Lecture at the 6th International Symposium on Architecture Education | Federal Congress of Art Education at the Bauhaus University Weimar

Statement lecture:

1st thesis:

Digitalization is a central topic for art lessons because the associated design tasks require aesthetic education: Enabling every person to participate in modern societies is one of the central goals of education, which is why we need to deal with the topic of “digitalization” responsibly and constructively today. As head of the interdisciplinary forum “Digitalization and media didactics in teacher training” at the University of Wuppertal [1], I can observe the influence that the choice of perspective has. I am convinced that it is not a matter of shaping the requirements of digital companies for school education, because digitalization is not an end in itself. What we need to focus on instead is shaping the benefits of digital technologies for people and society. Smartphones, cameras, projectors, tablets, white boards and comprehensive Internet connections are therefore only useful for teaching if their added value is proven both professionally and pedagogically. Art as a school subject has a key role to play in this social transformation process, which requires not only IT education [2], but also aesthetic education. Digital technologies are particularly interesting for art lessons where they develop media significance and create interactions that require design. Art lessons can help to enable learners and teachers alike to use digital media in a creative, productive and critically reflective way. Designing with digital media is not only a topic for updating art lessons, but also for interdisciplinary project lessons. In my presentation, I will show creative study projects that have been developed in cooperation with teachers and students from languages and natural sciences. We will also be looking at selected contributions from the most comprehensive interdisciplinary competition to date on the subject of “Education in the digital world”, which I launched with the aim of promoting a critical and constructive discussion on the use of digital media in the classroom.

2nd thesis:

Digitization is a central topic for art lessons because the solution to many problems requires creativity and innovation: the social debate on digitization today is accompanied by similar fears and ephorisms as the debate on the risks of electrification at the end of the 19th century. The great technological revolutions of the modern age, such as mechanization, electrification and digitalization, are nevertheless irreversible, as they are transforming the basis of our working and living environment. Technological progress facilitates the realization of many fundamental needs of modern societies, such as work, prosperity, freedom of movement, culture, knowledge, health and safety. Technological change has and always has had many unintended side effects. The price of technological progress includes social consequences such as the alienation, uprooting and insecurity of people and ecological consequences such as environmental destruction, air pollution, radiation exposure and resource consumption. Global networking, artificial intelligence and self-controlling machines are changing the framework conditions for the creation of our material and intellectual culture. The ability to use digital technologies creatively is seen by many as an indicator of the future viability of our society and is therefore a key challenge for education.

The school subject of art can make an important contribution to this, as innovations in all fields of digitalization are no coincidence, but are based on creative skills and concrete media skills. The methodical promotion of ways of creative design[3] is just as important for this as the teaching of strategies for self-perception and perception of the environment[4], the ability to think vividly or the development of a critical-constructive attitude.

3rd thesis:

Digitalization is a central topic for art lessons because the school subject needs new impetus: With the digitalization of modern societies, a multitude of new media professions have emerged for which artistic practices and theories are of the utmost importance. Of course, this only applies if we consider both the liberal and applied arts in equal measure. Study programs such as Print and Media Technology, Media Informatics, Mobile Media, Online Media Management, Media Economics, Media Publishing, Information Design, Advertising and Market Communication, Computer Science and Media, Crossmedia Publishing & Management, Media Management or Corporate Communication are based on fundamental skills and abilities for visual communication, aesthetic perception, artistic imagination and presentation skills in writing and images.

Today, art as a school subject must increasingly fight for its status in Europe’s education systems! We are talking about a contemporary phenomenon that is becoming apparent not only in Germany, but in all EU member states in the form of a lack of acceptance and shrinking shares of education[5]. Parents often say things like this: “Why does my child need art, he’s not supposed to be a painter!” The child is probably not supposed to become a mathematician, writer or physicist either, but similar to politics and educational science, most parents also rate the benefits of these school subjects for general education much higher. This fact is particularly problematic for the acceptance of art as a school subject, as parents’ assessments are very quickly transferred to their children’s appreciation, commitment and learning success. Today, art is seen in large parts of society as a leisure activity for the bourgeois elite, which creates an existential problem for the school subject of the same name. The formative function of visual perception in everyday life or self-initiated aesthetic learning processes such as shaping one’s own identity in social networks are far too rarely regarded as artistic processes by teachers and pupils alike. Most pupils spend far more time on these informal learning processes and are much more committed to their work than they are to many tasks in art lessons.

The market share of the cultural and creative industries is growing steadily and now makes a significant contribution to the overall economy of modern societies. The constantly growing fields of the ‘cultural and creative industries’ also form the fastest growing sector of the global economy[6]. In Germany alone, more than 249,000 companies employing around 1.59 million people generate more than 145 billion euros from the creative design of the cultural space[7]. The gross value added of the cultural and creative industries is therefore already higher than the figures for the chemical and energy industries. It takes a closer look at the economic importance of mechanical engineering and the automotive industry, which owe their outstanding position on the global market not least to the creativity of their employees. The figures for the cultural and creative industries do not even include the creative minds in industry who, together with the scientific and technological specialists, make the global success of modern products and services possible. Creativity characterizes the search for the products, production methods, buildings, infrastructures, services and communication technologies of the future, a competition that determines the success of economies and the prosperity of societies worldwide. The cultural and creative industries are made up of various core areas whose employment figures are subject to varying degrees of dynamic development. The software and games industry, the press market, the advertising market and the design industry are followed by the architecture market, the book market, the film industry and the music industry in the midfield. At the end are the broadcasting industry, the performing arts and the art market. Of course, these statistics say nothing about the quality of creative output. But who can say with certainty today that material works of painting and sculpture will have greater cultural-historical relevance for future generations than digital works such as apps and animated films? We need new solutions for the unsolved problems of the present, innovative products and creative people in all professional fields relevant to the future.

The educational potential of art as a subject is based on the diversity of aesthetic practices and their interconnectedness with all fields of thought and action in modern societies. Today, all areas of modern society are so complex that successful and meaningful participation is only possible if the individual has acquired a basic understanding of the diverse codes of the cultural space. It is therefore becoming increasingly urgent for art lessons to deal with the outstanding works of all design disciplines, in particular with their significance in terms of the history of ideas, technology, social, economic and communicative aspects. The challenges of digitalization open up a great opportunity for the subject, as they provide important impulses for the renewal of modern societies, which can be tracked down, illuminated, shaped and critically evaluated by pupils using methods of artistic practice.

[1] Further information on this topic can be found at: www.digitalisierung.education
[2] See symposium “Computer learning for understanding the digital media world”, http://www.digitalisierung.education/informatisches-lernen-zum-verstehen-der-digitalen-medienwelt/
[3] Buether, Axel: Art as a dialog process. In: Martina Ide et al. (ed.). Current positions in art didactics. kopaed Munich 2016
Buether, Axel: Ways to creative design. Methods and exercises. Leipzig 2013
[4] Buether, Axel: Die Bildung der räumlich-visuellen Kompetenz. Neurobiological foundations for the methodical promotion of vivid perception, imagination and representation in the design and communication process. Publication series Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, vol. 23rd Halle (Saale) 2010
[5] “In terms of time devoted to the arts, approximately half the European countries dedicate between 50 and 100 hours per year to the arts at primary level and between 25 and 75 hours per year at lower secondary level (see Chapter 2). At primary level, this is certainly less than the time allocated to the language of instruction, mathematics or sciences (natural and social sciences taken together), but the majority of countries devote more time to arts education than to teaching foreign languages or to physical education. However, at lower secondary level, the time allocated to arts subjects also decreases in comparison to the other subject areas. At this level, the majority of countries not only devote less time to arts education than to the language of instruction, mathematics, natural and social sciences (taken together or separately), and foreign languages, but also to physical education.” Cf. “Arts and Cultural Education at School in Europe”, Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA P9 Eurydice) 2009, p.77. http://www.eurydice.org [24 .02.2016].
[6] UNESCO/UNDP: Creative Economy Report 2013: www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/themes/creativity/creative-economy-report-2013-special-edition [18 .12.2015].
[7] Monitoring of selected key economic data of the cultural and creative industries 2013, ed. v. Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi): https://www.kultur-kreativ-wirtschaft.de/ [18 .12.2015].

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