Developing a Model for IAP

The findings from Creative Worlds 1 and 2 led to an emerging theoretical framework which I present as an evolving model for IAP. The model drove the methodological stance for the Photo Book (Creative World 3) and was also driven by the experiential data and readings the earlier work prompted. The model then enabled a more well-formed methodology.

The IAP model was developed for a purpose. It informs the artwork and art processes in the Photo Book and is therefore methodological in that it helps explore what IAP entails, reveals and contests. The model has also helped me understand the art processes involved in creating artworks and hence, how to create my artworks.

Through self-examination, I used this model as a device to help me examine growth across the inter-connected strengths of my pedagogy and art practice and to identify areas that need further attention. For instance, by using the model as a framework to explore developing ideas I discovered the importance of place/space and sustainability within IAP. Using my model as a guiding lens, I was able to see whether the intentions I have for my art practice, art teaching and research sustain the theory of IAP. The model helped me identify

places of strong growth, pertinent moments of learning, unique insights, and informing moments and transformations. The model has helped me explore the relational and simultaneous concept development that occurs within IAP. That is, the elements that make up the model relate to each other, and when considered as linked concepts, can help build growth in creativity, pedagogy, discipline knowledge and local knowledge. These links become even more pertinent when considered within a sociocultural and critical approach.

An Overview of the Developing IAP Model

The IAP model came about through the development and analysis of simultaneous concept formations that were made apparent through the application of IAP. The model gives us the opportunity to discover and highlight relationships between developing concepts to discover and revisit emerging themes, issues, viewpoints and media as interrelated concerns within the creative process. The model offers a powerful pedagogical tool for developing a sense of continuum within the creative process. The cross referencing and revisiting of concepts and expressions sustain the creative process.

By locating the notion of creativity as central to the art experience, the model highlights the idea that we need to build a self-conscious awareness of our personal creativity. In turn, our personal creativity grows, is fed by and feeds societal and pedagogical creativity. I then incorporated the theoretical foundation of creativity an overlapping pedagogical disposition that explores the interrelated contexts of immersive art practice, skill development and personally meaningful approaches. In so doing, I explored informing theories that support experiential, sensory, playful and personal art experience: the development of art skills and aesthetic sensibility; context-driven art practices that lead to a sense of one’s own expressive potential; and the value of relational contexts made evident through sociocultural perspectives.

Exploring Connections through a Developing Model for IAP

Connecting through creativity: The model starts with creativity as central to the art

experience. Presented as a triangle (see Figure 41), creativity is the core of IAP. Creativity is understood as personal, societal and developmental. From the flow experience of the individual to sociocultural connections across the inter-related sites of the individual, field and domain, this view of creativity is informed by Csikszentmihalyi’s (1988;1996;1999) systems model of creativity. Through it we are encouraged to explore the where of creativity.

Connecting art education with a systems view of creativity: The outer triangle (see

Figure 42) suggests that the creative system is in flux, and that the concept of creativity changes with growth in the domain, the field and the individual. Influenced by Kindler's (2004a; 2007) systems view of creativity, it suggests a developmental dimension alongside artistry, acknowledging cultural change, individual growth and developments in the field. It suggests that a dynamic pedagogical interplay between the artistic domain and the gatekeepers of the domain enhances creativity in art education experiences.

Connecting creativity with immersive, meaningful and skill based approaches: The

model then builds a connecting series of triangles (see Figure 43) that represent the pedagogical disposition of IAP. Featuring immersive process and product; meaning making/ reflexive practice and art skills, the model aims to address simultaneous concept formation and the relationships between these concepts as a means to highlight findings.

Figure 43: IAP Model Connecting Pedagogical Dispositions with Dynamic

Approach to Creativity

Connecting through immersive art practice: The model then connects creativity with

practice through fostering immersive process and product (see Figure 44). This sees the exploration of tactile, sensory, observational, playful, experiential approaches to art processes and product. It also encompasses types of immersion, through interesting, involving, imaginative or interactive (Burbules, 2004) experiences or through flow, materiality, curiosity or roving.

Figure 44: IAP Model Connecting Immersive Process and Product with Dynamic

Approach to Creativity

Connecting through personally meaningful concepts: Connections with context are

enabled through IAP's preference for: lived experience; local knowledge; reflective and reflexive practice; revisitation; and personally meaningful projects (see Figure 45). A critical sense of personal volition and power through art resonates with sociocultural ways of knowing. Integration of subject matter with themes from participants’ community lives and the inclusion of everyday concepts (experiences) with discipline knowledge build learning (Hedegard &Chaiklin, 2005)

Figure 45: IAP Model Connecting Context with Dynamic Approach to Creativity

Connecting through art skills and aesthetic ways of knowing: The model explores the

development of art skills (see Figure 46)through personal style and insights derived from the IAP process. It acknowledges technical and aesthetic skills as a means to build competence and acknowledges that art has its own unique morphology, its own means of knowing.

Figure 46: IAP Model Connecting Art Skills and Aesthetic Awareness to Creative

Dynamic

Connecting through simultaneous concept formation: To suggest a sense of dynamic

continuum, an arrow now circulates the diagram (see Figure 47).This is to suggest that the simultaneous concept formation made possible by IAP and the relationships that emerge between these concepts can (re)connect emerging themes, issues, viewpoints and media as a means for sustaining the creative process. If used as a reflective tool for practice, the IAP allows for cross referencing and revisiting of concepts and expressions, and can be used as a way to continually sustain the creative process.

Figure 47: IAP Model Connecting Informing Concepts as Dynamic Continuum

Connecting to the site in which IAP is enacted: The dotted external line which forms a

frame around the IAP model (see Figure 48) serves as a reference to the idea that each time IAP is enacted, it reveals itself according to the site in which it is played out. It acknowledges the context of each site. A critical awareness of site questions and reviews the dominant forces at work in the institutions in which the creative worlds take place, providing insight into the relationship of power and knowledge within each context. Presented in a state of harmony and balance, the model is a device that helps examine growth across the inter- connected strengths of my art pedagogy and practice as well as the areas that need further attention. I then examine these findings and refine and extend IAP in order to sustain the creative process.

Figure 48: IAP Model showing how Context for each Site informs Relationship of

Power and Knowledge within Sites

Sustaining and Exploring the Creative Process through the Evolving IAP Model

Viewed in its current state (as in Figure 48) the developing model for IAP is in a state of harmony and balance. This model stresses the importance of simultaneous concept formation as an innate part of making learning rich and meaningful when undertaking art experiences. However, strengths in areas can change, with growth in some areas being more apparent than in other areas. I used this model as a device in Creative World 3 to help me examine growth through the inter-connected strengths of my art practice, how it impacts on teaching and research and as a guide to show me which areas needed further attention. For instance sometimes, as an art educator, I may encourage a creative use of everyday concepts alongside skill development but omit to connect this learning context with the cultural domain. Or sometimes, a student may explore creative risk-taking and experimentation alongside aesthetic perception but not develop social/critical context. By using the model as a framework through which to illuminate strengths, weaknesses and inclinations, I can then examine these findings and refine and extend practice in order to sustain the creative process.

By using the model to highlight pertinent art experiences, the students/participants and I became more aware of the possibilities that simultaneous concept formations make apparent through IAP. This allowed us the opportunity to discover and highlight relationships between

developing concepts and to discover and revisit emerging themes, issues, viewpoints and media in the creative process. The evolving model offers a powerful pedagogical tool for developing a sense of continuum within the creative process. The cross-referencing and revisiting of concepts and expressions can continually sustain the creative process.

Putting the Evolving Model into Practice

In this chapter I have explored the experiential data and the contextual literature review from Creative Worlds 1 and 2 and how they led to an evolving model for IAP. Creative World 3 (the Photo Book and Project aspect of the study) then takes on the processes that evolved out of Creative Worlds 1 and 2 and explores my personal artwork, the evolving IAP model, the narrative layers and the Photo Book.

In Chapter 4 I analyse Creative World 3 using the evolving IAP model as a tool to inform discussion and identify insights. In the process, I hold up the developing IAP model to immersive art practice via the artworks and a series of layered narratives. In the process I ask what does the model reveal or contest, and how does it (re)connect artist, researcher and teacher? The findings are understood through a series of some 120 artworks that were influenced by IAP. These artworks were inspired by IAP starting points and the creative connections that formed as part of the IAP model.