Connecting Art, Learning, and Creativity

National Art Education Association
Connecting Art, Learning, and Creativity: A Case for Curriculum Integration Author(s): Julia Marshall Source: Studies in Art Education, Vol. 46, No. 3 (Spring, 2005), pp. 227-241 Published by: National Art Education Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3497082 . Accessed: 29/03/2014 03:50
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2005 by the Copyright ArtEducation Association National
Studiesin Art Education
A Journal of Issues andResearch

2005, 46(3), 227-241
ConnectingArt, Learning,and Creativity: A Case for Curriculum Integration

Julia Marshall
SanFrancisco StateUniversity
The author that'substantive' artintegration with contempoharmonizes argues for teaching andrepresents a strategy rary postmodern thoughtin arteducation fromcognitive scienceand artin a postmodern theories way.Bringing together the author showshow connection andprojection), metaphor theory(specifically thatconnectart substantive andcreativity. promotes Images integration learning of substantive in postmodern and sciencearegivenas examples art integration thatreveal mentalprocesses andcreate andinsightthrough conceptual meaning These imageshelp teachers and studentsunderstand the conceptual 'collage.' basis for much postmodernart and give educatorsclues to cognition and creative thatcanguide,deepen,andupdate in artmaking and processes practice in teaching. Postmodern theorists endorse an art education where art is contextualized, boundaries between domains are blurred, and emphasis is placed on content in relation to form (Efland, Freedman & Stuhr, 1996; Hutchens & Suggs, 1997; Clark, 1996). Integration of art with other subjects is congruent with these tenets of postmodernism because it relates ideas to form (shifting the focus of art education away from formal concerns to meaning-making), crosses disciplinary boundaries to reveal conceptual connections, and locates art in context with other disciplines. Most importantly for teachers, integration represents a concrete and feasible approach to teaching art in a postmodern way. Even with its attention to content, context, and boundary-crossing, postmodern art education has not explored fully the integration of art with academic curriculum as a practice congruent with postmodern theory. However, the topic of integration is slowly entering contemporary discourse in art education. We see this in 'issues-based art education,' which is a form of integration in which "social, political, and cultural issues become subjects to address in the teaching of art" (Gaudelius & Spiers, 2002, p. 3). Integration is also emerging in art education literature that explores learning and cognition in light of postmodern and visual culture theory. Freedman (2003) and Efland (2002) examine how new findings and theories from cognitive science are shaping our understanding of learning and epistemology. These theories describe learning as essentially a situated, socially-constructed, and culturally mediated process of making meaning. They emphasize the connections between the body, context, experience, culture, emotion, and high-order thinking (Freedman, 2003) and view the mind as an integrated system that unites symbol-processing
Correspondence regardingthis article may be sent to the author at the Art Department, San FranciscoState University, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco,CA 94132. E-mail: jmarsh@sfsu.edu
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with sociocultural factors(Efland,2002). Conventionalnotions of discipline-based epistemology are overthrown by these conceptions of learning. Knowledge is no longer thought of as divided into discrete domains, but is seen in terms of an integratedsystem (Freedman2003, Efland, 2002). Freedman(2003) finds justificationin these theoriesfor the embraceof visual cultureas a conceptualgroundingfor art learning and views thematic/conceptually-based curriculumas a methodologyfor in art context. Efland (2002) also finds justification for exploring as curriculum a of integration way advancing learning: If the aim of educationis to fully activatethe cognitivepotential of the learner, wayshaveto be found to integrate knowledgefrom to achieve a fuller than would be manysubjects understanding content treated in isolation. 103) providedby (p. hub for inteEfland(2002) finds art to be a propitious,learning-friendly gratedlearningbecauseart is the location where subjectiveand cultural and practiced. aremost openlycelebrated interpretation (meaning-making) in relationship to cognition.The Efland(2002) also explorescreativity subject of creativityis where postmodernismand cognitive psychology may appearto be least compatible. While some postmodern theorists challengethe very existenceof creativity(Barrett,1997), cognitivescientists persist in researchingit in order to understandand demystify it. Howeverdisparate may appear,the cognitivescienceand postmodernism with mesh of science ultimately postmodernism in findings cognitive their challenge to the romantic modernist concept of creativity as a carriedout by an isolated individual, magicalprocessof self-expression and suggest that creativityexists in its culturalcontext, often entailing recycling, appropriation,reframingor adapting existing ideas to new concepts. This articlefurtherexploresideas from cognitive science and cognitive linguistics (metaphor theory) to help us understand some and specific contributionsintegrationbrings to learning,understanding in the postmodernartclassroom. creativity to show the connectedness is organized "Atrulyintegrated curriculum is organizedin ways that curriculum of things, while an interdisciplinary reinforce the separateand discrete characterof academic disciplines" (Clark,1997, p. 35). Clark'sconcept of integrationis in alignmentwith what I will referto here as 'substantive integraintegration.'Substantive social tion resistssimply depictingsubjectmatteroutside art, addressing context. Substantive issues throughart or placing art in its sociocultural than these applicais a pedagogythat goes deeperand broader integration tions; it involves making conceptualconnections that underlie art and other disciplines.It revealssomethingof the core principles,structures, and practices of fields by moving beyond the most concrete level to disciplines),to a more abstract (depictingsubjectsmattersparticular
SubstantiveCurriculumIntegration
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to level (tappinginto the conceptsthat underliethe disciplinesaddressed) the most profound and conceptual level (revealing concepts that are and the mind common to art, the disciplineswith which it is integrated, in general). Connecting art to other areasof inquiry in a substantive,integrative the foundationsof eachdiscipline,but alsomakesfor way not only reveals sound pedagogy because it: (a) is congruent with the way the mind works-how we think and learn; (b) highlightsand promoteslearning, especially learning for understanding and transfer;and (c) catalyzes creativity. We find a strong theoretical rationale for these claims in constructivist theoriesof learningand some of the new thinkingin cognitive sciencethat addresses learningand creativity. Connection-Making and Cognition: Ideas from Cognitive Science The literature in cognitivesciencehas a recurring theme-connections are at the core of cognition and consciousness.Neural-network theory, firstproposedby Hopfield in 1982, indicatesthat cognitionoccurswhen neuralnodes in the brainareactivated in net-likeconfigusimultaneously rations (Martindale,1995). scientists call this Cognitive physicalprocess PDP, paralleldistributingprocessing,or 'connectionism'(Solso, 1994). The neuralconnectionsin the brainare,in turn,directlyconnectedto the of the mind, which mimic the neuralarchitecture conceptualstructures from which they emerge.Cognitivelinguists,Lakoffand Johnson (1999) makethis crucialconnectionbetweenthe physicaland the conceptual: In shortwe formextraordinarily richconceptualstructures for our and in reason about them for that are crucial manyways categories our everyday All these of structures are, conceptual functioning. in our brains.(p. 20) course,neuralstructures Accordingto Piaget (1963), learningoccurswhen new informationis attachedto prior knowledgeand placed in existingconceptualcompartments or 'schemata.'Cognitive psychologists today continue to build of these basic upon Piaget'sconceptthat the mind is a systemconstructed units and that cognition is a function of organizinginformation into moduleswithin a largermentalstructure. Lakoffand Johnson (1999) put a slightly different twist on schema theory and suggest that the mind the world by placing phenomenain categories.They see conceptualizes the implicationsof categorization and arguethat the mind, in organizing into thinks it seessomethingin terms phenomena categories, analogously; of somethingelse. It makesconnections. betweenentitiesis a key to learningin Just as establishing relationships its most basicform, expandingthose connectionsis the criticalfactorin The literature in learningtheoryindicatesthat authentic understanding. learning requires understanding and understanding entails not only
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the facts of a domain, but comprehending how those facts remembering fit together(Bransford et al., 2000). Understandingis a key factor in transfer.Defined as "the ability to extendwhat has been learnedin one contextto new contexts"(Bransford et al., 2000, p. 55), transfer is a criticallearningobjectivein education.It, too, is founded on makingand expandingconnections,connectionsthat generateinferenceor projection. The Connection Between Learning and Creativity Creativity,like learning,is rooted in finding or making connections. betweencreativity and learningis not new. Recognitionof this correlation Koestler(1990) believedthat creativeideasaregenerated through'bisociation' or the juxtaposition (or connection) of previously unassociated entities. These bisociativepairingsare unexpected,often dissonant,and their dissonancecompels the mind to build a bridge between them in ways. imaginative Hummel and Holyoak (2002) suggestthat creativethought is rooted in analogousthinking.As noted earlier,Lakoffand Johnsonview analogous thinking as a key element in learning.Lakoffand Johnson (1980) also see analogousthinkingat the cruxof creativity, but they takeit a step further; they synthesize analogous thinking with bisociation in their theoryof metaphor.To LakoffandJohnson,metaphoris wherecreativity and learningintersect;it is also the primaryprinciple of consciousness and cognition.Metaphors beginwith analogousthinkingwhen one thing is comparedto another.An analogythen servesas a basisfor projection, whereone thing is seen in termsof another.In metaphor,however,there is not complete accordbetween the two comparedentities. The discord the origbetweenthe two entitieschallenges the mind to re-conceptualize inal entity and see it differently. The mind, according to Lakoff and Johnson,learnsthroughmetaphorical processesand when the dissonance of metaphorshocks us into new analogies,the mind adjustsits concepts In metaphor,'seeingas,'which is the core of to fit the new configuration. a cornerstone becomes closely learning, alignedwith 'seeingdifferently,' of creativity (Lakoff& Johnson, 1980). Anothervital link betweenlearningand creativity lies in the conceptof In Lakoff their of and Johnson theory categorization, 'imagination.' (1999) suggest that the quality that links one entity with another (that a concept.This implies puts them in the samecategory)is an abstraction, that abstractconcepts are generatedor revealedwhen connections are made. Lakoffand Johnson'snotion that abstractions emergeout of relaof Ricoeur's is a cornerstone concrete between tionships things tangible is an to of Ricoeur, (1981) theory imagination.Imagination,according active process in which the mind constructslinkagesbetween tangible entities.A leap of the imaginationoccurswhen the mind projectsideas and constructs new relationships. Due to the pictorialnatureof the mind,
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imaginativelinks or leaps are often manifestedin mental images-thus the word imagination. Becauseimagination operatesthroughconstructing between entities and develops perceived (connection-making) bridges furtherthrough projection,it is a closely linked to learningand understanding. Thornton (2002) brings a differenttwist to the connection between is an extensionof the and learningby suggestingthat creativity creativity learningcontinuum.Accordingto Thornton,learningcan be dividedinto two categories: non-relationaland relational.Non-relationallearningis learningabout objects as they are in themselves.Relationallearningis to otherobjects.To Thornton,relalearningaboutobjectsin relationship tional learning is the most significant form of learning. It is not only based on connection-making,but it is recursive.This means that the output data from one iterationof the learningprocessbecomesthe input data for the next iteration. A relational recursivelearning process is and evolving. ongoing,ever-constructing is Learning defined by Thornton as an "incrementaldiscovery of successfullevels of description-a kind of constructiverepresentationbuildingoperation" (p. 242). This processusuallyculminateswith alignwhere and that culminatesin ment, reality conceptionintersect.Learning is and literal. When continued unchecked, however, alignment objective relationallearning extends beyond mere alignment and can become a generative process that creates new relationships and therefore new knowledge. It reachesbeyond objective alignment to the realm of the the learnerbecomesactivelyengagedin takingan idea further subjective; and looking to the possibilities suggested by the facts. This kind of learning involves interpretationand imagination. Thornton calls this and saysthat it lies on the creative end of the learning'runaway learning'
creativity continuum.
The ultimate effect of 'runawaylearning' is 'recoding.' Thornton's notion of 'recoding'is similarto Lakoffand Johnson'sideas concerning metaphor.In both concepts,new ideas,knowledgeand insightsaregenerated-by first establishing connections or relationships and then by Lakoffand Johnson's projectingthe new concepts,or drawinginferences. and Thornton's explanationsof learning and creativityemphasizethe mental processesof 'weaving'(connection-making) to generateabstract ideasand 'spinning'(takingideasfurther).'Weaving'connotesa web-like while 'spinning'suggestsa threador trail. configuration, Implications for Curriculum Integration Substantive curriculum educatorsto underintegration,then, requires standhow the mind perceives, learnsand conceptualizes throughanalogical thinking, metaphor and schema-construction.By elucidating the of learningand creativity, connectionistand constructivist theoprocesses ries offer insight into the mind and providea theoreticalrationalebased
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in cognitiveprocessesfor curriculum integration.These theoriesvalidate art integration becauseintegration is essentially about makingconnections and projections. the linkagesbetween They help us to betterunderstand learning and creating at their most fundamentallevel. These theories, inteto use in developing curriculum therefore, give us criticalinformation that is substantive. gration Curriculum integration has many functions that are supported by They are: cognitivetheoryand constructivism. of and connec1. Curriculum integration highlightsinteriorstructures When the organization of a fieldof inquiryis tions within disciplines. and how the waysin which the mind structures revealed, knowledge, are and attitudes discovered. thatconfiguration research, shapes practice, In exploring of a students the structural maycome to aspects discipline, and that see thatknowledgein a disciplineis connectedand ordered, to This understanding could go further structure givesit coherence. is created, shedlight on how new knowledge connected,judged,and that built uponwithin a discipline.Studentscould come to understand for development of all knowledge thesestructures arenecessary includingknowledgein the fieldof art. betweenand among the similarities 2. Curriculum integration foregrounds betweenknowledge, by locatingresemblances practice, disciplines in multipleareas of inquiry.When analogous beliefsand assumptions lines,connectionsaremade, thinkingis appliedacrossdisciplinary of aredrawn,and abstract inferences conceptsthat connectareas In constructivist disciplines parlance, correlating thoughtarediscovered. fromdifferent learners' by bringinginformation expands understanding into the schemata. same disciplines as it involvescross-context 3. Cross-disciplinary studypromotestransfer with of and ideas. Transfer, usuallyassociated applications knowledge transferred or When ideas are for has learning, implications creativity. are occurs and matters from one area to another,recoding applied fosterscreative Curriculum therefore, integration, re-conceptualized. involvetaking often "Creative ideas Martindale states, (1995) thinking. ideasfromone disciplineand applyingthem to another" (p. 252). To this point, he citesthe ground-breaking illustrate insightsof Hopfield, his ideaof neural who the fatherof neural-network theory developed the areaof spin glass nets by applyingconceptsfromphysics,specifically to theory, cognition. of categorization alsobreaks down the barriers 4. Curriculum integration of within a discipline.The prevalence that tend to limit understanding has its downside.Accordingto Ward (1995), an inflexible structure can limit innovativethinking.Lakoff structure and narrowdisciplinary and new andJohnson(1980) believethat new insightsaregenerated are conventional the boundaries of when occurs categorization learning
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broken.When this happens,the tenetsof a disciplineareseen differis disrupted, and new schemata are ently;conventional categorization to new created accommodate necessarily insights. alsohighlights the differences betweendisciplines. Bransford 5. Integration
et al. (2000) maintain that contrasting entities is an especially effective strategy for teaching and learning about the specifics of those entities. "Appropriatelyarranged contrasts can help people notice new features that previously escaped their attention and learn which features are relevant or irrelevant to a particular concept" (p. 60). This is especially true in interdisciplinary studies because different disciplines have their own distinct elements and seeing these particularities in relationship to those of other disciplines puts them in high relief. 6. Integration of art with the academic curriculum is especially good for highlighting the learning modalities of 'weaving' and 'spinning' because of the special nature of art images and the recursivecharacterof the art-making process. As mentioned before, weaving constructs abstract concepts through linkages, and spinning takes them further. In education parlance, weaving is 'integration' and spinning is 'extension.' As for weaving and art, interpreting the world through visual images is a combinatory act of connecting the conceptual to a tangible, visual representation of it (Ricoeur, 1991). Weaving also occurs in art when images are juxtaposed on a picture plane, in a three-dimensional object or in a time-based series of images to create meaning. Making art also lends itself to runaway learning or spinning. Spinning in art-making is particularly significant because the creative process of making art lends itself to evolving, recursive learning. Artmaking promotes imaginative play with concepts and whimsical projections of abstractions onto new contexts. Students can literally run away with ideas in their art, apply them to fantasies, and learn through imaginative inference and projection. Spinning is extended and expanded when art is integrated and the focus of the spinning includes not only art, but areas outside art. All of this implies that artmaking is essentially a learning process that spans the entire continuum between learning and creativity.
Art Images: Visual Representation of the Mind

Mental processing seems so abstract and intangible that addressing it with students is a daunting task; it usually lies outside the common discourse in art education classes and beyond the normal purview of our students. But understanding the way people think, learn, and create is important for learners, for artists, and especially for art educators. Bransford, et al. (2000) agree. They refer to consciousness of one's mental processing as 'metacognition' and state that the literature in learning science stresses the significance of metacognition in understanding and transfer. Fortunately, the images of art can give us clues to mental
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processing.They can make cognition, learning,and creativityaccessible, viable subjectsfor our classroomsand help our students to achieveand
practice metacognition.
Solsowritesof the connectionbetweenartand mind and sees the value of artin illuminatingthis connection, Art is a reflectionof the innerstructures and the perceptions of the mind of the artistand the artviewer... For in art-especially art that appealsto universal of perceptionand cognitiveorgaprinciples with the innerneurological nization,and resonates sympathetically of the brain-we can discoverthe salientfactsnecessary structures to formulate generallawsof the mind and the often elusiverelationof the mind with the external(electromagnetic) world. (Solso, ship 1994, p. 49) Barbara MariaStafford(1999) examinesthe connectionbetweenmind and image from a visual culture perspective.She agreeswith Ricoeur is essentially (1981) that consciousness pictorial.For this reason,Stafford finds its truestexpression in art. arguesthat consciousness The visualarts,as especially high orderformsof envisioning,make an elusivepersonalawareness realin an external substantially realization. the myriadmodesby which They help us understand to them. peopleendlesslymodifyand reuseelementsavailable p. 138) (Stafford, Staffordagreeswith connectionistmodels in cognitivesciencethat the mind works in combinatorial ways. She proposesthat abstractideas and consciousness itself are generated in the mind through a process of and ideas. "Collageas a 'collaging'or juxtaposingof images,experiences processof transforming by cuttingand pastingthem to momenephemera continuesto be a particularly effective tarilystableconfigurations, technique the chimeraof consciousness in action"(Stafford, for capturing p. 146). Stafford's use of the art term collage to describehow the mind works, emphasizesthe connection between art imageryand mental processes. Many of her examples(Picasso,Braqueand Gris) are taken from early in art.These earlyworks 20th-centuryEuropewhen collagefirstappeared are clearexamplesof collaging,as they are literallyconstructedof found imagesjuxtaposedon a pictureplane.As such, they heraldlaterartworks that may not be actual physicalcollages but are createdby conceptual collaging. In contemporary, postmodernart we find clearexamplesof collaging as a common and effectivestrategyfor amplifyingideas, framingreality and revealingthe workingsof the mind. ArtistsMark Tansey, Thomas Grunfeldand MarkDion, for example,have producedmany imagesthat embody collage.Their imagesare especiallyuseful for educatorsbecause they are noncoalescent images(Stafford,1999). Staffordfinds noncoalescent imagesparticularly revealing.
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do not blend theirelementsare Types of imagesthat conspicuously the rulesgoverningthe brain's effectivein demonstrating especially how it is ableto activatemanydiscreteareaspossessing connectivity, them into a largercoherentpattern. specificfunctionsand juxtapose (Stafford, p. 144) The artworks of Tansey, Grunfeld, and Dion are also significant from cognibecauseit is in them that theoriesof learningand creativity and postmodernism tive science,metaphortheory,curriculum integration come together. of many of the ideas First, these works providevisual representations about learning and creativityput forth in cognitive science discussed above. They not only embody these ideas, they do it in very conscious ways. The artworksof these three artistsrepresenta propensitytoward in much contemporary that predominates self-awareness (metacognition) art. Their work, for that reason,makesinsight into the creativeprocess accessible. Second, these artistsuse metaphorin theirwork.Their imagesoverlap to revealconceptualconnectionsand the juxtaposition compelsviewersto see one image in termsof another.In doing so, the artistscreateinsight and meaning. the worksof theseartistsgo to curriculum Third, in regard integration, beyond interdisciplinarity(depicting subject matter in science), using collage to go deeper to reveal underlying concepts. We see here that level,is trulyintegrative. collage,becauseit connectsat the conceptual The specificimagesdiscussedin this articleintegrate or collageart and science. This is a particularly productiveareaof integrationbecauseart and science representprimaryfields of inquirywith a common corecuriosityand a will to know and understand.They are fields in which epistemologycoincideswith aesthetics(knowledgeand meaningresidein form and configuration)and the world is constructedthroughobservation, questioning, experimentationand imagination.Juxtaposingthese two areascan shed light on the internalworkingsof the mind and its ways of constructing reality.Since the connectionsbetweenart and scienceare located at such a deep and elementalplane, exploringtheir connections can takecurriculum to its deepestlevel. integration Thomas Grunfeld Thomas Grunfeld aligns art with science in ways that capture our attentionby disruptingour expectations. His Misfit (St. Bernard), (1994) is an animal with the head of a sheep and the body of a St. Bernard is noticeably recliningin a vitrine.AlthoughMisfit(St. Bernard) synthetic, it has a disturbingrealityto it-perhaps becauseit is constructedof real animalparts.This creatureis one in a seriesof hybridanimalsbegun in 1989 in which Grunfeldcombinesdisparate animalsto partsof preserved createnew fantasycreatures. These animalsrecallthe Europeantradition
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Thomas Grunfeld,Misfit (St. Bernard),1994. Taxidermy,plexiglas,and wood vitrine. Courtesyof the Arnot and MichaelJanssenGallery.
animalsin naturalhistorymuseums. of collecting,stuffing,and displaying In this way, they connect the latest technology and researchin genetic effortsin scienceto controlnature. to earlier engineering Grunfeldalso gives us clues to creativeprocessin both art and science, especiallysynthesis or combining existing entities to create new inventions. Grunfeld's synthesis is essentially collaging as understood by Stafford (1999) and bisociation (Koestler, 1990). Grunfeld's collage clearin these animalsbecauseit is embodiedin two processis particularly and discrete noncoalescentparts that join togetherto generate disparate each new entity. Each new creatureresonateswith many associations. Therefore,Grunfeld'shybridsalso have a runawayquality;they embody the question 'What if?' and each of them suggestsa creationmyth and a life of its own. MarkDion Mark Dion merges art and science in his artwork by mimicking research principles, and conventionsof displayused practices,organizing in the naturalsciences.For this reason,his work makesclearconnections betweenart and scienceand providesgood examplesof deeperinterdisciplinarycross-pollination.
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Dion's work also alludes to the ways we think. " Many of his installations involve collections of to categoriesand therefore hint at how the mind organizes what it encounters. This connects Dion's work to the theories of categoobjects displayed according
-:
rizationprofessed ,*a _ . - a ,_ by Lakoff and Johnson. Also, there is f a direct link between the work of Dion and Stafford's l y notion of collage. We see this especially in his work, Cabinet of Curiosities MarkDion, CabinetofCuriosities,2001. (2001). In this piece, Dion updates the tradition of the With RobertWilliams. Courtesyof the artist. 17th- and 18th-century 'cabinets of curiosities' or wunderkammer,in which artifacts of all sorts, both natural and humanmade, are displayed together as objects of wonder. These cabinets are
especiallysignificant in that they representan intersectionbetween art and scienceat a pivotaltime when curiosityand observation commingled with obsessive accumulation and aesthetic display (Stafford, 1999, Mauries, 2002). Analysis of these artifactsindividuallyrevealsthem as objectsthat embody ideas.The naturalobjectsexemplifynaturalpatterns and laws; the culturalobjects representideas about human life, particularly spirituality,ethics, and reason.In juxtaposingnaturalwith cultural objects,we can see that these objectsare conceptuallyrelatedand intuit how many human concepts, beliefs, and aesthetics were derived from observation of natural forms, patterns and relationships. These collectionswere, accordingto Stafford,physicalmaniEnlightenment-era festationsof the collagingprocessesof the mind; they revealedhow the mind juxtaposes and conceptsthrough phenomenaand createsnarratives Cabinetsof curiositiesare also metaphorical relationships. representations of schema-mixing. The mind is represented as a largecabinetwith shelves and files for differentcategoriesof objects.Often the placementin these cabinetsis informalor quite casualand the objectsescapetheir categories to createnew relationships and new concepts. Dion's Cabinetof Curiosities (2001) is a particularly postmoderncloset. It is filledwith an arrangement of naturalspecimenssuch as bones, skulls, shells, and preserved animals that one would find in the traditional
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wunderkammer. On the top shelf, however, is a collection of massitems from produced contemporary popularculture.With the inclusion of these pop-culture icons, Dion puts a modern twist on the wunderkammer traditionby replacing the relicsof Enlightenment Europe, such as portraitsof Greek gods, tools, and globes with the artifactsof today. Dion's ironic commentarylies in the parallelsand contrastshe draws between the historical icons of western Europe and the massproducedimagesof contemporary popularculture.In using these 'relics,' he revealsthe contemporary mind as a descendentof the Enlightenment mind with its tendencyto collageor blur the boundaries betweennature and culture and its practice of deriving ideas and meaning from the it. objectsthat surround MarkTansey The work of MarkTansey is especiallynoteworthyas combinational imagerycreatedthroughjuxtaposingdistinct images.These works bring together disparate images that make peculiar, surprising, and often profound sense when placed in proximitywith each other. Tansey is a painter. He does not collage in the conventional art sense-physically cutting and arrangingimages or organizingobjects and parts to create juxtapositions-but he collagesin a conceptualway, selectingimagesand them in his paintings.Tansey'scollageprocessis particularly juxtaposing self-conscious; he often uses a wooden table he constructed of three rotatingconcentriccircles,eachwith a multitudeof tiny lines of text radiating from the center.In spinningthese circlesand noting how the texts line up when the circlesstop rotating,Tansey generatesendlessrandom combinations of ideas. This process of arbitraryjuxtaposition makes deliberate and metacognitive. His imagesalso Tansey'swork particularly echo runawaylearningbecausethey evolve througha processof pushing the combinationsbeyond the initial synthesisthroughto their logical or illogicalconclusions. Tansey's subjectsare often the history of art, literature,and philosophy, but Tansey also touches upon science. The Enunciation(1992) depicts MarcelDuchamp, the fatherof conceptualart, sitting on a train observinghimself as Rrose Selavy, his feminine alter ego, passing on a train going in the opposite direction. This image referencesEinstein's legendaryepiphany,which took place on a moving train and led to the the trainscenarioas an archetypal Theory of Relativity.Tansey recreates collaging experience. In so doing, he creates an analogy between ideas, which led to conceptualand perforDuchamp'sgroundbreaking mance art, with Einstein'swork in physics.On a deeperlevel, Tansey is also suggestingthat ideas, even the truly momentousones, are generated by the combinatoryprocess of collaging. Tansey reminds us that this worksin both art and science-and it is the engine that collagingstrategy new generates understandingsand ideas, especiallywhen the artist or
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s9m.> . -w ' rs E-Dij_ _i s awayw .- I-i"ea gn ataThe !cienti mi' Iae 6 t ; i ~ive= ,; h t_ _s oi ' mar appr - _-G _ 5 \ C: fX0 1 liby el and eatii. ____ing undersanding
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MarkTansey, Enunciatin1992. Oil on canvas, a84 x 64 inches. l CourtesyGagosian Gallery.Photograph Robert McKeever.
scientist runs away with the idea generated through collage, weaves or connects it to other ideas, sees its implications, and 'spins' a new trail.
Implications for Art Educators

To teach authentically about art and postmodern concepts, we must employ an approach to teaching and learning in tune with postmodern principles that works in a pedagogically sound way. I believe that substantive art integration is such a pedagogy because it offers a conceptuallybased approach to exploring contemporary ideas while promoting learning, understanding, and creativity. Developing and implementing substantive integration is a challenge for art educators. Cognitive science, metaphor theory, and postmodern art provide information and ideas that can facilitate this endeavor. Cognitive science and metaphor theory give us clear descriptions of learning and creative thinking that help teachers to recognize these processes when they occur in student work, and to design integrative curriculum that catalyzes and nurtures these processes. A central tenet of learning and creativity theory is that learning and creativity are essentially connection-making. Consequently, teaching is a practice of making connections or helping students to make connections.
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Connectionismand constructivism challengeteachersto re-conceptualize their practice and role-not as mere distributors of information or trainersof skills, but as connection-makerswho 'weave' nets between areasof knowledge.Learning and creativity also involveprojecdisparate tion and inference.Therefore,art teachersmust see themselvesas 'spinners' who pose questionsthat challengestudents to take things further, follow ideas,and mine their implications. The conceptsof'spinning' and 'weaving'are at the core of art and they are amplifiedand expandedin curriculum integration. Postmodern art helps us in developing integrative curriculum by providinginsight into the natureof substantive integration.Ratherthan understanding integrationas simply using art to exploreand communicate ideas from other disciplines,these works suggestthat integrationis actuallya form of cross-disciplinary collage-a juxtapositionof disciplior generates connectiveideas. naryelementsthat reveals Ideasbecome the focus when elements (subjects,information,stories, objectsand images)arecollaged.The primacyof ideasis one of the significantlessonsthat integrative studyand postmodernism bringto arteducation. In highlighting ideas, integration encourages art educators to include conceptualstrategiesin their art lessons-to integrateideas and conceptualprocesseswith techniques,materials,and visual form and to makethe vital connectionbetweenvisualimagesand ideas. Postmodernart also presentsclearimagesfrom which to teach about idea-generation and creative process. When these images are viewed throughthe lens of cognitivetheoryand metaphortheory,we can better see the conceptualprocessesof collaging,weaving,and spinning behind them. Analysisof these artworks can help studentsbecome awareof their in own conceptual and to utilizethatknowledge. processes image-making, Above all, postmodernart imagesprovidecatalysts for developmentof substantive curriculum. these works for the Mining conceptsthey harbor, them to related and contexts, ideas, linking images,and connectingthem to the mental processesthey embody are ways to generateideas for art that engagestudentsin thinking,learning,and image-making in exercises substantiveand integrativeways. This approachnecessitatesapplying similarimaginative processesto curriculum developmentand teachingas those postmodernartistsuse in their work-connection, projection,and conceptualcollage. References
Barrett,T. (1997). Modernism and postmodernism:An overviewwith art examples. In era J. Hutchens, & M. Suggs, (Eds.). Art education:Contentandpracticein a postmodern (pp. 17-30). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.
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A Case for Curriculum Integration
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ConnectingArt, Learning,and Creativity: A Case for Curriculum Integration

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