Dive rsity in
Exposition
1
202
23,
25 &
27 A
ugu
st
A showcase of ten A/R/Tographic
journeys through pedagogy and practice in the arts
DAR:E (2021) Diversity in Artistic Research: Exposition Editor
Rebecca Kan
Convenor of Faculty Research Series
Rose Martin
Contributors
Chew Han Lim Ethel Chong Sharon Choo Daniel Fong Noor Effendy Bin Ibrahim Noor Iskandar Bin Othman Nellie Seng Kimberly Shen Shin Jung Hoon Alicia de Silva
Designer and Illustrator
Nandy Rhea
Editorial correspondence can be addressed to: Pedagogy and Research Unit 80 Bencoolen Street Singapore 189655 pr@nafa.edu.sg Published in August 2021 © Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts All rights are reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
Convenor of Faculty Research Series A/R/Tography as an arts-based and creative research methodology Professor Rose Martin
Rose Martin (PhD) is Professor of Arts Education with a focus on Dance and Multiculturalism, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). She also holds a position as Professor II at Nord University, and is an International Supervisor at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, Visiting Expert at Chengdu University, China, and often collaborates with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Rose has extensive experience in research and teaching in the Middle East, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and her work focuses on dance and politics, arts and social change, and community arts education.
The series ‘A/R/Tography as an Arts-Based and Creative Research Methodology’ has been a location for NAFA colleagues to dive into their curiosities as artists, researchers, and teachers. The series of six workshops were coupled with individual consultations to form projects that each colleague have been particularly invested in exploring. For some this series was a first step into research, and for others it built on a long lineage of work. A/R/Tography asks for an engagement with the practice of art doing and making, within any artistic discipline, and an inquiry that entangles artistic practice with reflective, pedagogical and research considerations. The projects the colleagues have developed take this idea in a wide range of directions, and also layer narrative, auto-ethnographic, performative, visual, and theoretical elements in diverse ways. The work shared from this series can be viewed as continually evolving, and to prompt questions to propel future research forward.
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Programme 23 August Monday
1/ Noor Iskandar Bin Othman/ None to nur 3.0: the Fine Art
skin, the feminine / pg 1
4-6 pm
2/ Sharon Choo/ Fine Art
3/ Noor Effendy Bin Ibrahim/ Fine Art
Mapping violence in the tender domestic / pg 5
25 August Wednesday
Art matters, you matter: the connection between mood disorders and artistic ability / pg 3
4/ Chew Han Lim/ Fashion
4-6 pm
A/R/Tography in patternmaking as creative exploration / pg 7
5/ Nellie Seng/ Music
Disembodying from the embodiment: a research into music performance and its physical dramatisations / pg 9 6/ Alicia de Silva/ Music
Composing out: unfolding basic gamelan concepts through collaborative composition / pg 11
August 2021
27 August Friday
7/ Kimberly Shen/ Fine Art
Practising feminism / pg 15
4-6 pm
8/ Ethel Chong/ Arts Management
9/ Shin Jung Hoon/ 3D Design Provoking curiosity: A
Reflexing on communitybased projects / pg 17
teacher’s A/R/Tographic investigation of prompting students’ curiosity and creativity in the design class / pg 19 10/ Daniel Fong/ Music
Drawing for singers: drawing as an alternative vocal pedagogical tool / pg 21
Educational and
Artistic Research There is no clear categorical distinction between “educational” and “artistic” research as there are overlaps and commonalities. Artistic research strives for a felt knowledge - knowledge that is acquired through sensory and emotional perception.
None to nur 3.0: the skin, the feminine
Noor Iskandar Bin Othman / Fine Art Noor Iskandar deems his A/R/Tographic journey as rituals of countercartographies, teasing out a series of meditation and mediation on terrains that are often perceived to be monolithic like Faith and Art. He values this methodology as an invitation to openings, guided by reverberations, arriving and departing to a series of becoming and unbecoming. He is inspired by Bell Hook’s manifesto to convert practice into counterhegemonic approaches that enable learning to become liberatory and the classroom to espouse on the pedagogy of resistance and transformation. He sees situations, micro-moments, interventions as divine disruptions. He charts these scatterings into alternative constellations of probing lived experiences, feelings and all that is in-between. He indulges in archives, gestures, images, word fragments, dreams, melancholia, sentience and the spirit in his practice. He aims to expand sites of tenderness, coexistence and deep meanings through his art.
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Can losing be beautiful? Must losing be beautiful? Combing fissures of loss within sacred spaces from my MA Thesis, None to Nur 3.0: The Skin, The Feminine attempts to artfully extrapolate a new tapestry of the female identity by necessary retelling of lived experiences through poetry, performative gestures and text, both spoken and unsaid. The study disentangles the metaphorical void through exercises of participatory collaboration with my students, as they respond through the philosophical strands and material archive dislodged from my own work wherein tropes such as “un-mosquing” and “carrying the sacred house within you” became complexes of imagination. These preoccupations echo Rosi Braidotti's Nomadic Theory (2011) that summons us to “organize from our locations, our here, the fleeting present” of that urgent migration- to womb wounded feelings into corporeal home-bodies.
This critique/creation methodology within this paradoxical, mutating, non-linear age, draws me to the positionality of the errān -sprawled into symbolic wanderings within the feminine corpus- both exposing and gathering insights into its diverse fragments, fractures, disruptions, multiplicities, solidarity. I remain curious: where does the thirst of such tenderness borne out from- divine immanence, a radical resistance, an act of survival, a multi-belonging? What gaps will be stitched up, what other wounds will the body relearn, unlearn and participate in through these exhalations? Through these excavations, a conscious and intentional reflexivity of the ‘I’ as the auto-ethnographer, the pilgrim poet, the artist-educator emerged, allowing for cyclical subjectivity and fluidity of voices and memory to scatter without refrain. The encounters had turned out to be rather ritualistic in ways the body hold words
as chants, as deep meanings- fragments loaded with visual, aural, conceptual threads for my auto-ethnographic installation. The process is akin to floating islands with amorphous borders, enabling me to shift the margins of embodiment and disembodiment- giving power to gendered imagination. Like the word ‘Nur’, meaning ‘Light’ in Arabic, and often used as a female first name within the Malay Archipelago, this study proposes a re-flowering of conversations of Art and Faith while simultaneously sketching vignettes of A New Sacred Feminine, in its choreography of new subjectivities and countercartography.
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Art matters, you matter the connection between mood disorders and artistic ability
Sharon Choo / Fine Art Sharon is a transdisciplinary visual artist, educator, social media content creator and dreamer. Originally trained in visual communication and fashion design, her exploration into the realms of art, textiles and graphic design led her to expand her practice into subjects such as self-identity, personal expression and mental health. Sharon’s most recent enquiry led her into investigating the theme of mental health. Her concerns primarily reflects on her own teaching practice – the struggling students and the conflicted educator. She holds a BA(Hons) in Fashion Communication and is Programme Leader, Academic for the Fine Art Programme at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.
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Have you ever felt dissatisfied after teaching a class you intently prepared for? If so, I feel for you, because I go through periods of self-doubt, left in a limbo wondering if I am competent enough to be an art and design educator. At present, when I look at my current profile of creative students I teach, I see a diverse range – students who come from different walks of life, with varying backgrounds, experiences and needs. After years of teaching and intermingling with the artists and creative individuals, I have discovered that there seems to be an inherently link with art and the vulnerable. Artists are said to be hypersensitive people. Psychologists have found that the creative personality contains layers of depth, complexity and contradictions. Because of this, many have turned to art as a tool of healing, a form of release, a tool for expression.
Art Matters, You Matter is bi-directional. You refers to both the student and the educator. The student’s well-being is priority and so is the educator’s well-being. Art Matters, You Matter serves as a channel for me, as an educator to be reflective and reflexive, allowing myself to practice – Mindful teaching. Growing up, when I think back fondly of the teachers who made an impact, they are not the ones who were the most knowledgeable, nor the ones who had the best teaching methods. The ones who made the greatest impact were the ones who genuinely cared, about me.
At present, as an educator teaching in an art academy, I am often reflective upon my teaching methods, influence and impact I have upon the students. Am i worthy to be a “role model”? What sort of values is important to inculcate to my students? Do my students trust me to guide them in their learning and aspirations?
Art Matters, You Matter will serve as a personal evolving guide, to consciously recalibrate my wondering thoughts and regaining perspective of my purpose as an educator. From this exploration two outputs have emerged – a game focused on mindful teaching and an artwork in response to the topic of the project. Awaken to is a work-of-art I that serves as an open space for me to regulate my thoughts, visually represented with layers built upon layers, responding and corresponding to each other. The main textures and colours are overlapping coats of paint, leaving one to imagine the original intent. Cracks of paint, strokes of painterly textures crossing over, embodies the unknown gaps of change, the fluctuation and instability one
experiences. Within the chaos, seated is a solid yolk, a stable form, bringing viewers to a focal point, a standstill, to be awakened to, to recalibrate, to be reflective and reflexive, mindful, holding fast the pureness, the original intent amidst the chaotic surroundings. As a liberating exercise, this exploration reels me in, to the reality of being an artist, researcher and teacher.
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Mapping violence
in the tender domestic
Establishing Performative Research Haseman’s (2006) manifesto for
performative research stands as an alternative to the qualitative
and quantitative paradigms in its
different approaches to designing,
conducting and reporting research.
Noor Effendy Bin Ibrahim / Theatre Noor Effendy Ibrahim is a Singapore-based interdisciplinary arts practitioner whose practice interrogates the complexities of identity politics contextualized within domestic spaces, particularly that of the MalayMuslim. Effendy’s collaborative approach to working with living human bodies in physical spaces often subscribe to wisdoms of mutual engagement within the practice of BDSM, the attainment of pleasure, and architecture. Currently a Senior Lecturer in the Fine Art Programme, School of Art and Design at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Effendy began his practice in 1991 and had been the Artistic Director of The Substation (2010-2015), and Teater Ekamatra (2001-2006). He received the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Singapore Foundation Culture Award in 2007.
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I had started on a new performance research titled “The Malay Man and His Chinese Father” in 2015, and since then the research has seen three different versions staged in Singapore and in Kerala, India. The research itself examines the erotic tension between two men of different ages and ethnicities coexisting in a shared and precise physical domestic space and are connected by an imagined yet tumultuous past. The research with every new staging furthers the interrogation into the sexual, religious, and political vulnerability of the male body within the contemporary performance space. The research had also enabled the activation of inherent and latent cultural memories within the flesh of the performer through repetitive and habitual gestures of intimacy, affection, and
Quantitative Research
Qualitative Research
Performative Research
tenderness. The current iteration of this performative research project intends to further examine how such gestures when committed to fatigue invite unlearning in the performer on the meaning and purpose of performance or art making through the deterioration of the body. The premise of this performative research project will examine a scene between two male performers when one is tenderly and affectionately giving care to another through repetitive gestures within a domestic setup. It is hoped that through these repeated acts the performers will undergo a visceral and emotional unlearning process that will propel them towards deeper and critical understanding and knowing of what the actions mean to the performance making.
The presentation will attempt to map this process into an idea of a navigation tool applicable in the process and rehearsal studio/space where the vulnerability of the male body is being examined and interrogated.
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A/R/Tography in pattern-making
as creative exploration
A/R/Tographic Stop Points The stop point is a moment where we
take pause, question, and reflect. It is a
moment where we find an idea, provocation or prompt.
Chew Han Lim / Fashion Han Lim began his career as a fashion designer with a major garment manufacturer for menswear and womenswear, and last held the position of Branch Manager prior to pursuing his teaching career with the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) in 2004. His expertise in Instructional Design and Technology helps him to continuously explore how technology can assist and enhance learning for students in art and design programmes, such as through the use of Virtual Learning Environment, web tools and mobile apps. This had led him to develop an e-learning module for the Fashion Department at NAFA. He believes that a full online course is possible with future technology developments as well as a paradigm shift in future generations. Han Lim has participated in the Shanghai International Fashion Competition in 2000 and 2001, competing with world-renowned designers and emerging as one of the topten finalists in the competition.
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This research project aims to explore opportunities for teaching and learning creativity through a series of patternmaking activities using A/R/Tography as a research methodology. This research focuses on engaging with threshold concepts, stop moments and qualitative research focused on liminary processes. The liminary process from unknown to known facilitates students from basic pattern-making skills and thinking to more creative pattern-making skills and thinking through the class activities. The class activities included two stages of pattern-making processes. These pattern-making processes were intended to raise awareness of emotion, reflection at the end of each stage of the process and interaction between the student’s prior knowledge, resources, and the lecturer. The two stages of processes were completed in three weeks facilitated by the myself as their lecturer.
The subject is decentered
The researcherbody is entangled and affected
Stage one was studying an interesting pattern design and identify the key pattern making principles applied. Stage two was recreating a variety of designs using the process from stage one. In the facilitation processes, spontaneous interactions were identified between a student and notes that the lecturer had given, a student and prior knowledge, a student and the lecturer, the lecturer and notes, creative exploration and stage one study, and the lecturer and facilitation method. The interactions took place spontaneously where the lecturer as a facilitator was constantly negotiating the scaffolding of the class and students’ self-exploration. One opened-ended question was used at the end of each stage, with the purpose of acting as a stop moment for students to reflect and consider their emotions. Key words were identified from the reflections done by the students to highlight the objectives of risk taking and emotions involved in the exploration process for students as learner and the lecturer as an A/R/Tographer.
Research is a non-representational creation of difference
It is hoped that this process of uncovering and embracing the element of risk and failure through reflections may be able to fuel creativity and accelerate the designing process. In conclusion, in this research it is viewed that the A/R/Tography research process can potentially support students and lecturers to reflect, identify and embrace failure, and in turn seek improvement with a disposition of endless learning through failure, confusion, and exploration.
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Disembodying from the embodiment :
a research into music performance and its physical dramatisations
Dr Nellie Seng / Music Nellie Seng is a pianist, pedagogue and mother. A graduate of the Juilliard School and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Nellie is currently the Head of Keyboard Studies at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore. Her key interests in research include healthy technique and the post-injury recovery of musicians; as well as the study of movement and sound. Under the auspice of the DAR:E project, Nellie’s study on artistic embodiment was an exploration on how physical embodiment became a performer’s Achilles heel to music performance.
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Performative Research
From what research is
To what research does
This research has sought to raise awareness of the alignment between physical embodiment being action, and sound. Quite often, one hears the comment: “looks so musical” in a concert or in a performance class. In short, the embodiment of a feeling; the act of musical performance has become a physical manifestation of that feeling which has eventually been taken to the forefront of the stage. It could be said that an audience now expects visual excitement, but visual excitement may detract from the focal point of music being a highly auditory sense. Ironically, audiences no longer listen but rather, they watch music.
From (centered) subjects to relations
As a musician and teacher, I have often commented that students have not “embodied a musical work and its meaning”. However, is it not odd to ask for music to be embodied since the auditory sense is essentially invisible? In this research project a black screen was put up to block the performer from the audience. Therefore, the audience could not “watch” the performance during performance class, they could only listen to the performance. When students were asked to comment on what they heard, their reply was they felt the performance was musically ‘bland’, or that they heard aspects that were not desirable. Yet the actions that might have ‘caused’ these
undesirable aspects of sounds were deemed to be visually exciting. The intent of this exploration is to bring students’ focus back to listening, and through that focus bring about an awareness of their physical movement as a platform for sound production and to consequentially think further about embodiment.
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Composing out: unfolding basic gamelan concepts through collaborative composition
Alicia de Silva / Music As a composer, Alicia has produced a large body of compositions written specifically for student ensembles, with the intent for them to learn musical concepts, instrumental techniques, and in recent years, the explorations of creating sounds/music. So to an extent, the pedagogical outcomes sometimes shape the creative process, and there are also instances where her creative processes become pedagogical tools/ strategies for the students to learn about these works. Having this experience as a composereducator, Alicia is generally curious to explore the impact composition, or creative explorations may have in the learning process of, and outcomes for the students.
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Composing is often viewed as an important activity in music education. It can allow students to be creative and expressive and could be used to encourage collaboration and participation in a classroom. It also works as an avenue for students to explore musical meaning, and even develop their own artistic voice. In most instances, the immediate goal with composing is to be about the creativity, compositional process and/ or the final product. These are important, and good starting points when using composition as an educational tool. However, I believe more attention could be given to composing as a teaching tool. Jackie Wiggins’ (1990) book, Composition in the Classroom: A Tool for Teaching is an early publication on this. Though a large part of the compositional approach that Wiggins writes about stems from a more traditional/classical Western music approach, which differs from what I did in this project, it reinforces a personal theory I hold: that through the process of composing a piece of music, or even just creating a small fragment/motif, students can be made aware of some basic music
concepts, develop a basic proficiency in playing an instrument, and perhaps most importantly, cultivate a sense of ownership in their learning.
artists-teachers, we may use our creative practice to delve deeper into learning and shape the learning environment in our classrooms.
With this context in mind and using A/R/Tography as a framework, this presentation details my reflections and observations of a group of first-year music students. These students were required to work as a group to compose a piece of music for a culture that they had minimal knowledge of (in this case the Javanese Gamelan), and have it performed after a period of about ten weeks. In this project, I decided to put my personal theory to the test. I questioned whether these students were able to deepen their knowledge and understanding about the Javanese Gamelan and its key concepts through the process of composition. Would this process of composing, and ultimately (public) performance allow these students to play these instruments better? Would this process of composing, and performing together deepen their awareness of ensemble playing? Through these questions, observations, and reflections, I also discuss some strategies formulated to make the act of composing more intentional for the students. Finally, through this presentation I hope to share how as
Trying out motifs and ideas
Hearing the group composition
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A radical
paradigm shift The move into a performative / post-qualitative paradigm shift means how we might view the world, and how we might perceive the world and knowledge is constructed has moved. In the context of academia and radical paradigm shift.
scholarship, this is a
Practising feminism
A/R/Tography as Post-Qualitative has two sub theories of note:
Kimberly Shen / Fine Art Kimberly Shen is a curator, arts practitioner and educator based in Singapore. Her artistic practice is multifaceted in approach, situated at the intersection of text, image and performance. She is drawn towards gendered gestures and vocabularies, in a mediation of pluralism and feminine subjectivities which informs her curatorial and pedagogical approaches. Over the past 15 years, she has worked with leading and emerging artists, writers and researchers, and has presented her curatorial projects in Singapore, Europe and the United Kingdom. A recipient of the National Arts Council Arts Scholarship (Postgraduate), she graduated with a Master of Research in Art: Theory and Philosophy from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Currently the Programme Leader (Fine Art) at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, her teaching and research interests include art criticism; curatorial practices; editorial and publications; feminism, gender and identity; transdisciplinary practices.
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The project Practising Feminism seeks to actively reflect, reframe, and question knowledge-making through embodied and lived experiences. Drawing from acts of curating and teaching, the project acknowledges that the work of feminism is ongoing and requires constant negotiation – “To become feminist is to stay a student” (Ahmed, 2017, p. 11). Feminist scholarship argues that sources of knowledge are neutral, and it is the political act of who we read, write, cite and speak about that makes visible certain histories and narratives. Taking personal encounters in pedagogy and curatorial practice as points of departure, I engaged in reflective autonarrative writing. Questions of the regimes of power, positionality within institutional frameworks, politics of care, notions of the gaze, and representation of feminine spaces surfaced persistently, to which I had neither concrete answers nor resolutions to. These ruminations also dovetail into my current artistic inquiry of mediating feminine narratives and subjectivities. The “feminine” is not purely gendered, but rather alludes to an “other” which is not prevalent or dominant, but favours heterogeneity, diversity in form,
Post-humanism:
Non-Representational Theory:
subject
thinkfeel. This state of under-
of decentring the
we need to not only think but to standing is fluid and in flux. Research becomes embodied.
and recognises embodied experiences. By presupposing heteronormative structures and expectations hinged on our roles as women, especially within the cultural context of Southeast Asia, how do we shift or subvert modes of power? To further ground these questions, I engaged in discussions with artists and writers who identify as female or have a female/ feminist-centric practices, and organised informal reading groups with peers, looking at texts by feminist thinkers Audre Lorde and Bell Hooks. This project presents an opportunity to reflect on my role as an educator and curator – how does feminist thinking inform ways I approach knowledge production and facilitate holistic, introspective, and critical dialogue about artistic practice in the classroom? What are the strategies when organising and curating projects with female artists and their culturally situated practices and narratives? By adopting a feminist consciousness, this project is an ongoing inquiry: to navigate and re-engage a world within teaching and curating that is assembled to accommodate specific bodies of knowledge, institutions, and systems. 16
Reflexing on
community-based projects
Performative Research
Language to
Ethel Chong / Arts Management Ethel Chong does not see herself as an artist, but rather a facilitator/ practitioner of arts education where perhaps the facilitating becomes an art form. As for herself as a researcher, she enjoys discovering ways in which students can be challenged to learn better. The teacher persona in Ethel certainly overpowers the other 2 roles in the nomenclature, after having taught in various institutions for nearly 30 years. Ethel is interested in the fields of teaching and researching students’ writing, in which she has continuously learnt from various generations of students taught, in how they think and feel.
Languaging
In the Arts Management Programme, the Project Management for Arts Events module aims to teach students how to do a simple analysis of the external environment to manage an arts project. The module takes place in the January to April semester of each academic year in NAFA, which has an advantage. Singapore Art Week (SAW) takes place in January for about 10 days annually. Hence, students taking the module would have to attend any activity in the SAW and then do a 5-minute individual presentation of how they think the event was organised. This activity ensures that students participate in an arts activity in the physical space and prepares them for the final group presentation. As part of the teaching process, there are 2 interventions to help students think of projects that engage the community. As the module is preparing students to work as arts managers in the industry, they need to know the process of applying
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From meaning to
government grants for arts projects. More often than not, the government’s preference has been to award grants to arts projects that engage the community. The first intervention is inviting an experienced arts manager to talk to students about local and overseas arts projects he had organised. The second intervention is to use National Arts Council (NAC) case studies to enable students to see what community-based projects have been state-funded. Before the talk, students are already grouped (6 to 8 per group, and grouping is decided by students themselves) to brainstorm possible projects. In conclusion, out of the 9 final projects among the 3 classes, 6 are communitybased. One project promotes sustainable fashion among consumers. 2 projects are visual arts exhibitions, one showcasing artworks on the theme of mental health, and the other exhibits artworks by children with autism.
meaning making
Teaching the module over 14 weeks, I am glad to have helped students to scope their projects based on the industry’s standards with a better focus if the projects were to apply for government funding. This research showcases 2 methods in which students’ learning processes can be streamlined when they are exposed to real-world information, and not having students plan arts projects in a silo, as they need to understand how their involvement in the arts can affect the community. The artistic impetus happens when the art of crafting projects become more relevant to Singapore and the current context in which the arts are placed in terms of importance. My research will offer insight to teachers who may be teaching a similar module and the motivations involved to help students think of projects that are more community-focused.
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Provoking curiosity: a teacher’s A/R/Tographic investigation of prompting
students’ curiosity and creativity in the design class
Shin Jung Hoon / 3D Design Spatial design educator and practitioner, bridging academic research and industry practice in spatial design. Jung has participated extensively in architectural projects in New York and Middle East with world-leading architectural firms such as Perkins Eastman Architects P.C (20052009) since his graduation from Pratt Institute (2005). His various cultural and working experiences has been providing the vital international resources and exposure for the students. He has obtained Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education from Nanyang Technological University, National Institute of Education, Singapore to equip different disciplinary theories and concepts as a design educator. Jung has also stretched his interest to lighting design field so that he has participated in Singapore Night Festival in 2016 and 2018 with students.
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This auto-ethnographic research focuses on my teaching practice as a spatial design lecturer, where I piloted a pedagogical model that I call “Curiosity Practice”. This “Curiosity Practice” uses a hybrid method of intermingling what is required in the curriculum with other topics of interest, with the intention of motivating students and kindling curiosity in learning. These sessions of “Curiosity Practice” also sought to prompt students to ask questions and ignite self-reflexivity, while supporting students in a creative mindset that may spark interest to apply creative approaches into their work. The beginnings of the research stem from the frustrations I faced as a lecturer with what I perceived to be ‘uncreative’ students in my class. During honest and open dialogues with students, it became clear that there was a misalignment of the students’ creative skills in the classroom and outside of it. I found it difficult to motivate students to work on
Instragram by Hong
Instragram by Aaron
Curiosity Practice-
Design 2021
(Interior+Exhibtion), 2018
Arulkumar, BA Spatial
Weiming, BA Spatial
Yuri, Diploma in Design
design projects with passion, curiosity and creativity. Yet I noticed that the students were displaying these qualities in platforms such as social media, in their ways of talking, and habits. Hence, the purpose of this research has been to reflect on my experience as a teaching professional, through my observations and work with students on their process of attaining curiosity and creative mindset. Through the “Curiosity Practice” sessions, students are encouraged to think critically, focusing on the process, behaviour and the artistic exploration technique. Consequently, it is hoped that from these sessions the sparks of creativity that are developed might transfer to their design projects. I worked with a group of 12 degree students who spent one hour per session for three weeks using “Curiosity Practise” in their design studio before each of the actual lessons began.
Screenplay by Sharon Design 2021
Results of the research focus on my reflections as a teacher. I unpack how I see that the students who attend the “Curiosity Practise” sessions seem to have a unique point of view toward certain phenomenon, actively participate in discussions and also express creative mindsets. The findings and active interactions with the students have allowed me to reflect on my teaching methodology as an educator. I have arrived at the understanding that preconceived and outdated method of teaching will not work in this era, especially in a design school environment. Students are now required to produce high level of creative output, participate in multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary contexts and developing their skills at a fast pace. This auto-ethnography strives to illustrate my pursue of creative ways of teaching, through a dialogue with the students’ about their creativity. 20
Drawing for singers: drawing as an alternative vocal pedagogical tool
Daniel Fong / Music Daniel Fong is an active singer, performing regularly in Singapore in notable venues such as The Art’s House Singapore, Victoria Theatre and Music Studio, the Esplanade Concert Hall and Recital Studio. A Graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London, Daniel was the winner of the Marjorie Thomas Song competition at the Academy. As a teacher, Daniel is currently a Principal-Study Voice Lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). Through the DAR:E project, Daniel hopes to research upon pedagogical issues that surface in the vocal studio and develop multi-disciplinary and innovative solutions to enhance vocal education.
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This project adopts a performative approach (Haseman, 2006) to explore phenomenological experiences of four vocal students across two vocal studios at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Drawing was used as a creative and visual journaling practice where participants were task to draw their singing experiences, both inside and outside the vocal studio, over the course of 10 weeks. Such a task aimed to explore the participants’ embodied experiences during vocalisation. From the results, this project considers the prospects of drawing as a valuable tool from two viewpoints. Firstly, it can be seen to be helpful as a platform for students to foster personal awareness and self-reflection. In doing so, drawing could act as a response to the growing call for reflective learning in oneto-one instrumental instruction within higher education institutions (Carey, Harrison & Dwyer, 2017; Hallam, 2001). This call views the inculcation of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (Schon, 1983, 1987) as a vital educational element in
Figure 1:
This student-participant has used drawing to capture his proprioceptive sensations whilst singing. Here, he
notes a downward movement around the pelvic region as well as a feeling of connection from the pelvic region to the vibratory sensations that seemingly emanate through and out of the skull.
developing independent musicians within the modern music industry (Gaunt 2008; Johansson, 2013). Secondly, the practice of drawing in the vocal studio seems to be an accessible dialogue tool between teacher and student that could challenge the traditional teacher-student relationship found in teaching studios (Jørgensen, 2000). Ergo, it is hope that drawing could contribute to more equal learning environment in higher education instrumental teaching.
Figure 2 : This student-participant has used drawing to manage performance anxiety
and body stress. In these two drawings, the student notes physical tension in
her lower body and a reminder to be
mentally relaxed whilst singing. As the student states: “Drawing reminds me
not to be stress. Don’t let my body feel stress. A reminder to relax”. Figure 3: This student-participant has used drawing to cognize
and therefore inhibit habits that could hinder effective and healthy singing. Here, the student engages with
self-diagnosis as she notes the tension in her jaw whilst practicing. As the student states: “My jaw was tight, I noticed it and drew it when I was practicing”.
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Epilogue Three Lenses into Being / Doing / Knowing Dr Rebecca Kan
This catalogue presents three lenses for interpreting A/R/Tography: Our very ‘being’ is conditioned by the knowledge we embody and uncover. We cannot help but practice what we know, since we are implicitly guided by these principles, values and tenets. As we draw from a rich body of professional knowledge, we begin to put our personal experience to question, ponder and theorise possibilities. In making art, teaching and learning, these inquiries become translated into acts of research grounded in text. Reading through this catalogue magnifies a contextualised interest and focus on the relationships between creating art, researching and teaching, to promote new ways of understanding the world.
The suite of propositions presented in this exposition has shown that we do not have a fixed identity. We are constantly thinking, rethinking, learning, unlearning, formalising and deformalising what we already know. As we deeply reflex on our practices, we congratulate the brave souls who have taken risks to wade into deep and unsearchable things that have not been previously known. We would like to acknowledge all who have contributed towards this first-ever discourse on A/R/Tography at NAFA, and look forward to their continued explorations in artistic research. Our thanks also go out to all participating in DAR:E during NAFA’s Learning Festival 2021. Above all, we wish to thank NAFA President, Mrs Tan Wai Lan, for her continued support and encouragement of our efforts.
Research the Arts Refresh your Minds
