Confronting (Inter) Subjectivities through Arts-Based Research:A Socio-Critical Perspective to a Community-Based Art Educational Research Project

The proposed presentation introduces an on-going dissertation research, which entails an artistic and an experimental interaction between a person with autism and an art educator: an artist, a researcher and a teacher. The work explores the possibilities of different modes of non-verbal interaction through collaborative artistic work. The methods used are modified from social aware contemporary art theory, community based art, and the wider theoretical focus explores the philosophy of art education and art theory. The focus of this artistic research is the process of co-creation and copresence instead the analysis of finished paintings. Through performative writing I attempt to understand the relationships between representation, (mis)cognitive, and artistic understanding, and to acknowledge and critically study subjectivity, inter-subjectivity and positionality. The acquired knowledge gains representation in a visual form or in writing and both of these are seen as active forms of producing knowledge. All collaborative sessions have been video taped, which not only allows me to further analyze the various forms of non-verbal interaction between the two of us but aids in the critical analysis of what it means to be a social aware art educator or an artist.