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Tabitha Millett: "Queering the Art Classroom: Queering Matters" …
Tabitha Millett: "Queering the Art Classroom: Queering Matters"
Theory
Pedagogy
rooted in
queer theory
Deeper exploration of gender & sexuality than overcompensatory homonormativity
Representation of "acceptable" LGBTQ+
Gay celebs and gender-conforming married couples (Tom Daily, Ellen DeGeneres)
The 'good gay'
Monogamy
Gender-conformity
Child rearing
Innovative & progressive work rare at key stage 3-5
Preference of dead white European male painters = creation of invariable pastiches
'My David Hockney Portrait' (OCR, 2019)
Even theme of 'identity' = multiculturalist/humanist
Western portraiture used to represent all cultures (Atkinson, 2011)
"Queering the Curriculum"
'Addressing its inherent normativity'
'And construction of normativity'
'By cultivating spaces of becoming'
Thoughts & Ideas
Homophobia/transphobia common in schools but most measures to address this done by individual schools & charities
Discussions about homosexuality become simplified
Anti-bullying campaigns
Incredibly homonormative curriculum modifications
Ignore societal structures which create homophobia (heteronormativity)
How approach gender/sexuality in different ways?
How include those who are outside heteronorms without supporting essentialist discourses?
How done through art curriculum
without reproducing same art practices/discourses
?
Leaving space for
new becomings
How queer GCSE art classroom where things are assessed?
'Resist the reproduction of regulartory power that makes the queer subject identifiable and distinguishable' by refusing intelligible representations (Getsy & Simmons, 2015)
Art 'is not a way of explaining the world; it is a way of coming to know the world, more specifically, a world that does not yet exist' (Richardson, 2017)
Making --> think differently about gender and sexuality
References
Addison & Burgess 2012
Criticise limited approach schools take to art & learning (also Atkinson)
Atkinson, 2011, 2015, 2017
Schools often prioritise formalist & representational agendas in art pedagogy
4 objectives = linear art practice (2011)
Observational drawing
'Experiment' with appropriate media, usually charcoal/oil pastels
Link work to an artist
'Personal response' (drawing all objectives together)
No room for new ways of thinking of idiosyncrasies that don't fit in pre-existing framework
Pedagogies of the 'non-known' (2015)
Spaces of unknown; un-coded; queer
Ball, 2013
Norms = neoliberal education
A3/A4 sketchbook = 2D art
Booklet shows what each grade "looks like"
Renold & Ringrose, 2017
Art class to challenge gender/sexual norms
Edelman, 2004
Exploring gender/sexual corrupts childhood innocence
Children only safe within a culture of heterosexuality
Rachel Jones (2009)
Is New Materialism too anthropocentric? (Millett)
Suggests subjects (both people and established curriculum knowledges) are only constructed by human interaction
Material intelligence doesn't belong to human beings or matter but emerges
in the space between them
In space where human intelligence
about matter
couples with the guiding intelligence
of matter
,
art and thought
can take place
Rupture (of norms) happens where human (material reality) and non-human (abstract signifiers) collide ('become together') [Massumi, 2015: 'to affect or be affected]
Where signifiers (heteronorms) are attached to signified (people)
Barad (2003)
Take Butler's (1990) performativity past anthropomorphic and linguistic citations
Posthuman performativity
No separation between subject and object
Matter constituted through ongoing 'intra-actions'
Unlike 'inter-actions', the phenomena that
intra-act
do not pre-exist
Agency is relational - it exists within the affective relational practices within matter
Deleuze & Guattari, 1994
Art as space to 'create new worlds'
Nothing pre-exists the 'intra-action' between person (signified) and idea (signifier) - so why would you express the art in the middle-space by using pre-established practices?
Opening space for reconfiguration = 'queering'
[Millett]
Addison, 2012 & Stanley, 2007
Sexuality should be explored in art education
Getsy and Simmons, 2015
Body is 'inescapably culturally marked'
Society categorises form according to sex then projects cultural assumptions based on form, known as gender
Foucault, 1984
'Sexuality is something that we ourselves create - it is our own creation'
Approaches
Present positive LGBTQ+ 'countertypes' and 'themes' [Ashburn, 2007; Chung, 2007]
LGBTQ+ topics allow exploration of 'outsider perspective' [Stanley, 2007]
LGBTQ+ themes of 'coming out' and 'depicting fear'
Presenting LGBTQ+ narratives as 'counter' of 'outsider' reinforces norms [Millett]
Consent of 'LGBTQ+ art' = essentialist & categorises people
Acknowledge LGBTQ+ art histories [Stanley, 2007; Walker, 2007]
But this leads to 'unified visible identity' [Millett on Getsy, 2015] - too tied to body? (Which is culturally marked)
Keywords
Queer theory
New materialism
LGBTQIA
Art
Diversity
Education