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355
ETA 11 (3) pp. 355–374 Intellect Limited 2015
International Journal of Education through Art
Volume 11 Number 3
© 2015 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/eta.11.3.355_1
University of British Columbia, Canada
The authors present stories in motion, reminding all those interested in practice-
based research of the importance of a/r/tography as becoming-intensity, becom-
ing-event and becoming-movement. Embracing a métissage approach, this article
provides an example of art educators co-labouring in order to understand their need
for materializing, theorizing and practising their ideas, and, in doing so, realize that
being committed to emergence offers ways for becoming artist, researcher and teacher
as ways of living one’s art practice as research.
A/r/tography is a practice of living enquiry that combines life-writing with
life-creating. It promotes artistic enquiry as an aesthetic awareness, one that
is open to wonder while trusting uncertainty. Through attention to memory,
identity, autobiography, reflection, meditation, storytelling and cultural
production, artists/researchers/teachers/learners expose their living practices
in both evocative and provocative ways (Irwin 2013). Springgay et al. note that
a/r/tography is an ‘inquiring process that lingers in the liminal spaces between
a (artist), and r (researcher), and t (teacher)’, thereby becoming a fluid form
a/r/tography
practice-based research
becoming
métissage
co-labouring
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of enquiry that is created through a rigorous and continuous form of reflexiv-
ity and analysis (2005: 902). Utilizing the concept of métissage (see also Irwin
and de Cosson 2004), this article depicts how a/r/tography not only weaves
these (and possible other) identities together, but also interweaves theory,
practice and poesis, allowing deeper understandings to emerge over time. It
also demonstrates how a/r/tographers engage in their own becoming while
being in communities of enquiry where stories are perpetually in motion,
weaving through one another to enlarge, disrupt and enrich our understand-
ings. In creating our autobiographies as métissage, we reflect upon moments
of becoming in the presence of one another: stories of motion in which peda-
gogical significance emerges.
In a recent article entitled ‘Becoming a/r/tography’, Rita Irwin describes
how her attention has shifted from what an art education practice might mean
to exploring what art education, as a ‘practice set in motion’ (2013: 198), might
do. This article attempts to enact a practice set in motion. Utilizing métissage
as an artful weaving of relations (Hasebe-Ludt et al. 2008), we weave together
three narratives, each one recounting the experience of engaging in an
a/r/tographical project in order to explore how a/r/tography, as a practice-
based form of research, allows important autobiographical explorations with
pedagogical implications. These narratives are supported by Rita’s contribu-
tions initially as an instructor of the course that led to some of these narratives
and later as a member of a community of enquiry. Becoming a/r/tography may
be witnessed by what an art education practice set in motion does: it is always
in a state of becoming-intensity, becoming-event and becoming-movement.
Each of these practices is evident in our métissage. After all, becoming-inten-
sity is about the capacity to affect and be affected by learning to learn, while
becoming-event is enacted through the rhizome in which ‘affect resonates,
reverberates, echoes across time and space within and beyond the event’
(Irwin 2013: 207). Finally, becoming-movement exemplifies a ‘potentiality for
a plurality of problems’ (Irwin 2013). Each of these is evident in the métissage
enacted here because becoming is an emergent immersive process that exists
in the liminal multiple lines of flight and multiple encounters that encourage
experimentation and improvisation.
As an emergent process, what happens when we attend to what our stories
contribute? ‘There can be no being a/r/tography without processes of becom-
ing-a/r/tography’ (Irwin 2013: 200). What Irwin refers to as ‘a dynamic proc-
ess of knowing [that] is performed across three moments of becoming, one
un/folding into the other, blurring the boundaries of each’ (2013: 200). This
text is a weaving of three individual stories becoming a/r/tography through
becoming-artist, becoming-researcher and becoming-teacher.
BecomiNg-artiSt
Sara
I have never considered myself a visual artist. Though I am the sister, the
daughter, the grand-daughter, and the great-granddaughter of artists, the
identity has never resonated within me. Instead, I express myself in writing,
choosing the perfect word instead of the perfect hue. And often when I have a
difficult experience, I turn to writing to make sense out of it. I regularly share
my writing with others, but I rarely consider how others will interpret my
thoughts. Instead, I write my stories in the hope that readers will find a part of
themselves in my words and know that they are not alone.
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When I began the a/r/tography class, I was still struggling with an expe-
rience of discrimination that had occurred in the previous semester. It had
happened during a class and involved the use of the word ‘dirty’ to describe
aspects of indigenous people. As a woman of indigenous ancestry, I emerged
from the experience feeling tremendously ashamed and alone, as initially I
was the only person to speak out against the use of the word. What I came to
believe was that the silence in the classroom that day arose from the inability
of others to comprehend the lifelong struggle I had endured with the word
‘dirty’ and all of the associated negative stereotypes. I turned to a/r/tography in
the hopes of beginning to make sense of the experience.
As I learnt, there are openings in a/r/tography that allow us to ‘open up
conversations and relationships instead of informing others about what has
been learned’ (Irwin and Springgay 2008: xxx). They invite us to explore our
own experiences in unstructured and often unexpected ways. When I began
the class, I did not intend to create a video of my experiences with discrimina-
tion (Davidson 2014); I was merely seeking a way to help others to understand.
But when I imagined the most compelling way to communicate my experi-
ence, it was not with words. It was with the image of my face. It became an
invitation to see the humanity beneath my skin, an invitation to hear my story
in my own voice. I understand now that I created an identity text (Cummins
and Early 2011), and it was affect (Deleuze and Guattari 1987) that I sought in
this invitation to engage in dialogue.
Figure 1: My Life, Sara Florence Davidson (2014).
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Something
beckons from within
an invitation to explore,
to ‘affect and be affected’.
(Deleuze and Guattari 1987: xvi)
In the spaces between
the words
I find
the artist-becoming
And I imagine
the possibility
of existing here
in the tension,
in the place of
curiosity and wonder
Perhaps here
I can learn
to learn.
Jee YeoN
We were improvising again
One spontaneous splash of creativity after another
Little fingers freely dancing across the piano keys
Happily exploring our sounding world
‘Why do you like to improvise?’
‘Because …’
With a great big smile,
‘I can make b-e-a-u-t-i-ful noise …’
In our piano lessons, my students and I enjoy improvising together.
Sometimes, we find inspirations from our favourite storybooks. Other times,
we draw pictures to inspire musical ideas and to ‘notate’ our piano improvisa-
tions. Between our creative piano play, we also engage in long and improvised
conversations about music and anything else that captures our imagina-
tions. For us, sharing music improvisation and conversation with one another
inspires new questions and ideas. Our improvisational piano lessons take us
on a journey beyond the notes we read and play from the standard music
books.
As a classically trained pianist, however, piano improvisation is a new
practice for me. I was always curious about improvisation. Without know-
ing why, a part of me always longed for making music of my own. But it was
not until I began improvising with my young students that I became aware
of how much I enjoyed playing and writing my own music. In that sense, it
was my students who inspired me to begin improvising. It was my students
who encouraged me to listen and attend to my own musical needs. Thus, as
I continue to create and perform new, creative concert programmes, I now
aspire to integrate my own piano improvisations into my repertoire along
with my favourite classical and contemporary piano works. And as I work
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towards realizing my own artistic projects, I am also searching for new, musi-
cal ways of inspiring my young beginner piano students to discover their own
performing artistry.
For those reasons, I agree with Rodgers and Raider-Roth’s understand-
ing that the ‘teaching demands connecting with students and their learning,
and the health of that connection is nurtured or jeopardized by the teacher’s
relationship to herself’ (2006: 271). Similarly, Irwin reminds us that ‘to truly
care for [the students], it is vitally important for [teachers] to care for them-
selves first’ (2006: 75). With those ideas in mind, as a way of creating a caring
relationship with my students, and myself, I am learning to practise a musical
living, an a/r/tographical way of knowing through music. As a piano teacher,
I wish for my students to find their own musical voice. I wish for them to
experience the joy of piano playing. I wish to be a part of their musical jour-
ney. With my students, I wish to share an a/r/tographical journey towards a
musical enquiry.
For me, that means that I need to be in presence with my own artistic self
to listen to my musical calling
to trust my own musical self
to continue discovering my musical voice
and be walking the path of my own ‘pedagogy of self’
(2006: 75)
Natalie
My mother was a tailoress in Scotland before moving to Canada at the age
of 17. Throughout my lifetime, she has made a significant amount of my
clothing, from my baptism gown to my prom dress, and many school clothes
and Halloween costumes in between. As a child, I watched as she carefully
selected the pattern and the fabric, and patiently considered every detail from
the choice of thread, zipper, ribbons, buttons, and snaps. On some occasions,
she even sewed labels that said ‘made with love from mom’.
Figure 2: Video still, Piano Improvisation I, Jee Yeon Ryu (2014). Available at
http://vimeo.com/112247898.
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Having taught me to sew at a young age, my mother planted a seed.
As such, I have always had an appreciation for hand-made things. They are
unique, personal, passionately assembled, and they tell a story. For Leggo,
when we tell stories of our lives, ‘we reveal ourselves in intimate ways and we
grow more confident in our conviction about the power of words for writing
our lived stories, and transforming our living stories, and creating possibilities
for more life-enhancing stories’ (2008: 4).
My first a/r/tography project began when I started saving the clothes
that I had worn during various times and moments in my life – clothes
that my mother made for me, as well as the very first items I learnt to
sew with my mother’s guidance, first by hand, and then by machine. I
also saved other clothes that I simply loved to wear (and wear out) and
brought this collection of clothing along with my other belongings when
I moved to Vancouver from Montreal to begin my doctoral studies at the
University of British Columbia. Although I had intended to make a quilt
with them, through my a/r/tographic enquiry I was inspired to do some-
thing else.
As I touched each piece of fabric, memories began pouring out of them
like a flood. The patterns, the smells and the stains transported me to a differ-
ent place and time. I wanted to wear them again. I decided to make a dress as
I felt a dress was a better representation of my lived experience. Aesthetically,
my dress resembles a patchwork quilt; it is a new assemblage (Deleuze and
Guattari 1987) that (re)combines the multiple garments that I have worn,
interchanged, and shed throughout my life.
Figure 3: (Re)creating my Fabric, Natalie LeBlanc (2014).
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BecomiNg-reSearcher
Sara
In the words of Springgay et al. (2008a: 83), ‘What exists in the space between
inside and outside is an unknown relationship between self and other’; I did
not know this in the beginning. However, I now realize that in creating the
images for my video I took what was inside of me and placed it outside. I did
this in the hope of generating an understanding in others. By ‘lingering in these
liminal spaces’ (Leggo et al. 2011: 241), I was attempting to better understand
myself through dialogue and in my relations with others. In Sidorkin’s words,
I do not find my self inside of me. Instead, my self exists in relations
between others and me. I look at the other not as in a mirror, as many
have suggested. To the contrary, my real self is out there, in the multi-
tude of relations with multiple others, and it is only partially under my
control. And when I look inside, I see a complex reflection of the real
relational self. My self does not merely manifest itself through relation
with others, rather, it exist [sic] only in relation with others.
(1999: 142)
Beyond its capacity to facilitate dialogue and relation with others, my video
also helped me to create a figured world (Holland et al. 1998) where I was able
Figure 4: Dialogue, Sara Florence Davidson (2014).
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to have my identities ‘reflected back in a positive light’ (Cummins and Early
2011: 3). This figured world allowed me to explore possibilities and consider
different ways to make sense of my experience (Holland et al. 1998). As Urrieta
explains, ‘people “figure” who they are through the activities and in relation
to the social types that populate these figured worlds and in social relation-
ships with the people who perform these worlds. People develop new identi-
ties in figured worlds’ (2007: 108). This figured world allowed me to reconsider
the assumptions that I had made about the people around me as well as the
beliefs I held about myself.
The creation of the video allowed me to reinterpret my experience and
consider it in a multitude of ways. The sharing of the video allowed me to
engage in dialogue with others to achieve a greater understanding of myself
and others. Through this experience I was able to see the possibilities of the
use of figured worlds to author our lives in other ways. We can exert our
agency and transform our stories of adversity by examining them from differ-
ent perspectives. This allows us to create new worlds with ‘the possibilit[ies]
for making/creating new ways, artifacts, discourses, acts, perhaps even more
liberatory worlds’ (Urrieta 2007: 11).
Sidorkin says,
that his ‘real self
is out there
in the multitude of relations
with multiple others’.
(1999: 142)
It is in these relations
that we begin to catch glimpses
of ourselves.
He adds,
‘to be human
is to be different
from other humans’.
(1999: 1)
And it is our differences,
that allow me
to see myself.
A mirror reflects
our perfect opposite.
But we still use it
to see ourselves
more clearly.
Jee YeoN
According to Irwin, ‘to live the life of an artist who is also a researcher and
teacher is to live a life of awareness, a life that permits openness to the
complexity around us, a life that intentionally sets out to perceive things
differently’ (2004: 33). In that sense, a/r/tography as living enquiry (Irwin
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and de Cosson 2004; Springgay et al. 2008b) through the lens of a musician,
teacher and researcher (Gouzouasis 2006, 2008, 2013) invites, challenges and
enables me to reflect on my own performing practices (poesis as a musician)
and the ways in which an a/r/tographic approach to piano pedagogy (theoria
as a researcher) can help create meaningful music-making and piano-learning
experiences for my students (praxis as a teacher).
With those ideas in mind, I created a series of video recordings of my own
piano improvisations to explore the concepts of awareness, openness and
complexities of be(com)ing a pianist, teacher and researcher. By intentionally
setting out to capture the moving reflected images of myself improvising at
the piano, I attempted to explore, express and evoke the fleeting, improvisa-
tory moments with my students. Just as it is natural for young children to
move freely from one idea to another (Gouzouasis and Ryu 2014), my impro-
vised piano music and the fragmentary reflections of myself playing the piano
flow together in free improvisation.
Piano improvisation inspires me to listen, trust and connect with my artis-
tic self. It invites me to practise mindful listening. It draws me to linger in
sounding presence. When I am improvising, I begin to listen to every sense of
touch, thought and music flowing through my fingers. My inner being quietly
connects and converses with my sounding world. For those reasons, the artistic
process of filming my piano improvisations became a metaphor for my improv-
isational journey towards an a/r/tographic approach to piano pedagogy.
For me, a/r/tography is improvisational. It leads me to new ideas, possi-
bilities and inspirations. It challenges me to live a life of awareness (Irwin
2004), a musical life that mindfully sets out to being in a new way. Thus, as I
practise ‘being with a/r/tography’ (Springgay et al. 2008b) as a pianist, teacher
and researcher, I am learning to create a space and time for my students and
Figure 5: Video still, Piano Improvisation II, Jee Yeon Ryu (2014). Available at http://vimeo.com/110631718.
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myself to attune to our own musical selves. With my students, I am seeking
new, meaningfully ‘perceptive encounters’ (Greene 1977: 124) that celebrate
uncertainties, complexities and beauties of not knowing. Like Greene, I am
yearning towards possibilities as I practise ‘being present’ (1984: 123) to an
a/r/tographic approach to piano pedagogy that enables teachers and students
to actively engage in an ‘ongoing quest for understanding’ (Irwin and Springgay
2008: xxiii).
Sitting quietly
I face my piano
As I sound my first note
I anticipate the unknown journey
I follow where my music leads me
I answer to the calling
As I search
meandering the corners of my sounding thoughts
I listen to the ‘mystery of moments’
(Nachmanovitch 1990: 22)
– to the flow of dancing keys
Natalie
The process of selecting, cutting, arranging and sewing the fabric for my dress
(re)connected me with my past. Each piece of fabric that I touched, felt and
studied became channels to a memory and to a story. Each piece stirred a
different emotion, from happiness to sadness, fear and excitement, nostalgia
and even embarrassment. Reminding me of events and things forgotten, they
also provoked new thoughts about who I was and who I am becoming.
I found myself thinking about everyone who had come into my life in some
way and about the relationships I had formed – not only of my mother but
also of other family members, including my brothers, my father, my past and
current friends, boyfriends, schoolmates, teachers, coaches and co- workers.
I found myself thinking about the role that structure played in the forma-
tion of these relationships: schools I had attended, churches I belonged to,
extra-curricular activities I had taken part in, and sports that I practised, such
as gymnastics, highland dancing, swimming, diving, painting and piano, to
name a few. In constructing my dress, I was reflecting on much more than
the garments of clothing that I had once worn. I was thinking about the rela-
tionships that I had formed when I had been wearing them. I was becoming
aware of the contexts that had helped shape who I am: the beliefs I hold, the
personal virtues that I consider to be important and the ideological perspec-
tives that I entertain. The process of (re)constructing my fabric opened up a
site for which I was able to gain an understanding about the person I was and
am becoming in relation to the people and to the cultural and societal struc-
tures that have also played a role in shaping me throughout my life.
My dress is a representation of living enquiry (Irwin and Springgay 2008).
Uncertain as to where my journey leads, it has become something that I can
continue to make, wear and/or even shed in my quest for knowledge and
understanding. Irwin (2003) refers to this as an aesthetic of unfolding in which
in/sight plays a pivotal role in aesthetic enquiry. The ‘in’ is myself, wearing the
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dress (or providing a trace of my body when I am not wearing the dress). Held
with/in the centre, my body is surrounded and supported by an assemblage of
items that were made for me; that I have made; that I have worn; outgrown, and
kept as an artefact of my growth. ‘Sight’ plays on the manner in which my dress
brings all of these different pieces of fabric together, creating a new assemblage
that produces a new relation between each fragment that comprises the whole.
The ‘slash’ is the space between each piece of clothing, each memory and each
story, which draws attention to the seam and to the threads that simultaneously
hold each fragment together while keeping them apart. Springgay explains,
‘Fragments leave gaps. Slits. Cuts. Seams. Breath. Spaces with, in, and through
bodies, casting new fictions [and] creating new stories …’ (2003: 192). Seams
are what remind me ‘in-between-ness is imbued with the possibility and hope
of creative and political agency’ (Garoian and Gaudelius 2008: 100).
BecomiNg-teacher
Sara
When I began to create my artwork, I did not realize the impact it would have
upon my own transformation. Throughout its creation, I remained focused on
affect (Irwin 2013) – that is, my desire to bring my pain to life in a way that
would allow me to fully communicate my experience with others. I wanted
others to engage with the images and the words and to have an emotional
reaction. In doing so, I underestimated the power of the creation of the video
to transform me.
Figure 6: In the seam, Natalie LeBlanc (2014).
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Sameshima explains that ‘relationality-as-learning is connecting with the
other by distinguishing reflection in the other. Relationality-as-teaching is
providing a broad mirror in which the other is reflected’ (2008: 49). The crea-
tion of the video allowed me to connect with others in ways that allowed
them to reflect back to me their understandings and experiences and stories of
adversity while also acting as a mirror for their own inactions.
Upon further consideration, I was able to understand the pedagogical
possibilities for the use of multimodal responses to experiences of adversity
with my students. Many of the students with whom I work struggle with
discrimination both inside and outside the classroom. One of my roles in their
lives has been to support them to work through those challenges in ways
that allow them to engage with school academically. I have always worked
with them through journaling and talking, but this experience allowed me to
understand the value of creating an artistic and multimodal response to a very
challenging situation. Through this experience, I come to understand the truth
in Bach’s (2007) suggestion that engaging with the visual aspects of a narrative
allows for ‘another layer of meaning’. I believe that it also affords the creator
more time to fully consider a range of possibilities for action.
Cummins and Early (2011) speak of the value of identity texts to assist
students in gaining a positive reaction from others to aspects of their identity
that may have previously been a source of shame or discomfort. Furthermore,
the texts can open up intergenerational dialogues in both their creation and
Figure 7: Transformation, Sara Florence Davidson (2014).
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sharing. I can confirm the truth in this. The incredibly positive response to my
identity text has moved beyond my own generation, and it has supported me
to think differently about my indigenous ancestry – which had often been a
source of shame.
Working to create multimodal expressions of our adversities can strengthen
our understanding of others. It also supports us to come to a degree of peace
with aspects of our identities that continue to remain as spaces of struggle.
They encourage dialogue and allow us to explore the possibilities of new
figured worlds, and they allow us to transform our adversity.
I did not believe
in art’s capacity
to teach.
Perhaps
I did not listen
closely enough.
But now
I hear its whispers
beckoning to me
to explore the parts of myself
that were always
hidden
beneath.
And I am tempted
to exist for a moment
in its embrace
Cautiously
curious
of what
I may find.
Jee YeoN
As Irwin and Springgay remind us, a/r/tography is ‘concerned with creating
the circumstances to produce knowledge and understanding through inquiry
laden processes’ (2008: xxiv). Inspired by a/r/tographical ways of living enquiry
(Irwin and de Cosson 2004; Springgay et al. 2008b), I aspire to create an
a/r/tographic approach to piano pedagogy that calls for musically sounding
‘pedagogic situations’ (Aoki [1986/1991] 2005: 159) wherein teachers and
students are brought together to participate, enquire and share their own
artistic and learning processes with one another. For me, an a/r/tographic
approach to piano pedagogy engages me to mindfully listen and attend to
my students’ freely moving interests, curiosities and ideas. It helps me to
support my young students’ own musical ways of learning to play the piano.
While focusing my attention on the fleeting, improvisatory moments with my
students, an a/r/tographic approach to piano pedagogy offers me to keep on
searching for musically pedagogical ways of inspiriting my students’ creativity,
imagination and piano play.
Therefore, as I explore the ways in which my own performing practices
can guide, inform and connect with my piano-teaching practices, I imagine
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a piano pedagogy that calls for a trusting collaboration among students and
teachers. I imagine a piano pedagogy ‘set in motion’ (Irwin 2013: 198) that
invites both teachers and students to practise being in ‘pedagogical presence’
(Hill 2006) with one another. I imagine an improvisational a/r/tographic piano
pedagogy that values the importance of ‘presence in teaching’ (Rodgers and
Raider-Roth 2006) in children’s experiences of learning to play the piano.
For those reasons, I will continue to (re)search, reflect and cultivate my
own piano performing, teaching and researching practices to create more
meaningful, pedagogical and a/r/tographical learning experiences for my
young beginner piano students. To inspire my students and myself to continue
discovering and sharing our musical selves, I practise a/r/tography as an ‘ever-
present process’ (Dewey 1938: 50) towards an improvisational journey of a
musical enquiry.
My students’ stories, ideas, and questions matter to me
I want to encourage their curiosities –
to ask questions, to wonder, and to imagine possibilities in music
and in life
I want to share and be part of their musical journeys
I want to join them in their search for meanings
I want to listen
…
Every moment we share matters …
…
As we explore, create, and discover a musical living,
an a/r/tographical way of knowing through music,
I wish to unfold my students’ ‘beautiful noise’ into a ‘beautiful music’
Figure 8: Video still, Piano Improvisations III, Jee Yeon Ryu (2014). Available at http://vimeo.com/111389734.
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Natalie
In talking about clothing, and dresses in particular, women reveal not only
personal anecdotes but also personal stories about their lives that bring forth
ideas pertaining to the body, identity and culture. Weber and Mitchell (2004)
propose a methodology called dress stories in which clothing acts as an entry
point for autobiography and enquiry. This methodology is intriguing because
it not only concerns itself with the dress as a visual object but also emphasizes
‘the wearer’s view’, which is a perspective that particularizes ‘dresses-in-use’,
‘dresses embodied’ and ‘dresses worn’ (Weber and Mitchell 2004: 5). The dress
reconfigures time by provoking movement, dialogue and thought. It also
resists a traditional narrative structure that comprises a beginning, middle and
end by resisting closure. As a collage narrative (Garoian and Gaudelius 2008),
it brings new associations and new questions to surface. Instead of becoming
a totalized entity, the disparate fragments of garments produce various in-be-
tween spaces where meanings can be re-examined, remade and renegotiated
(Ellsworth 2005; Garoian and Gaudelius 2008).
By remembering my life experiences, and (re)searching my past, through
a/r/tographic enquiry, I (re)constructed my personal narrative and changed my
life story. As such, my dress has become a free-floating signifier that denotes
a temporal structure while exemplifying the complexity of my past experi-
ences and my present identity. It is an autobiographical work that portrays my
Figure 9: My Dress Story, Natalie LeBlanc (2014).
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subjective experience and my location in the world – a metaphor for the three
roles that I play as an artist, as a researcher and teacher, and how I thrive in
this liminal space.
As a pre-service visual art educator, I have grown concerned for what it
means for someone to become a teacher. Britzman attests that prospective
teachers bring to their teacher education more than a desire to teach. They
bring their implicit biographies, their ‘cultural baggage’ (1986: 442) and their
cumulative social experiences, which inform their knowledge of students,
school structure and curriculum and pedagogy. For Britzman (1986) the
dominant model of teacher education is vocational training, which neglects
the significance of institutional biography. Becoming-a/r/tography has
informed my understanding of becoming-teacher in that it involves paying
attention to how meaning is made from the spaces between biography and
practice. Importance resides on creating spaces in which pre-service teach-
ers can reflect on personal stories and lived experience where their beliefs,
values and assumptions about teaching and learning may be (re)opened
and (re)negotiated while learning to teach, and more importantly, learning
to learn.
NarrativeS oF BecomiNg, StorieS iN motioN
This article explores how a/r/tography produces artistic and pedagogical
potentialities, not in form, but in moments of interaction and connection.
Rather than producing a static or ascertainable entity, it generates dimensions
and directions in motion that become networked and distributed in time and
space. Informed by Gilles Deleuze’s (1990) philosophical concept of becoming,
a/r/tography is conceptualized as an intercultural formation that operates on
multiple registers of sensation in combination with a continuity of movement
that is not measurable or easily defined. As an event of movement (between
the things, the people and the thoughts involved), it requires receptivity to the
effects and affects of a/r/tography as a process/event.
As Rita Irwin explains, ‘Becoming-intensity is about the capacity to affect and
be affected through the dynamic movement of events with learning to learn’
(2013: 206, original emphasis). Here, Sara, Jee Yeon and Natalie experience
this becoming-intensity as they engage with their art: Sara with photographic
images and video, Jee Yeon with musical improvisation, and Natalie with the
creation of dress. Each individual used these artistic expressions to both inter-
act with themselves and with others to gain a better understanding of them-
selves. Engaging in a form of walking pedagogy (Irwin 2006), we performed a
contiguous side-by-side movement, allowing us to access experiences that are
multilayered, sensory and affective, which help us reach beyond the personal
to social understandings. Moving alongside one another, our autobiographi-
cal stories offered us a community of enquiry for becoming-intensity that was
deeply affective as we created and recreated our stories of becoming artist,
researcher and teacher.
In her discussion of becoming-event, Irwin (2013) describes the relational
paradigm that was invoked by the mapping of ‘contemplations and imagin-
ings’ (2013: 207) that emerged in our stories of motion. Gilles Deleuze (1990)
refers to the event as an indeterminant incipient transformational proc-
ess. Becoming, when conjoined with event, constitutes a double movement
with no beginning and no end (see also Garoian 2014). Here, Sara, Jee Yeon
and Natalie take up the idea of relationship in their narratives. Notions of
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dialogues with self, others and previous research emerge from these reflec-
tions on becoming-researcher. In these spaces we recognize that
Becoming-event does not reside in a single personal encounter: it resides
in a multiplicity of events that are social and collective. Becoming-event
runs alongside becoming-intensity as affect resonates, reverberates, echoes
across time and space within and beyond the event.
(Irwin 2013: 207, original emphasis)
As Sara demonstrates with the image of her hand (see Figure 4), there is a
reflection present in the process of becoming. Dialogue, which occurs with
others, also occurs with oneself. As Irwin reminds us, ‘life is full of entangled
lines of events, intensities, and movements’ (2013: 209). This is how we relate,
this is how we connect, but it is in dialogue that we come to understand one
another and come to new understandings about ourselves.
As Irwin further explains, ‘to see movement is to feel the body in relation to
potential’ (2013: 209). In these narratives we came to understand how we can
use art to teach and understand the potential in human beings; however, we
also came to understand how art is also a teacher. In our encounters with a/r/
tography and our multiple art forms, we came to know ourselves and others.
That is the power of art to teach. Rita Irwin’s understanding of movement
takes into account the notions of moving and being moved. In the same way
that Rita Irwin collaborated with Carl Leggo and Valerie Triggs (Triggs et al.
2014) to create multisensory experiences, we also came together in a space to
realize the entanglement of our artistic, pedagogical and theoretical ideas. As
Irwin recognized her own artistic experience of movement ‘heightened [her]
sensitivity to the aurality of physical spaces’ (2013: 211), we too transformed
our thinking through heightened sensitivities to stories in motion. Métissage is
a metaphor of interweaving. Working with our singular practices and contigu-
ous lines of flight, we moved in relation to one another, creating richly laden
stories of motion, affecting one another. We came to appreciate our collectivity
because we shared our autobiographical stories in motion.
Our stories in motion remind all those interested in practice-based
research or a/r/tography of the importance of métissage with no beginning
and no ending. Many people struggle to enact their identities in affective
ways. Embracing a métissage approach, our becoming transforms us as we
experiment, encounter and co-labour together to understand the materializ-
ing, theorizing and practising of our ideas. This article provides an example
of art educators co-labouring in order to understand their need for materi-
alizing, theorizing and practising their ideas, and, in doing so, realize that
being committed to emergence offers ways for becoming artist, researcher
and teacher that overlap and inform one another, enriching, entangling and
engaging one another, as ways of living our art practice as research.
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SuggeSted Citation
LeBlanc, N., Davidson S. F., Ryu, J. and Irwin R. L. (2015), ‘Becoming through
a/r/tography, autobiography and stories in motion’, International Journal of
Education through Art, 11: 3, pp. 355–374, doi: 10.1386/eta.11.3.355_1
Contributor detailS
Natalie LeBlanc is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Curriculum &
Pedagogy at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia,
specializing in art education. Her research interests include arts-based
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(educational) research practices, relational and social art practices, learning in
art, photography as a mode of enquiry, living pedagogy, life history and artistic
ways of knowing. She currently teaches elementary and secondary pre-service
visual art teacher candidates at UBC.
Contact: The University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC,
V6T 1Z4, Canada.
E-mail: info@natalieleblanc.com
Sara Florence Davidson is a Haida educator and Ph.D. candidate in the
Department of Language and Literacy at the University of British Columbia.
She has worked in the K-12 system with high school students in rural
British Columbia and the Yukon and more recently with teacher candidates
at UBC. Her research interests include adolescent literacy education, narra-
tive research, Aboriginal education, and culturally responsive teaching and
research practices.
Contact: The University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC,
V6T 1Z4, Canada.
E-mail: sarafdavidson@gmail.com
Jee Yeon Ryu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy
at The University of British Columbia, specializing in music education. Her
research interests include creative piano playing, teaching and learning
approaches that focus on children’s musical play, imagination and creativity.
Contact: The University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC,
V6T 1Z4, Canada.
E-mail: jeeyeonryu@gmail.com
Rita L. Irwin is Professor of Art Education and the Associate Dean of Teacher
Education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. While
her research interests include arts teacher education, artist-in-residence
programmes, and sociocultural issues, she is best known for her work in
expanding how we might imagine and conduct arts practice-based research
methodologies through collaborative and community-based collectives.
Contact: The University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC,
V6T 1Z4, Canada.
E-mail: rita.irwin@ubc.ca
Natalie LeBlanc, Sara Florence Davidson, Jee Yeon Ryu and Rita L. Irwin have
asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to
be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to
Intellect Ltd.
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