|
childhood
& philosophy a journal of the international council of
philosophical inquiry with children |
What is the
meaning of this cup and that dead shark?
Philosophical
inquiry with objects and works of art and craft
Sara Liptai Abstract: This paper explores possibilities of
initiating ‘aesthetic’ inquiry, i.e. philosophical inquiry with
works of art and craft and other objects, e.g. religious artefacts and
everyday, found or natural objects. It investigates the differences between
aesthetic and conventional text-based inquiries and makes suggestions about
the advantages and value of aesthetic inquiry. Keywords: Aesthetic
inquiry; Objects; Works of art; Craft objects This paper is dedicated
to Morag Macinnes and Alison Hall, without whose encouragement it could not
have been written Some features of PI in the UK
Philosophical inquiry (PI) in the Language
One reason for
this may well be the particular difficulties the British face with the IAPC
texts. Whilst speakers of other languages have access to these texts through
(potentially) good, idiomatic translations, British P4C-ers suffer from what
G.B. Shaw referred to as the common language that separates the two sides of
the British
P4C resources
Another likely
reason is the wealth of British P4C materials, following from the particular
interests of influential P4C practitioners in Non-text-based inquiry
That stimuli
other than purpose-written philosophical texts are admissible as starting
points for PI does not automatically mean that they work the same way as
texts. Whilst the literature on aesthetic inquiries has been increasing,
albeit slowly, their special characteristics do not yet seem to have been
subjected to systematic investigation[8]. Since
it is my contention that there are important differences between text- and
non-text-based inquiries both in terms of their nature and the nature of the
inquiry they generate, I hope that this paper will contribute to a discussion
on these differences. The particular
group of stimulus materials I will focus on comprises 1 works of art
and craft, to include all the visual arts as well as music, dance and drama,
although in this paper I will mostly refer to visual and musical materials 2 everyday,
natural or found objects, some of which may have special significance, for
example clothing that relates to religious customs. I see some of the
inquiries they generate as aesthetic inquiries, in the Kantian sense, and
others as more concerned with sociological and/or psychological than purely
aesthetic questions. However, in my experience, there is usually no sharp
division between these areas of inquiry. I am devoting the
rest of this paper to investigating the special features of such inquiries,
based on practical experience and speculation. Mention will also be made of
the use of (potentially) aesthetic stimuli in a non-aesthetic context. In
this paper I will not dwell on the use of poems and other artistically
fashioned texts as stimuli for inquiry. The
nature of purpose-written texts
In conventional
enquiry the (purpose-written philosophical) text is the springboard for
enquiry: a vehicle, and no more than that, to convey the participants to the
realm of PI. The text has not, or is not meant to have, intrinsic aesthetic
qualities[9]. However, a
picture, a piece of music or a craft object does have a different kind of
physical reality from text, as well as inescapable aesthetic qualities. These
qualities necessitate an approach to the inquiry that is different from the
text-based one. The
special qualities of works of art and other objects as starting points for
inquiry:
Translation,
comparisons
Works of art or craft
and other objects exist in a non-verbal medium. Everything that is said about
them is a translation of a certain kind. Ideas about them have to be
verbalised. The difficult process of verbalisation can be facilitated by
establishing criteria for describing, interrogating and evaluating these
objects. The presentation of more than one item – either of the same
artistic genre or of two different ones – creates a link between them.
Linking leads to the concept of comparison[10],
which in turn aids the construction of criteria, even in the minds of very
young children. Before starting work
with art and craft objects, the’ Connections’ game is a good
introduction to comparisons and the formulation of criteria: Out of a large number of
small (everyday) objects presented to the group, the children are asked to
find any two that are connected and identify the connecting feature, or find
three with an odd one out. The connecting/distinguishing features can be
listed and grouped into higher-level concepts. With more advanced
groups the same technique can be applied to works of art or craft, without
prescribing the concepts in whose terms the children are to consider the
stimuli. I present two items. As the children start describing the two
objects (one or both of which could be a ‘sounding object’, i.e.
music or other sounds), I encourage them to make connections between the two
items. This leads to comparisons, which enables me to ask for the basis of
comparison, which leads to criteria. That the items they are dealing with
have a physical - tangible or audible – reality seems to be quite
helpful, especially for young children, slow or unconfident learners of all
ages and kinaesthetic or visual learners. Some examples: any two
pieces of music enable the criteria of length, structure, dynamics,
instrumentation, texture, etc., not to mention style, age, (social, religious
and/or spiritual) function or significance to emerge because the two pieces
will differ from each other in these dimensions. Relating a piece of music to
the dance it has given rise to, whether be it samba or classical ballet,
enables interrogation of the creative process that connects music and
movement within the folk tradition of samba and in the ballet
choreographer’s mind. Examining an image and a piece of music in
relation to each other throws new light on both works of art[11].
This approach makes it possible for children to construct ideas about both of
them that have come about solely as a result of the juxtaposition[12],
inhabiting the intellectual space between the two works of art. The
contexts of works of art
A work of art is
designed and constructed according to inherent rules that can be discussed in
PI. Such a discussion is philosophical or, more precisely, aesthetic, because
it concerns the meaning and form of a work of art. However, the dialogue
usually also touches on sociological, cultural-theoretical and historical
concerns. A work of art or craft
usually has multiple, embodied, meanings. The deciphering of the meaning(s)
of a work of art depends not only on the ability to think philosophically and
to express these thoughts in linguistically coherent ways, but on two other
factors as well: firstly, it is necessary to understand the prevailing
cultural conventions, i.e. the rules of the genre. For example, the role of
improvisation is radically different in a folk lullaby, in a Beethoven
symphony and in jazz pianist Bill Evans’ playing[13].
Secondly, the cultural and historical environment that gave rise to the work
needs to be understood as fully as possible for the maximum meaning to be
derived from a work of art. The children are likely to gain more from the
pieces of music just mentioned if they have some understanding of what each
of them sets out to achieve in relation to other pieces of the same period
and medium. Inquiries that move
between understanding the piece’s context and children’s own
interpretations of the meaning(s) of a work of art seem to have a liberating
effect on the inquiring groups. Regardless of social background and previous
knowledge and understanding about the arts, the groups soon come to acquire
an astonishing degree of openness to new arts experiences. (It is, of course,
possible to enjoy, for example, music without knowing or thinking about it
but an approach devoid of deliberate and effortful thinking does not, to my
mind, have a place in philosophical inquiry - even though a discussion about
why people may prefer not to think about music they listen to, naturally,
does.) I would, therefore,
argue that philosophical inquiry about works of art or craft – or
aesthetic inquiry – has a different set of complexities from text-based
inquiry. These complexities lend aesthetic inquiry a special kind of
richness. That inquiries about the arts might have a profound effect on
children is indicated by a British project that aimed at raising
disadvantaged A piece of plainchant
can be compared with an unaccompanied song by Joan Baez, an African
folk-singer and 20th century Italian composer: Luciano Berio’s
composition: For Cathy (written for the voice of his singer wife Cathy
Berberian and), consisting of a huge range of vocal noises, including
laughter and cat noises, but excluding ‘proper’ singing. The
comparative analysis of the pieces can lead to a discussion, for example,
about their relative artistic/aesthetic merits; the hugely different
aesthetic and social functions they fulfil in their own historic context; the
difference between singing and speaking as a function of the human voice
and/or about the nature and role of the human voice as a musical instrument.
A group of 9-11 year olds, in response to The Geographical Fugue – a
rhythmically recited, and not sung, 4-part fugue -, African drumming and For
Cathy, mused about the nature of singing and speaking and the concepts of
music and non-music; they created new musical concepts like
‘talk-singing’ (which does, in fact, exist as Sprechgesang ‘speech-song’,
used most notably by Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg, but the children were
unlikely to have been aware of this) and ‘voicing’ i.e. using the
human voice for a musical purpose but not necessarily through singing[15]. Involving
the senses, catering for different learning styles
In aesthetic inquiry
more of the senses are engaged than in text-based ones. The stimulus has a
physical reality that is often more potent than the reality of text, and
appeals to the eyes or the ears and possibly to the other senses. This helps
children who are predominantly visual, aural or kinaesthetic learners to
focus on the stimulus. It also helps those with short attention span and
fidgety limbs since the point at which the posing of questions can start is
reached quite quickly because there is no text to share. A low ability 9
year-old, who was generally withdrawn in inquiries, became animated for the
first time when, in a’ thinking game’, intended as a warm-up, he
was handed an empty 2-liter plastic water bottle and asked to think of uses
an alien culture might put this object. Some time later, in a rare extended
contribution, he made well-reasoned connections between two images and two
pieces of music, whilst continuing to be largely taciturn in text-based
inquiries[16]. The
magnetic nature of works of art
A work of art or craft
has a coherence that is absent from P4C texts. Through the force of this
aesthetic coherence, a work of art or craft grabs and contaminates the viewer
or listener and forces him or her to revisit it repeatedly, to gain new and
deeper layers of meaning. A work of art refuses to be used as just a
springboard for the emerging philosophical ideas and then to be abandoned. The repeated
interrogative revisiting dictated by the work of art results in the kind
immersion that is likely to be rare in most children’s experiences,
except for those of the odd musical Wunderkind. For children of different
abilities and interests to have various works of art firmly lodged in their
minds has to be an enriching experience, akin to, but deeper than, knowing
lots of poems or songs by heart. These ‘stored’ works of art can
start functioning as reference points, as resources, as thinking repertoire
for children. They may come to influence children’s aesthetic choices. Special objects for inquiry
Religious
objects
Religious
artefacts are a good way of starting inquiries about religious – or
non-religious - beliefs and practices. Religious
artefacts tie the individual to a community in an unequivocal fashion. The
dogma behind the significance of these artefacts is usually not negotiable:
it is a given for the whole religious community. However, there is space for
the individual to express the particular, personal significance of religious
objects for his/her belief systems, habits and life style. PI could well be
the first place for many children to try to articulate the meaning to them as
individuals of the special objects of their religion. In the multicultural
environments of many British schools several faiths are usually represented,
along with different kinds of non-faith. When children explain the
significance to them of the Torah or the cross or the Koranic inscriptions on
the mosque walls to other children of different faiths, they give of
themselves not only as individuals but also as responsible and committed
members of their (faith) community. They offer a glimpse into their coherent
religious world to children who come from different worlds. The –
social, emotional and cognitive – cohesive power of such interactions
cannot be overestimated. It is precisely such supportive, attentive,
respectful, informative and open-minded communication between communities
that is sorely missing in the adult world. In my experience, far form being
‘contaminated’ by beliefs different from their own, children who
have been given opportunities to discuss their religion with others in
inquiry have tended to be confirmed in their faith, and their social standing
has increased in their peer group. A 7-year-old
girl, with poor English and of a family that had recently emigrated to A 9-year old
from a Jehovah’s Witness family joined the lunchtime Philosophy Club
just when the group started discussing questions about God, using a section
of Sophie’s World as starting point. I was afraid that the
child’s first visit to the club would also be her last because her
family would not allow her to mix again with a Buddhist, two Muslims, other
(Anglican) Christians, a few confirmed atheists and some ‘don’t
knows’. In the event the child had no trouble at home because, in the
course of the discussion, she had an opportunity to proclaim her faith to the
rest of the group and thus fulfilled her religious obligation. Craft
objects
A special case has to be
made for works of craft that function as everyday objects. A cup, for example, is
usually mass designed but, in relation to an individual, it can fulfil the
role of a unique object. Its uniqueness comes from the fact that it has been
chosen from a large range of possible cups: the act of choosing renders it
special[17].
It can become unique by acquiring special personal significance through a
private connection, for example it may have been given as a present by
someone significant or could commemorate a special private moment or event.
Of course, ‘proper’ works of art can acquire personal
significance, too - I know someone whose ‘love tune’ is Beethoven’s
Op. 111 Piano sonata - but great works of art are so redolent of embodied
meaning that it is difficult for an individual to impose his/her own personal
meaning on them. By contrast, the special quality of the humble cup resides
in its ability to take on imposed personal meanings, yet remain an object
with its own aesthetic – and functional - qualities. Furthermore, the
cup is also a social signifier: through its particular features it binds its
owner into a specific social context. (For example, to my continental
European mind tall, cylindrical bone china cups with exuberant floral motifs
express a certain, essential, aspect of Britishness). Hence the cup has
social value as a link between the individual and his/her community, i.e. the
people who might be offered tea out of it and who may or may not share the
taste in cups - and other values - of the cup’s owner. Craft &
other every day objects validate a person both as an individual and as a
social being. In inquiry these values and validations can be explicated.
These objects, unlike ‘proper’ works of art, are also democratic
in that everyone, including every child in school, is likely to have some
objects that locate or define her or him. It is the play between
all these dimensions: the aesthetic, the social and the personal, that makes
the cup such a rich source of inquiry[18]. Craft objects, then,
span the divide between ‘proper’ works of art and trivial
everyday objects. Through interrogating works of craft in inquiry, children
come to understand something of their own emotional make-up, as well as the
emotional and material structures, i.e. the objects representing the
particular tastes, convictions, life-styles, they are surrounded by at home
and at school. They begin to distinguish between what is given to them in
terms of taste and preferences by their family and community and what is
unique to them as individuals. They compare their tastes with those of other
children. They begin to deconstruct their selves as artistic and
art-and-design-consuming individuals[19]. What is a good stimulus for an enquiry with objects?
Something ordinary, like
a piece of clothing or jewellery, which can be problematised by addressing
our assumptions about it – as if seeing the object in a new light. Something
problematical: controversial, e.g. (apparently) sacrilegious, like Andres
Serrano’s Piss Christ, a crucifix bathed in a yellow liquid that turns
out to be urine; apparently incomplete, like Ernst Toch’s Geographical
Fugue, see p.4; ugly or unappetising, like Britpack artist Damien Hirst’
‘The Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’,
consisting of a dead shark suspended in formaldehyde in a transparent box. A good stimulus
encourages the reconceptualisation of aesthetic categories and those of taste
(e.g. likes and dislikes, beauty and ugliness, pleasantness - especially on
the ear), leading to the construction of (new) criteria. What is not aesthetic inquiry?
An inquiry that
uses an aesthetic object as no more than a trigger for a discussion is
usually not aesthetic. As an example,
works of art like Haydn’s oratorio: The Seasons or Constable’s
Haywain, both of which make explicit references to nature, can be used as
starting points for inquiries about, shall we say, ecological questions. However,
such inquiries will not be aesthetic because the works of art are used not as
themselves but as vehicles for a particular agenda. In such a situation
natural objects or photographs of nature, which successfully straddle the
divide between art and reportage, would be much better employed because there
is always the danger that works of art will serve more of a distraction from,
than an aid to, contemplating the fate of the planet. Such
non-aesthetic use of aesthetic objects is, to my mind, legitimate but such
inquiries ought not to be mistaken for aesthetic inquiries. Some types of aesthetic enquiry questions
Aesthetic inquiry
investigates fundamental questions about the arts, for example: What is
art? What is music? What is not art/music/dance etc.? Who decides? What
criteria can be created for deciding? – largely aesthetic questions. There are
questions about the sociology of art: What kind of art belongs to whom in
our, or another, society? How is ownership decided? How do different social
groups express themselves through their arts? Other questions
seem to interrogate the psychological or socio-psychological aspects of the
arts from the point of view of the individual child: Why do I like some
objects of art and dislike others? How are my tastes constructed? What
communal, ethnic or family influences can I detect in my tastes? How are my
tastes different from those of my (family and other) community? How are they
different from and similar to, those of my peer group? The outcomes of aesthetic inquiry
Aesthetic inquiry can
lead to deeper understanding of the self as a part of various communities. It can also result in an
increased understanding of the self as distinct from its natural (family,
ethnic) and arbitrary (educational peer group) communities. It fosters flexibility
and creativity in interpreting works of art. For example, different
interpretations of an abstract painting, including which way up it goes, lead
to greater insight into its possible meanings. Aesthetic inquiry closes
the gap between the purely impressionistic - and often superficial - and the
purely technical (‘there were three instruments and they got louder,
then softer’) accounts of works of art, enabling children to derive
meaning for themselves from their arts experiences, through the joint
contemplation of works of art and the joint construction of a language for
articulating their thoughts and experiences. Aesthetic enquiry often
addresses the personal and communal experience more directly than text. With some exceptions, like for example the
holy books of different religions, texts are usually more arbitrary than
objects: they may not be widely shared across cultures and generations. Aesthetic inquiry sets
up a virtuous cycle of (communal) problem-posing, interrogating,
understanding and enjoyment of the arts, leading to increased openness to new
or unfamiliar artistic idioms and manifestations, as well as the development
of a reasoned critical stance. It is an elitist, yet
democratic approach to learning: it addresses questions about the arts with a
rigour that is seldom present in conventional schooling - especially in music
education -, yet it presents opportunities for high-level aesthetic and
philosophical engagement for all children, including those from aesthetically
impoverished backgrounds. The special force of aesthetic inquiry? – a bit of
hypothesising
Objects, whether
works of art or craft, natural or ordinary ones, often function as symbols. Even
everyday objects can be accessories to ritual, they can be iconic and they
can have different kinds of symbolic meanings. Aesthetic
inquiry, and especially inquiry about objects with symbolic significance,
digs deeply into the psyche of both the individual and the community. It is
possible that such an inquiry addresses itself to aspects of human existence
that may well predate fluent and rational verbal communication; to the times
when objects represented a great deal of content that was not possible, or
was not seen as necessary, to put into words. Objects with symbolic
significance seem always to have been the premier devices for identifying and
validating the individual in his or her community. Enquiries about such
powerful objects can be seen as logically preceding, underlying or
fundamental to text-based inquiries. The diverse
micro- and macro-communities we inhabit all have their powerful symbols. Interrogating
and sharing our understandings about them in communities of inquiry seems
like a greatly affirming endeavour. |
[1] It would be interesting
to investigate whether, and how, text read for PI that is in a not entirely
familiar idiom affects the quality or direction of the inquiry.
[2] The single - successful
- attempt at adapting a Lipman-novel to British English, Roger
Sutcliffe’s version of Harry, has, unfortunately, long been out of print.
[3] Murris, K. (1992)
Teaching Philosophy with Picture Books London: Infonet; Murris, K. (1997)
Metaphors of the Child’s Mind: Teaching Philosophy to Young Children PhD
University of Hull; Murris, K. and Haynes, J. (2000) Storywise: Thinking
Through Stories Newport: DialogueWorks
[4] Including Fisher, R.
(1996) Stories for Thinking; (1997a) Games for Thinking; (1997b) Poems for
Thinking, all by Oxford: Nash Pollock
[5] Fisher, R. (1998, 2003)
Teaching Thinking: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom
[6] Andersson, Liptai,
Sutton & Williams (2003) Ta(l)king Pictures: Thinking Through Photographs
Birmingham: Imaginative Minds; Liptai, S. (2002) “Good Vibrations”
Teaching Thinking Summer 2002 Issue 8: 24-27
[7] Haynes, J. (2001)
Children as Philosophers London: Routledge p. 21
[8] Toye, N. (1996)
“On the Relationship Between Philosophy for Children and Educational
Drama” if…then The Journal of Philosophical Enquiry in Education
Vol (1): 37-45; Elwich, B. & Lagodzka, A. (1999) “Visions and Words:
Exercises for Thinking” Thinking Vol. 14 (2) 41-47; Turgeon, W. (2001)
“The Mirror of Aesthetic Education: Philosophy Looks at Art and Art Looks
at Philosophy” Thinking Vol 15 (2) p. 21-31; Bosch, E. (2001) A
Philosophical Approach to Contemporary Art: Looking Out Aloud in: Curnow, T (ed)
Thinking Through Dialogue Oxford: Practical Philosophy
[9] It appears that in 1980
Lipman would have seen such qualities as distracting – see Murris (1997)
pp. 236-237
[10] At least in Great
Britain, comparison is a sadly underrated and underused educational tool,
probably because it hints at un-PC value judgements.
[11] Further examples in
Liptai, S. (2004) Creativity in Music and Art in: Fisher, R. & Williams, M.
(eds) Unlocking Creativity London: Fulton
[12] See Liptai, S. (no date)
“Two pictures and two pieces of music: How are they related?”
Unpublished manuscript
[13] The lullaby and Bill
Evans are not expected to be heard exactly the same way twice: improvisation in
the sense of changing some of the notes and rhythms is an integral element of
both genres but governed by slightly different internal rules. In the Beethoven
symphony the notes and rhythms are fixed by convention. The areas of freedom
for personal interpretation, i.e. improvisation, are narrower and more subtle:
they rest in, for example, the specific emphasis on certain notes considered
important, the relative weight given to different phrases, the dynamic range,
the relative length of the pauses between sections of the piece.
[14] Antidote: The Campaign
for Emotional Literacy (2004) ‘Thinking Together: Philosophy for Children
and Whole-School Emotional Literacy’ Video, Dover, UK: Smallwood
Publishing
[15] Liptai, S. (2003)
Thinking About Music: Developing Children’s Musical Thinking Through
Philosophical Enquiry in Primary Classrooms PhD Brunel University, Chapters 5-7
[16] Liptai, S. (2004)
“Raising Oracy Levels in Primary Schools with Disadvantaged Children Through
Philosophical Enquiry” The Braunstone Community Association Philosophy
for Children Pilot Project
Leicester: BCA
[17] Cf. Dewey, J (1934) Art
as Experience New York: Capricorn (1958) Chapter 1
[18] Mind you, if a cup is of
high artistic merit, as, for example, a Bauhaus or a Charles Rennie Mackintosh
design might be, with possible added rarity value, then that cup is likely to
transmogrify into a ‘proper’ work of art: its owner is more likely
to display it, much like a painting or a sculpture, than drink out of it.
[19] For example, discussions
about social values associated with fashion can lead to the reduction of
children’s anxiety about not having the right kind of ‘gear’
and to a more reflective stance on the methods and purposes of the advertising
industry.