connection. This course will offer an opportunity to explore the relationship between humans and the natural world … the union between art and ecology." In this new issue of Artizein, the triad of art, education, and the natural environment is the central theme for reflection. Contributing authors and artists present ways in which artistic practices can be a starting point, in its own right, to connect with the earth. Through such approaches, new understandings can be gained, including about our self. The authors dwell upon the experiences that have been gained so far. What are the pedagogical underpinnings that can be articulated? And what would be the relevance of facilitating and promoting such encounters in an age of nature-deficit disorder and climate fear? Which challenges come up when participants, through art, are encouraged to open their senses more fully to the world, at a time when psychic numbing and cognitive dissociation seem to be the default mode for many people, faced with the overwhelming news of the scale of the ecological crisis? This issue of Artizein offers a wide range of perspectives. There are 1 van Boeckel: The World Breathing Me
The research group Art & Sustainability at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences strives to su... more The research group Art & Sustainability at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences strives to support artists and designers who aim to enter this space of vulnerability by providing tools and a dynamic frame of reference, with the expectation that these may be of assistance when they contribute to the ongoing discourse and work for change. Moreover, it is the expectation that they will profit from the ability to "invite in the unknown" in their professional practices. The research programme Earthbound is based on a coherent philosophy that consists of the elements soil, soul, and society. At the heart of it is a recognition and affirmation of the inner and
Research in Arts and Education, Dec 1, 2010
We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have fronta... more We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have frontal brain damage. You get very tidy. Tidiness is symptomatic of brain damage. Creativity, on the other hand, is symptomatic of a fairly whole brain, and is usually a disordered affair. The tolerance for disorder is one of the very few healthy signs in life. If you can tolerate disorder, you are probably healthy. Creativity is seldom tidy (Mollison, 1981).
The Landscape of the Lines of the HandImagining the Storied Memories of Sensorial Experience of Place
Sustainable development goals series, 2022
If we want new generations to care for the natural environment and their cultural heritage, then ... more If we want new generations to care for the natural environment and their cultural heritage, then encouraging them to foster ‘a sense of place’ may be of key importance. What does it mean to be attached to a certain location, a landscape, a watershed, an ecosystem? Bearing in mind that the developing discourse on sustainability more and more value is being attributed to ‘culture’, its so-called ‘fourth pillar’– next to ecology, economy and society – it can be argued that an important additional and often overlooked dimension of sustainability is how we can encourage people to relate and feel connected to places in nature, to landscapes – and maybe most specifically to places with a high value in biodiversity. This relationship may undergo deep changes in different phases of one’s life. The felt bond, at any moment, is partly informed by prior experiences and shaped through our memory. What do we carry with us as a “storied remembrance” of places we have been before and the sensory perceptions we have felt there? And can such places in nature and “memories of the senses” (Seremetakis, 1994) be evoked through art and imagination? In this chapter I unpack the artistic group activity of, what I have called, “The lines of the hand”. This artful workshop foregrounds the evocation of our stored and storied memory of sensory experience in natural landscapes (van Boeckel, 2013). Subsequently, as a practicing artist and teacher in art-based environmental education, I ask the question what it may mean for people to understand issues of sustainability through art. How can such work help in the future? I will reflect on this from a viewpoint of a pedagogy of ‘wrong-footing’ – my term for working with the unexpected, inviting in the unforeseen.
Envigogika
Popis umělecké aktivity, jejímž cílem je vymodelovat z hlíny „chybějící článek“ v procesu evoluce... more Popis umělecké aktivity, jejímž cílem je vymodelovat z hlíny „chybějící článek“ v procesu evoluce. Postup vyvinul Jan van Boeckel (inspirován původní aktivitou z dílny Antonyho Gormleye) www.janvanboeckel.wordpress.com.
Impact Podcast over klimaatadaptatie: Klimaat(adaptatie), Gedrag en Kunst
Researching Art and Science in Teaching, IMT-Rapport Nr. 44/2011
Inauguration Jan van Boeckel, May 10, 2021
The research group Art & Sustainability at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences strives to su... more The research group Art & Sustainability at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences strives to support artists and designers who aim to enter this space of vulnerability by providing tools and a dynamic frame of reference, with the expectation that these may be of assistance when they contribute to the ongoing discourse and work for change. Moreover, it is the expectation that they will profit from the ability to "invite in the unknown" in their professional practices. The research programme Earthbound is based on a coherent philosophy that consists of the elements soil, soul, and society. At the heart of it is a recognition and affirmation of the inner and
Lectio precursoria : The role of artistic process in connecting to the natural environment
Synnyt Origins: Finnish studies in art, Aug 16, 2013
Based on his personal experience, the author aims to examine some of the key competencies that he... more Based on his personal experience, the author aims to examine some of the key competencies that he considers essential for facilitators of group activities in arts-based environmental education (AEE). In this, participants are encouraged to enhance their sensibility to the environment through artistic approaches. A case in point is a workshop called “making a little me”. Its participants sculpt – while keeping their eyes closed – a clay version of their own seated body in miniature. When guiding such a workshop, it is of critical importance, according to the author, to encourage the participants to suspend their judgments on the art works of others. The facilitator should make every effort to provide a safe environment by practicing “holding space”.
Culture and sustainability are two complex concepts which have been defined across many disciplin... more Culture and sustainability are two complex concepts which have been defined across many disciplines. Still, in both cases, no common definition has been accepted, nor can we say that the studies of these issues have been complete. On the contrary, culture and sustainability will always be relevant issues for analysis, because they strongly affect our daily lives. To determine the ways in which culture and sustainability are interconnected in this rapidly changing world is, obviously, a difficult task to undertake. Even though the editors argue that culture has rarely been central to discussions around sustainability, this ends up being less relevant. The reason is that the book is primarily about new models of transdisciplinary thinking in sustainable development.
Environmental Education Research, 2014
Acknowledgements List of figures Preface PART I 1. The last still to have known such things Aalto... more Acknowledgements List of figures Preface PART I 1. The last still to have known such things Aalto University publication series Doctoral Dissertations 73/2013 2nd edition 2014 School of Arts, Design and Architecture Aalto ARTS Books Helsinki books.aalto.fi
Research in Arts and Education
We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have fronta... more We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have frontal brain damage. You get very tidy. Tidiness is symptomatic of brain damage. Creativity, on the other hand, is symptomatic of a fairly whole brain, and is usually a disordered affair. The tolerance for disorder is one of the very few healthy signs in life. If you can tolerate disorder, you are probably healthy. Creativity is seldom tidy (Mollison, 1981).
Research in Arts and Education
A Pedagogy of Attention to the Light in the Eyes
Knowing from the Inside, 2022
When seeking ways to respond more adequately to the rapid and deep social and ecological transfor... more When seeking ways to respond more adequately to the rapid and deep social and ecological transformations that are taking place in the world, a place to start may be to make an effort to envisage a very different type of education. Not one that is predominantly based on transmission of existing knowledge, but perhaps a form of teaching and learning that foregrounds how we can persevere under and engage with conditions of radical uncertainty. In more open-ended modalities of education, participants tend not to know on forehand what the outcomes and expected deliverables will be. Such approaches may cause a sense of unease because of a presumed lack of control, of not having a set frame of guidelines and clear target objectives. In this chapter the author suggests that a way of achieving this may be through employing arts-based approaches with groups of participants. His experience is that it is essential that participants can anticipate and trust that their experience will be safely contained and held by the teachers and facilitators concerned, when they are encouraged to allow for a state of vulnerability while surrendering to the group process. Such artful exploring can be most rewarding if it ignites curiosity, prompts excitement, and even may cause participants to be overcome by a sense of wonder. Then they may attain a sense of being ‘fully present’ in and attentive to the unfolding open-ended process. To the author, such a state of enthusiastic anticipation of (and subsequent participation in) the artful educational event is a key feature of what he calls “a pedagogy of attention to the light in the eyes.” With this somewhat poetic notion he aims to express a visceral, for the most part tacit feature of which one “knows that is there, when it is there”. It is a quality that, along with other qualities – resists definition. When teachers feel grounded enough to embark and guide their students on a journey into new terrain, and they have little or no prior idea of where the undertaking will take both them and their students, they may experience and express a degree of enthusiasm that they are about to try out something new and daring, which may also fail. This excitement may show itself in a sparkling in their eyes. In such cases this ‘excitement-through-engagement’ can be a trigger to produce the ignition of a matching vivacity in the eyes of the student-participants. If this happens, a new field of potentiality may seem to open up, in which things are possible which simply may have been considered unattainable previously. The ‘radiance of light’ of the one may generate an answering light in the eye of the other, which then seems to reflect back into the eyes of others, causing a dissemination through mutual reinforcement. The author, on basis of his own experience, tries to explore this phenomenon, contextualizes it through a meditation on the pre-modern idea of sight originating from the eye into the world.
Ergens tussen de berg en de mier
naturearteducation.org
... Ons visioen is simpel: We hunkeren naar de dag dat Grizzly-beren in Chihuahua [noord-Mexico] ... more ... Ons visioen is simpel: We hunkeren naar de dag dat Grizzly-beren in Chihuahua [noord-Mexico] een ononderbroken verbinding onderhouden met Grizzlies in Alaska; dat populaties van de GrijzeWolf zich voordoen van New Mexico tot in Groenland; dat grote onafgebroken ...
Popis umělecké aktivity, jejímž cílem je vymodelovat z hlíny "chybějící článek" v procesu evoluce... more Popis umělecké aktivity, jejímž cílem je vymodelovat z hlíny "chybějící článek" v procesu evoluce. Postup vyvinul Jan van Boeckel (inspirován původní aktivitou z dílny Antonyho Gormleye) www.janvanboeckel.wordpress.com.
Report of a one week seminar with six participants held in Greece in December 2010. All participa... more Report of a one week seminar with six participants held in Greece in December 2010. All participants are engaged in the fields of art, science and teaching. The participants did exercises together, reflected on the processes and held presentations for the group on topics relevant for the field. How can a coalescence of art and science become teaching tools which can widen our experience in both disciplines? Can an interdisciplinary art-science approach strengthen teaching for sustainability?
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Papers by Jan van Boeckel