Mind, Language and Artworks as Real Constraints on Students' Critical Reasoning about Meaning in Art

Abstract

To engage in discussions of artwork meaning is to engage in critical reasoning, a factor that is central to the interpretation of artworks in the art classroom. While this may appear as a common‐sense claim that reflects the tacit assumptions most art educators have about students' critical dispositions in art, it is also evident that little is known about the deeper structures underlying students’ critical reasoning and how such structures shape students’ interpretations of artworks. Drawing on my research on students’ theories of critical meaning in art, this article explores the nature of practical and theoretical constraints on students’ critical reasoning about the meaning of artworks. I account for how intentional beliefs, language and representational artefacts function as a nexus of real constraints that condition students’ advance into interpretations of the social meaning of art. After briefly outlining the design and methodology of my study, I examine students’ critical reasoning performances during the formative period of development between middle to late childhood. The findings reveal that with increasing age students gradually learn to exercise their own critical intentions and represent inferences that acknowledge the significance of constitutive rules and force of a collective intentionality in the artworld on their interpretations of artworks as artefacts. I then make some conclusions about the relationship of domain‐specific shifts in art understanding, the role of intentionality, representational understanding, beliefs about art and reasoning skills to the linguistic, theoretical and artefactual constraints conditioning students’ intuitive advance into real understandings of art.

[Retracted] Pose Estimation under Visual Sensing Technology and Its Application in Art Design

“…Art belongs to the social superstructure, and it is an important part of people's spiritual life after their needs of material life are met. If the economy is more prosperous, the higher living standards are and the greater demand for art is becoming [1]. The art design is a process in which artists express their inspiration, experience, and feelings through artworks and commu-nicate with the public.…”

Epistemologies and Aesthetics of Curriculum, Pedagogical Praxis and Assessment in the Visual Arts: A Comparative Analysis of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme and the New South Wales Stage 6 Visual Arts Syllabus

“…A standard‐based curriculum, it features two components: art making and art criticism/art history, articulated via a single set of HSC Performance Standards (NESA 2022a). With an emphasis on the development of students’ art understandings (Brown 2017), NSWVA aims to enhance students’ “intellectual autonomy” (NESA 2000/2016, 6), structured according to three fundamental elements: (1) epistemological beliefs about art, (2) creative performances as practical and conceptual forms of reasoning and (3) ontological orientations to artworks as social artefacts that arise and are valued within exchanges among social agents such as critics and artists (Maras 2018). These elements frame syllabus content, assessment and examination.…”

A Realist Account of Critical Agency in Art Criticism in Art and Design Education

“…In a previous article in this journal I explored the proposal that interpretations of the critical meaning of art are grounded within a nexus of constraints in the form of beliefs, reasoned speech acts and artworks as artefacts (Maras ). Drawing on John R. Searle's (, , , ) realist account of the structure of the world as a social reality, I applied his theory to frame a study that mapped the theoretical and practical constraints on children's critical reasoning skills from middle to late childhood.…”