Embodied Landscapes: A Creation-Research Indigenous Métissage

Embodied Landscapes: A Creation-Research Indigenous Métissage (EL) is a self-study inquiry about identity and subjectivity fostered by the seed of my research journey of retrieving my Métis identity. It is a storying journey through entrenched notions of identity and identity politics in a Canadian colonial context. EL is a creation story that moves through the experiential forces of subjectivity by using a creation-based Indigenous métissage spiral (IM Spiral). This inquiry approach is rooted in Indigenous epistemologies and creative and literary research practices of poetic inquiry, métissage, and artmaking. I use my own photos, images, poems, and stories for weaving, mixing, and layering artistic assemblages. EL values knowledge embedded in and generated from experiences, memories, intuitions, dreams, visions, and ancestral wisdom, and recognizes being, as in-motion and relational. EL contains hyperlinks to a creative productionEmbodied Landscapes: Digital Exhibit (ELDE). The two components are synthesized through a métissage of embodied personal and sociopolitical complexities, challenges, and expression. Through discussion, presentation, and engagement with the viewer/reader, EL and ELDE reveal an approach to inquiry, living curriculum (Aoki, 2005), and pedagogy rooted in relationships and in ways of being, knowing, doing, and learning with/in creation itself. ELDE encompasses theories and methods that invoke an interplay among theoretical, curricular, and pedagogical frameworks. The Spiral sets in motion my Self evolution through forward, backward, inward, and outward movements, around and through realms of experience. This evokes a multi-textural dialogue propelling my being as an historical subject, a community member, a researcher, an artist, a poet, a teacher, and a Métis woman. Subjective experiences, memories, and reflections of my research journey culminate with emerging pedagogical values and are discussed in context of inspiriting the arts curriculum. This thesis addresses the contemporary Canadian controversy over Métis identity. It critically explores the role that subjectivity plays in identification, self-understanding, learning, and ways of being and living in the world. It offers a creation-research approach and a means of exploring Self as a site of inquiry

Art/Research Reviews: Artwork

Art/Research Reviews: Artwor

Art in practice: in search of an evolution of the role of art within an educational framework

This paper offers a critical analysis of instrumentalist views of art in education, and considers how these views may serve to undermine art learning experiences. It provides an overview of research by contemporary theorists such as Elliot Eisner, who suggests that instrumentalist views of art are unsupported and often misinterpreted. This thesis explores an alternative view of art, grounded in contemporary aesthetic theory by selected leading theorists such as Maxine Greene, John Dewey, Monroe Beardsley and others. The work of contemporary abstract painter Mark Rothko offers a way of contextualizing these theories. Finally, this paper provides a presentation of the author‟s artwork within a self-cultural analysis framework. This contemporary approach to auto-ethnographical inquiry aims to provide an in-depth view of what art can do, with the goal of providing the impetus to contributing to an evolving dialogue on the function of art within the academic apparatus.Cet article propose une analyse critique des points de vue instrumentaliste de l'art dans l'éducation, et examine comment ces points de vue peuvent servir à nuire aux expériences d'apprentissage de l'art. Il donne un aperçu de la recherche contemporaine des théoriciens, dont Elliot Eisner, qui suggère qu la vision instrumentaliste de l‟art est souvent mal interprétée et mal supportée. Cette thèse explore un autre point de vue de l'art contemporain fondé sur la théorie esthétique de certains grands théoriciens tels que Maxine Greene, John Dewey, Monroe Beardsley et autres. Le travail du peintre contemporain abstrait Mark Rothko offre une manière de conceptualiser ces théories. Enfin, ce document offre une présentation d'oeuvres d'art de l'auteur au sein d'une auto-analyse culturelle. Cette approche contemporaine à l'enquête auto-ethnographique vise à fournir une vision approfondie de ce que l'art peut faire, dans le but de promouvoir une évolution du dialogue sur la fonction de l'art au sein de l'appareil universitaire

Provoking Curriculum as Inspirited Topographies: Frontispiece

This arts-integrated work, "Root," reflects one of the sub-themes -- Provoking Curriculum as Inspirited Topographies -- of this special issue of JCACS. The theme and title of this special issue is "Canadian Curriculum Studies: A Métissage of Polyphonic Textualities.

Provoking Curriculum as Relational Ecologies: Frontispiece

This arts-integrated work, "Life Lines," reflects one of the sub-themes -- Provoking Curriculum as Relational Ecologies -- of this special issue of JCACS. The theme and title of this special issue is "Canadian Curriculum Studies: A Métissage of Polyphonic Textualities.

Book Review Frontispiece

This arts-integrated work, "Branch," reflects the image of the book review as reaching out, connecting to, and sharing ideas

Provoking Curriculum as Pedagogical Imaginaries: Frontispiece

This arts-integrated work, "Cradle of Consciousness," reflects one of the sub-themes -- Provoking Curriculum as Pedagogical Imaginaries -- of this special issue of JCACS. The theme and title of this special issue is "Canadian Curriculum Studies: A Métissage of Polyphonic Textualities.

An Inspirited Artistic Co-Inquiry with Raw Energy

This is the first article of an in-process, creation-centred research project exploring raw energy through the authors’ distinctive and complementary inquiry practices of creation-centred research (St. Georges, 2020, in press) and spontaneous creation-making (Bickel, 2020; Bickel & Fisher, 1993). Raw energy, as conceived, is experienced as spirit-in-motion in a process of manifestation—of making the invisible visible—and is rooted in an intra)inter-relational aesthetic. This creation-centred inquiry is a relational and animated approach to creating, inquiry, learning, unlearning, and teaching. It resists the colonial lens by virtue of exploring inner subjective space, relinquishing colloquial aesthetic constraints, and enveloping a sacred space in which to restore, heal, and decolonize the imagination. Led by breath)spirit, touch, intuition, experiential and conversational exchanges, and compassionate relationships, creative lifeforce is activated to forge new ways of knowing—moving toward the extraordinary. This article engages with theoretical and explanatory text, visual and poetic storying, and interactive breath that invites the reader into this inquiring journey