Some notes on the chat session from July 2nd 2012

I talked with Noora about the conditions of art, intercultural/multicultural understanding, and her project of photography of empowerment.

There are two elements of an effective setting to learn/experience/change that are often described by educational scientists, one element to be explicitely created, and one to be implicitely created:

1.) A framing, e.g. by context markers, narratives, cultural contextualisations etc. (see Bateson), to be created or integrated into the setting by the producer/artist/teacher of the project;
2.) and a free space for the user/viewer/learner to apply “closure” on (see McCloud), to fill the gap between the context markers by one’s own interpretation.

There is a third element, probably the most tricky one. Bateson mentions it fleetingly, von Foerster, unfortunately, doesn’t talk about it:

3.) Something that motivates the user/viewer/learner to fill the gap, some incentive for him or her to change a well-known viewpoint and follow the course into uncharted cognitive territory.

Artists, therapists or educators each have a specific advantage touching this element: Aesthetics in art (“I want to experience”), psychological strain for therapists (“I want to change”) or curiosity for educators (“I want to know”).

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About Wey

My name's Wey-Han Tan, I graduated 2007 as Diplompädagoge (educational scientist) in Hamburg, and 2009 as M.A. in ePedagogy Design. Currently I work at the project "Universitätskolleg" as scientific assistant at the Faculty for Educational Sciences, Psychology and Human Movement at the University of Hamburg. My research interests are game based learning, second order gaming, media theory and (radical) constructivist approaches. I like pen-and-paper-roleplaying, especially in contemporary horror settings like "KULT" or "Call of Cthulhu".
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