Art Practice as Possible Worlds

Abstract

This paper explores the possibilities of arts practice in early childhood education. Building on her master's thesis, the author presents both a doing -her experimentation with arts practice in two early childhood centres -and an argument: that art may present an opening onto possible worlds. The author builds these worlds in relation to her theoretical framework: an immanent relational materialist onto-epistemology. Viewed through this lens, art's possible worlds have the potential to traverse, mix, and disrupt binaries that maintain marginalized positions. Art practice from this intersection of rupture is both intensely creative and deeply political. Keywords: art, early childhood education, body, Deleuze and GuattariVanessa Clark is an atelierista (studio educator) for two projects with the

Improving Sensemaking in Social Work: A worked example with Deleuze and Art

“…These are areas or structures without organisation, but filled with potentiality, connections and affects. For Clark (2012), arts explorations work with these sites "through experimenting with different assemblages of bodies: ideas, chairs, sounds, my body, your body, and so on. .…”

“…For Deleuze (Deleuze and Guattari, 1994) art is a space of possibility and “the exchange between the actual and virtual” (Angelucci, 2014:334). This materialising is possible because “philosophy and the arts share the common goal of creating possibilities of life, new modes of existence” (Bogue, 2007:280), or possible worlds (Clark, 2012:198), preserving sensations in material moments.…”

“…These are areas or structures without organisation, but filled with potentiality, connections and affects. For Clark (2012), arts explorations work with these sites “through experimenting with different assemblages of bodies: ideas, chairs, sounds, my body, your body, and so on…each piece that connects…has different movements, potentials, and affects. Experimentation unlocks the potentials of the pieces” (Clark, 2012: 203).…”

“…For Clark (2012), arts explorations work with these sites “through experimenting with different assemblages of bodies: ideas, chairs, sounds, my body, your body, and so on…each piece that connects…has different movements, potentials, and affects. Experimentation unlocks the potentials of the pieces” (Clark, 2012: 203). In social work, it provides opportunity for the “…reframing one’s experiences and working with problems” (Crociani-Windland, 2017: 251) in ways that present new relations, reconfiguring “…our affective connections, foregrounding some aspects of experience, whilst putting others in the background” (p.260).…”

A diffractive exploration of affect: Learning, research and teaching in obstetrics

“…Educational research using drawings as a form of visual communication and data-in-themaking is on the increase (Holbrook and Porchier 2014;Clark 2012;Springgay and Zaliwska 2015). Drawings/diagrams/images open up opportunities to diffractively explore the entanglement of material-discursive practices and the forces that play out in the unfolding of matter and mattering.…”