Vignette #1:

Exploring identity, culture, representation and the Internet in the production of art.
Laura Hall
Dr. Alex de Cosson
ETEC 532/65A
January 31, 2016.

The ability to define particular concept requires it to stand in isolation a nearly

impossible task as it grows and develops over time. From culture to identity,
representation to the Internet, we are set to examine the relationships between evolving
concepts making sense of them through art and art exploration. Individuals are often
required to interpret and to produce art through making sense of our surroundings. Art, in
this case, plays a valuable role in bridging the gaps between these topics in order to
produce meaning. As described in Art, Culture, Identity and Representation: A
Conversation with Three Art Educators a conversation with Sylvia Kind, Stacy Friedman
and Roger Dane, art acts as a conversation between these topics to generate meaning and
extend understanding. Through both personalizing and depersonalizing artifacts that
illustrate culture and identity, we are able to gain insight through the production of art.
Tied directly to the production of knowledge, art provides opportunities to
explore and analyze questions of identity, culture and representation (De Cosson, 2016).
Acting as the middle ground, art provides a platform to explore and gain a personal
understanding of identity, culture, forms of representation and the Internet. The role of art
is instrumental in our formation of understanding and, as Sylvia Kind states in the
Vignette, art is something that mediates between in order to make sense of and make
both knowledge and relationships visible.
When examining traditional meaning making in the world of academia, we are
often looking at archaic pedagogy to demonstrate understanding through the ability to
extract facts and generate the correct answers to questions. Art, as explored through the
Vignette and current pedagogical practices, does not seek a correct answer it extends
beyond these traditional confines to explore interpretation, point of view and overall
context when forming understanding.
The incorporation of art and aspects of production in teaching, like what is
described in the video, requires the learner to not only regurgitate facts but to produce
quality work through ties to existing knowledge and surrounding context at the time of
production. Learners are required to create meaning and exemplify understanding
through the development of a specified topic as well as to demonstrate fluency in
technology media skills. In addition, opportunities for students to be the producers of
their knowledge through the use of art helps to individualize learning as it helps to value

and respect their own cultural and intellectual background. This is demonstrated in the
Vignette through the work of art education students examining origins of racism through
puppetry. Friedmans (2004) article points out that despite planning of an assignment that
allows for the learner to explore art in a cultural context, or a cultural context through art,
the element of production lie in the hands of the learner as they will each approach and
take from it what they chose. This allows for the learner to generate meaning in a unique
way that encourages and requires students to work with varying perspectives (Goldfarb,
2002).
Media production supports learners acquisition of knowledge from varying
perspectives as elements of the learners voice, culture, identity and representation are
being explored. Afforded the opportunity to work as the producers of meaning, learners
are encouraged to understand themselves through limitless exploration. Todays learners
have grown up digital, and its changed the way their minds work (Tapscott, 2008,
p.18). As such, engaging learners through the incorporation of media production helps
students to contribute to the participatory culture of our day and age (Siegel, 2012).
Either presented as a process or a finished product, art functions to help explore and
create meaning for the twenty-first century learner.

References
De Cosson, A. (2016). Culture, identity, representation and the Net Generation [Lecture
notes]. Retrieved from
https://connect.ubc.ca/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_i
d=_73023_1&content_id=_3151961_1&framesetWrapped=true
Friedman, Stacy (2004). Responsibility and re/presentation: Reflection on digital video
and puppet-based inquiry.
Goldfarb, Brian (2002). Students as producers. In Visual pedagogy: Media cultures in
and beyond the classroom (pp. 57-83). Durham: Duke University Press.
Siegel, M. (2012). New times for multimodality? Confronting the accountability culture.
Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 55(8), 671-681.
Tapscott, D. (2008). Net Geners Relate to News in New Ways. Nieman Reports;
Winter2008, Vol. 62 Issue 4, p18-19, 2p