Interpreting Students' Spatial Experiences in the Contemporary Visual Media World

Beatriz Tomsic Cerkez
xrofessor for Didactics of Art Education
Department of Art Education, Faculty of Education, Ljubljana
E-mail: beatriz.tomsic.cerkez@volja.net

INTRODUCTION

New Technologies and the World of Visual Media

As the age of electronic images began, the proliferation of new technologies affected almost all aspects of our lives and resulted in a revolution in the world of visual media. Like its predecessor, the "linguistic turn," which prevailed during the 1970s, the "pictorial turn" is now in progress. The ways we deal with the plethora of visual information the world of visual media offers today open an inevitable number of very interesting and highly-significant inquiries applied to the field of education in general--and of (visual) art education in particular, since it deals mostly with visual images of all kinds.

Especially worth note in today's school are those students who are in daily contact with television or video with its colorful, fast-moving sequences of images, and of course, computers, which provide a wide range of possible uses and experiences. Scanning and combining images, experimenting with tools offered by different programs, exploring the possibility of multiple printings, and the divergence between printed and screen images are only a few possible areas to consider. These changes do not only imply increasing speed of passing images, mechanical simplicity, and wide possibilities in the resolution of different technical processes but perhaps most of all a specific experience of space perception and representation, which every student carries with him/herself to the classroom and is essential to education in general, and to art education in particular.

New spatial experiences are important not only in the case of Art Education but for other school subjects that deal with visual representation. This supposition is important when talking about the development of the capacity to image spatial relationships when speaking about geometry, geography, biology, physics or chemistry. On the other hand, "a developed visuality" and all the contents this concept involves and supposes is required in almost all activities and therefore, must offer a synthesized image and operative experiences.

As it is well known, computers are making new and unique aesthetic experiences possible and changing the way in which art is conceived, created, and perceived. Numerous images are produced with widely available, highly interactive, and user-friendly software. A new world has opened for artists as well as educators and their students. Technological development requires the teaching profession to make changes at an unprecedented rate and opens a wide number of questions. Some of them are relevant to artistic as well as teaching practice. For example: can the pressing of a button substitute or replace the painstaking mixture of paint on the painter's palette and the layering of it on the canvas? Is it possible to compare, in any aspect, the results of multiple computer printings to the different techniques of engraving? Is it possible to compare the implications of computer drawing, which automatically solves problems, to traditional hand drawing, which takes much more effort and time? Other interesting inquiries include which elements of the process of learning will improve the development of hand skills needed in writing, painting, drawing and/or modeling? It is also possible that the ways of learning will change since it is true that writing as well as drawing is an instrument to express or a way of sketching thoughts.

As a matter of fact, writing and drawing on the computer still entails expressing thoughts, but the methods we employ to construct the product-- text, drawing, and picture--are much different. Having the possibility to erase, reposition, rewrite, or get back to the first variant means different conditions of work from the ones used when hand-writing, correcting and copying the last clean and perfect variant with the typewriter. Something similar happens with drawings. The design of a drawing (the size, the drawing in the field of the blank sheet of paper, its position, the kind of model chosen to show the characteristic of the object, etc.) meant/implied many previous operations, schemes, and other auxiliary drawings before the artist decided exactly how to work. Working with the computer means a different kind of self-confidence: it is possible to try many times without much effort or time spent, and it demands a lower degree of spatial imagination (the possibility of "seeing space relations in the mind" before we make an irremediable mistake on the paper or when constructing a prototype). On the other hand, it is possible to engage, combine, and use much more information at one time than before the appearance of this magical machine.  ^[1]

Many investigations have been held about the use of new multimedia technologies and their increasing role in education. The term "multimedia" refers to the combination of multiple technical resources for the purpose of presenting information represented in multiple formats via multiple sensory modalities. Accordingly, multimedia resources can be considered in three different levels: the technical level (the technical devices such as computers, networks, displays, etc,. that are the carriers of signs;) the semiotic level (the representational format such as texts, pictures, and sounds of those signs); the sensory level (the sensory modality of sign reception such as visual or auditory modality (Schnotz and Lowe 117). Recent research indicates that multiple external representations and multiple modalities are not always beneficial for learning (Schnotz and Lowe 118). Mayer's theory states that students learn more deeply from words and pictures than from words alone, that they learn more deeply when extraneous material is excluded rather than included, and that they learn more deeply when printed words are placed near rather than far from corresponding pictures (Mayer 125-140). Schnotz and Bannert state that adding pictures to a text may not always be beneficial for learning, but may have negative effects if poorly matched to the learning task (Schnotz and Bannert 141-156).

In fact, it is possible to ground the inquiries on the ways learning will presumably change within investigations such as those recently held by Lewalter, who questions the assumption that animations result in better learning than static pictures and examines whether the two kinds of visual displays lead to different cognitive processing. She argues that the difference between their respective cognitive processing demands is twofold. On the one hand, directly supporting the construction of a dynamic mental model through an animation may reduce the load of cognitive processing. On the other hand, the transitory nature of dynamic visuals my cause higher cognitive load because learners have less control of their speed of processing (Lewalter 177-189).

This brings up an interesting question relating to the pedagogical consequences of the above concept, which could be described as a trial-and-error method offered by the computer. When the computer was not available for use, changing the background of a picture, for example, was quite a tedious work. Designers had to carefully measure their decisions because an error would mean much more work and lost time. The computer allows us to perform the same thing and visualize it in a nearly-infinite number of variants in a few seconds. The same happens with texts: it is possible to try, find errors, delete them, and rapidly rewrite many times.

This method does not primarily demand hand skills, but instead, a high degree of accuracy when designing the goals of every operation as well as regarding the final product. The designer-student (and the teacher as well) has the important task of critical evaluation: deciding between a wide range of possibilities and the necessity to choose the right and most appropriate variant. Being able to be critical implies skills demonstrated in different fields. A useful resource to consider when referring to goals and critical evaluation in educational process is Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive goals. He categorized levels of abstraction in questions that commonly occur in educational settings. Though this taxonomy is well known, I will briefly mention its elements to give an idea of the importance of these competencies when speaking about critical evaluation and self evaluation.

Bloom defined six categories of abstraction: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. "Knowledge" means observation and recall of information; "comprehension" means understanding information, being able to translate knowledge into a new context and to interpret, compare-contrast, order facts, infer causes, and predict consequences; "application" is related to the use of information, methods, concepts, and theories in new situations, and to solve problems using required skills or knowledge; "analysis" means seeing patterns, identifying components and recognizing hidden meanings; "synthesis," or usage of old ideas to create new ones, relates to knowledge from several areas, and it allows the prediction of conclusions; and finally, "evaluation" refers to the ability to compare and discriminate among ideas, assess value of theories, verify the value of evidence, and recognize subjectivity (12-35).

A Glance at History

A glance through history always offers rich examples to compare and contrast with the present times and eventually to learn and infer conclusions from them. An interesting and revolutionary event to analyze particularly for its relation to the problems of "visuality," is in the 15th- century's advent of printing, begun with Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. In spite of the fact that the exact nature of the impact which the invention and spread of printing had on Western civilization remains unknown, many discussions point to consequences associated with the consumption of printed products or with changed mental habits (Eisenstein 5). One might talk about a basic change in a mode of book production, about a communications or media revolution, or perhaps most simply and explicitly about a shift from script to print (Eisenstein 13). Whatever label is used, it should cover a large cluster of relatively simultaneous, interrelated changes.

Not the least were the marked increase in the output of books and the drastic reduction in the number of man hours required to turn them out; the fact that hand-drawn illustrations were replaced by more easily- duplicated woodcuts and engravings--an innovation which eventually helped to revolutionize technical literature by introducing "exactly repeatable pictorial statements into all kinds of reference books. The fact that identical images, maps and diagramas could be viewed simultaneously by scattered readers constituted a kind of communications revolution in itself" (Eisenstein 22).

The author also mentions the importance of the effects produced by reorganizing texts and reference guides: rationalizing, codifying and cataloguing data. Because the thoughts of readers are guided by the way the contents of books are arranged and presented, she suggests basic changes in book format might well lead to changes in thought patterns (Eisenstein 64).

In the field of art, the importance of the possibility to reproduce art works in books and other printed material meant on the one hand a wider diffusion of works of art, and on the other new experiences based on the difference in sizes and proportions of art works in relation to the observer; traits such as the quality of colors, the lack of texture in paintings, and the impossibility to walk around works of sculpture or architecture are only a few important positive and also negative features.

Print was surely a very important factor in the promotion of the concurrent development of writing. In fact, it was a time which many authors define as a turn from an oral to a visual reading culture: the perception of the written page space, the relationship between visualization and memory, the introduction of orthographic signs, and the standardization of typography are a few of the milestones that fueled the radical change of mental habits (Chaytor 4). These also meant a revolution in didactics if we remember that, for example, Galeno's, Ptolomeo's and Vitruvio's texts were for the first time "standardly" illustrated, and that it was for the first time possible to print identical images, maps for geography, diagrams, cards for different subjects like chemistry or biology, and in the end to print--and popularize--illustrated books for children. Esienstein writes, "To treat the visual aid as a discrete unit is to loose sight at the connecting links which were especially important for technical literature because they expressed the relationship between words and things" (24). An important question opens at this point: Is it possible to draw a parallel development between the links among written (printed) and spoken words and visualize spatial relations and their increasing accuracy of representation through two dimensional models--in other words, drawings?

Whatever should be our answer to this question, we can conclude that print and its consequences meant a radical transformation in the conditions of intellectual life at the end of the 15th century, and that these consequences, which were crucial for the development of the different sciences that are involved in education at all levels, are still effectual.

The 16th century was also the moment architectonic drawing--using perspective as well as other technical methods to exactly draw on object-- was practically born, and with it, a totally new conception of spatial design. Many things changed in the field of architectural theory: the works of the ancients were, even by the 15th century, in ruins. Vitruvio's^[2] texts were illustrated by hand, which meant that their content could contain errors and be changed with every new copy. The number of illustrations in all treatises on architecture grew quickly after the advent of print. The number of written and published treatises also grew rapidly. ^[3]

The drawings architects did before 16th century were scarce and the few that have been preserved look rather "naive." It is nearly impossible to say that they were meant to be accurate documentation of an object; they look like mere illustrations. Drawings with exact technical information and details were still very far away (Murray 8-13). Instead of drawing, architects used mostly three-dimensional models, or "maquettes," to present their ideas. The development of the studies on perspective and other kinds of two-dimensional representations, such as parallel presentations, axonometries, etc., turned out a different kind of approach regarding spatial design. Argan affirms that at the end of the 16th and 17th century a key shift occurred in the way architects considered space (12-22). Architecture, or "presentation of space," was replaced by an architecture of "creation of space." Presentation of space means composition on the basis of an objective reality, a set of rules that are fixed. Creation of space, on the contrary, means vital action, experience and completely new ideas. Argan posits that these transformations in the architects' attitude occurred because they learned to imagine and draw spatial formations in a new way, they possessed much more information, and of course, a different position in the world they faced.

As far as the use of electronic media is transforming our everyday lives, it is interesting and relevant to have in mind the processes of transformation that our civilization faced during other historical moments and draw conclusions, or at least ideas, that should enrich our work and reflections when we think about the challenges electronic media have brought to education. For instance, the computer is now a tool that offers new ways of visualization, operation, and wide possibilities in the concrete realization of projects. These facts led again to new definitions of space on the basis of what can be actually constructed.  ^[4]

ABOUT THE RESEARCH

Everyday life in a school environment offers many interesting challenges (especially in Slovenia). A generational gap between many teachers and students is becoming deeper; many older teachers have little experience with electronic media. Simply being able to handle Schnotz and Lowe's technical area is not enough; teachers should be primarily experts in the semiotic and sensory levels. Not all of them have experience in this field. On the other hand, computing is included in school programs from 1st grade. Students make wide use of computers because schools are highly-provisioned with technology.

One of the questions I wish to find answers to is how different media shape the characteristics and personality of contemporary and future students, as well as how the media can "reshape" their visions of the world. I found a possible and partial answer when I conducted research among first-year high school students in Slovenia.

Methods

In Slovenia a new school reform (at all levels of education) is taking place. Many different didactic theoretical foundations are being developed for (visual) art education in secondary schools, which includes drawing, painting, print making, sculpture and (architectural) space design. The goals include the development of observation, space representation, creativity, imagination, evaluation of artistic and natural objects, the knowledge of contents from artistic theory and history, artistic techniques, processes and materials, and the rendering of a direct relationship between practice and theory on the basis of the problem-solving approach. In this way, instructional process follows three indivisible stages: presentation of the problem, expression--proposal of a resolution--and evaluation of the results (Tacol 140).

The study was centered within the context of and specifically planned for the field of architecture within visual art education. The main goal of the investigation was to identify the influences of actual architectural space experience in the concrete works of the students when solving tasks from the field of spatial design. ^[5]

The experiment used two modalities: an experimental group, in which experiential learning was based on an excursion and in which the appreciation of architectural space was enhanced; and a control group, in which teachers used classic didactical methods while taking into account that the didactic material permitted was exclusively two-dimensional (drawings, photos, pictures, etc.)

The research included 400 15-16-year old Slovenian high school students. The sample included students from schools in five different cities all around the country, and special attention was paid to the teachers' equal professional background (Sagadin 216). The experiment was conducted in the 2001-2002 school year.

The testing instrument was one of "initial achievements" in the field of architectural design encompassing a test of creativity and a concrete task from architecture: the resolution of a project entitled "The Home of Your Dreams." This last task included the realization of a maquette, drawings, and pictures to show the characteristics of the project. The last task was evaluated by three different judges to guarantee the validity and objectivity of the evaluation. Tested and described differences based on statistically important differences were acquired at a large enough sample; therefore, they can apply to the entire multitude without significant deviancies.The acquired data was processed at the descriptive and inferential level with univariate and multivariate statistical methods (Sagadin 175-184).

I found that students who took part in the experimental group, where experiential learning based on the in-situ (natural or original) appreciation of architectural space occurred, reached higher levels of cognitive functioning, understanding, and use of analysis and synthesis than their peers who were taught in the classic way.^[6] In this paper I will present the results of the test of initial achievements, which offered some answers to the questions I stated before.

The Test of "Initial Achievements"

The test of "initial achievements" contained eleven questions regarding the knowledge, comprehension and application of either concepts or skills. The required concepts belonged to the contents of the program for visual art education in primary school, which they were supposed to have just completed. One set of questions was particularly interesting and important because it focused on the characteristics of spatial perception as seen from the eyes of the students and their relation to it. These results I wish to present in this paper express some characteristics of contemporary students (at least in Slovenia) and they are certainly important when analyzing the personalities of the students, the educational process in general, and of visual art education in particular.

Among other tasks, students had to answer the following question: imagine you are describing your most favorite place to a friend who is blind. Answer ONLY the questions that you think describe your place in the most convincing and persuasive way. Every student got eleven possible questions, which were based on each of the typical senses to appreciate and perceive space and spatial characteristics:

1. What do you hear?
2. What do you smell?
3. What do you feel with your fingertips?
4. How would you describe the temperature?
5. How would you describe the light in the space?
6. How would you describe the humidity?
7. How would you describe the space?
8. What colors do you sense?
9. Describe what is your sense of size--do you feel restricted, limited in any way?
10. Do you feel free in this place?
11. Would you suggest or add anything to your description?

Results and Discussion

At this point it is important to point out that the aim of the test of "initial achievements" was to verify that the populations from the experimental and control groups shared the same general characteristics so that it would be possible to detect differences when applying different didactical methods. The test was previously done on a similar population. The kind of answers in the pilot test permitted the construction of a scale and elaboration of the categories needed to classify the answers.

The answers were analyzed in two phases: first, we considered the number of positive answers--the number and kind of questions that every student chose to answer because he/she thought the information would be important to describe the place. Second, we analyzed the positive answers and the kind of given information. Five categories were elaborated to classify the answers:

1. objective description/narrow: no more than two objective descriptive facts mentioned;
2. objective description/wide: more than two objective descriptive facts mentioned;
3. subjective description/narrow: no more than two subjective facts mentioned;
4. subjective description/wide: more than two subjective facts mentioned;
5. positive or negative answer without description.

It is important to state the meaning of the adjectives objective and subjective in my classification. As to the first, I mean facts that can be measured, numbered, or clearly specified (like color, name, and kind of materials used, etc.) As to the second, I considered descriptions where adjectives prevailed, such as those used for very personal, metaphoric, un-measurable facts (for example, the statement, "In this place I feel like a bird.")

The results of the investigation garnered the following results (see Figure 1 below): the majority of students considered the information related to the sense of touch when describing a space (question 3) irrelevant: nearly 58% did not answer the question. Also, the majority, or just over 55%, did not answer question 6 pertaining to description of the humidity in the place. Question 2, related to the sense of smell, was answered by nearly 56% of the students. The above figures become relevant because they are radically different from the results regarding the topics that pertain to the sense of hearing (question 1), the description of the temperature (question 4), and the light in the place (question 5). In these cases, an average of 65% of the students answered the questions. The higher figures belong to the inquiry on colors (question 8) and the general characteristics of the place (question 7); an average of 80% answered these questions. Two questions, number 9 ("What is your sense of size--do you feel restricted, limited in any way?") and number 10 ("Do you feel free in this place?") in general got a high number of yes/no answers: 83% for first question and 88% for the second. Sixty-six percent of the students did not answer the question, "Would you suggest or add anything to your description?"

As the graph shows (see Figure 2 below), the majority of the students answered almost all the questions with narrow facts; only the questions about colors and the description of space got a better average of wide answers. The questions related to the sense of hearing, smell and touch got high results in category number (1) "objective description/narrow," with no more than two objective descriptive facts mentioned, at 84%, and 86%, respectively. The highest results for the mentioned category were for the questions about the description of the light in the place and the humidity, at 90 % and 89%, respectively. The results for the questions about the temperature, the description of the space and the colors scored lower at 75%, 67%, and 76%, respectively. The lower results for the category were for the last three questions about the sense of size, the feeling of freedom and eventual suggestions, scoring 50%, 69%, and 26% respectively.

Questions 9, 10, and 11 about the sense of size, the feeling of freedom in the space, and eventual suggestions got the higher results within the category, or (5) positive or negative answers without description. The results were 42%, 33%, and 59,5% respectively.

Questions 7 and 8 about the description of space and the colors got the higher results within category (2) "objective description/wide": more than two objective descriptive facts were mentioned. The results were 14%, 11%, 30%, and 20,5% respectively.

Relatively good results were also noticed for all the rest of the questions about the sense of hearing, smell, touch, the temperature, the light in the space, the humidity, the sense of size, and eventual suggestions in the category mentioned (2): 14%, 7%, 9%, 11%, 9,5%, 7%, 8%, and 7% respectively.

The higher figures for category (3) "subjective description/narrow": no more than two subjective facts mentioned belonged to questions 2, 4, 10, and 11 on the sense of smell, touch, the feeling of freedom in the space and the eventual suggestions with 4%, 5%, 3%, and 4% respectively.

The higher figures for category (4) "subjective description/wide": more than two subjective facts mentioned belonged to questions 1, 6, 7, 8, and 11 on the sense of hearing, the humidity, the general description of the space, the colors, and the eventual suggestions of the students, with 2% in all the cases.

Figure 1: The graph shows the relation between the number of positive and negative answers considering the eleven questions.

Figure 2: The graph shows the relation between the different evaluations, considering the eleven questions and the classification from 1 to 5.

In general, it is possible to state that there is an important percent of students who did not answer the proposed questions. The higher numbers belong to questions 3 and 6, on the sense of touch and the humidity of the place. Question 2, on the sense of smell, is not so far away from these results.

However, it is not possible to bring definitive conclusions, which would in any way connect the increasing use of contemporary "screen media" and the low degree of recognition of the relevance of the sense of touch to describe a space. It could be argued that there is a kind of linguistic shackle in questioning something we do not speak about consciously but "just feel." The same happens with the question about humidity. It is obvious that the higher degree of positive answers belong to very circumscribed, rather objective and concrete questions such as the one about the description of colors.

The figures that describe the qualitative way students answered the questions are interesting. In these cases, the differences among questions are not so important. In fact, figures are higher for question 3 than they are for many others, which means that in spite of the fact that the question about touch was not chosen, there is a relative (compared with the rest of the results) number of students who are surely more sensitive and gave more information in relation to almost all the questions, including question 3. Another interesting fact is that the higher results in subjective answers belong to the questions on the sense of smell and the humidity, which are a kind of "untouchable" fact.

This set of questions was particularly interesting and important because it focused on the characteristics of spatial perception as seen from the eyes of the students and their relation to it. Not only did the majority choose not to answer the question on the sense of touch, they also did not answer overall the questions related to other senses than sight. So, the characteristics of a place are, in the opinion of the majority, perceived exclusively using the sense of sight. The other senses are widely excluded--at least "consciously"--from this experience.

Nevertheless, these figures could be a kind of recognition of the fact that in general little attention is paid to the development and enrichment of spatial perception in Slovenian school programs (and perhaps elsewhere). In particular, what is especially interesting is that these results show a kind of lack of integration between the experiences of the different senses. This is in my opinion a good starting point for the reflection about the implementation of concrete strategies in the field of art education, especially in the context of primary and secondary school reform in Slovenia.

CONCLUSION

As Musil affirms, the sensorial experiences of sight, hearing, touch and their combinations are limited in cyberspace (357-360). In fact, the evolution of media technology tends to present things as realistic as possible; however, physical interaction is not possible, as well as the inclusion of non-verbal signs like body language or the "real" context of the sensorial experience. Dyson also affirms that new technologies are constructing a particular kind of viewer that is "screen based" (30). This definition can also be extended (at least partially) to contemporary students.

This is the reason why we can affirm that art education at the beginning of the 21st century faces new, paradoxically-opposed challenges. On one hand, it is necessary to improve experiences using new media; they facilitate spatial visualization and operations with complex shapes. This basic characteristic led to the development of new ways of understanding spaces, for example, in the field of architecture. On the other, it is obvious that a global sight on the pedagogical process of art education demands the inclusion of a new, specific way of accurate evaluation of three dimensional-haptic activities that would enable students to experience the characteristics of materials like texture, toughness, temperature, elasticity, flexibility, plasticity, and porosity, which are neglected by screen media. In fact, the understanding of past as well as contemporary art products demands a set of complex and rich experiences, which is one of the principle objectives of education at all levels.

The barriers that once separated the different fields of art no longer exist. New technologies brought an entirely new range of experiences and possibilities. Dynamic socio-cultural changes affected artistic expression of all kinds; debates about the cultural identity of minority groups, issues of national identity, rapid changes in technology, and the advent of the post-modern philosophy of fragmentation and plurality reshaped assumptions supporting art and education. These transformations affected the way we approach and learn about visual arts. The traditional dimensions of learning are still present in our practices, but at the same time we investigate alternative concepts. Old paradigms based on technical skills, (which prevailed when the subject found its way in school programs two centuries ago), encyclopaedic knowledge, or mere self-expression are not responding to the demands of the society now. It is important to approach art education from critical perspectives regarding the complexity of the "visuality" deeply integrated in current, everyday life. Not only are we all bombarded with visual images, but we must respond to them at every step, making decisions that involve creativity, originality, spatial visualization, motivation, and imagination. The abundance of "visuality" must not prevent us from rich experiences with the other senses, especially when connected with visual facts.

This is a time of intensive development of new paths in art education, as shown by the fact that many authors promote the expanding field of material culture studies as a viable theoretical foundation and practical direction for art education. Challenging the current shifting stance of art education toward accepting a position of visual culture, these authors argue that rather than adopt a visual culture perspective, art education would be more readily served by embracing far-reaching holistic forms and practices that can be critically examined through the interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and trans-disciplinary methods associated with material culture studies.

In connection with the results of this research, these authors hold that evidence suggests that orientations to educating people about the arts and culture that are vision centered or focus only on traditional arts disciplines will fail students by preparing them in a much too myopic manner. The multi-sensory orientation of material culture studies is congruent with contemporary trends in arts and culture and will permit art educators to facilitate the aesthetic imagination necessary to engage and to participate with contemporary arts and cultural experiences, as well as appreciating and understanding the history of arts and culture in a much more holistic way (Bolin and Blandy 246-263).

Arts skills and techniques have been taught in public schools since the 19th century. In spite of this, art education is a relatively new subject: little by little school curriculums in some countries recognized that (visual) art education is necessary for the full development of children and youth. However, art education is not seen as a core subject, it has been more or less marginalized and many times it is seen as leisure time. There is still an almost incredible misunderstanding of the effects of art education upon learning (Eça, 52). Art education might be a way to promote learning experiences, develop understanding and create holistic representations of the world, as well as creative and critical thinking through aesthetic dimensions. The aesthetic dimension is a unique process of cognition that can be developed by art education and exploited by other fields in the school context. In effect, a global understanding of our past as well as our contemporary world demands this set of complex elements and rich "connecting experiences," which should be one of the principal objectives of education at all levels.

If we have a look at history, we can affirm that the transformations in the conditions of intellectual life that took place at the end of the 15th century were decisive for Western

civilization and meant--among other things--radically new ways of communication. "Visuality" played an important role then as well as now. Our present time is bringing a new turn, and we are, as teachers, should be highly involved in it.

WORKS CITED

ARGAN, G. C. "El Concepto del Espacio Arquitectonico desde el Barroco a Nuestros D'as." Buenos Aires: Nueva Vision. 1982.

BLANDY, D. and BOLIN, P. E. "Beyond Visual Culture: Seven Statements of Support for Material Culture Studies in Art Education." Studies in Art Education, Vol. 44, Number 3, Spring 2003. Reston. National Art Education Asociation, 246-263.

BLOOM, B. Taksonomija ili Klasifikacija Obrazovnih i Odgojnih Ciljeva. Beograd: Republicki Zavod za Unapredivanje Vaspitanja i Obrazovanja. 1981.

CHAYTOR, H. J. From Script to Print. Cambridge: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd. 1945.

DYSON, F. "'Space,' 'Being,' and Other Fictions in the Domain of the Virtual." The Virtual Dimension--Architecture, Representation, and Crash Culture. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. 26-45. 1998.

EÇA, T. Spo_tovanje Druga_nosti pri Likovni Vzgoji. Likovna vzgoja, IV, no. 19-20, 52-55. 2002.

EISENSTEIN, E. L. The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997.

LEWALTER, D. "Cognitive Strategies for Learning from Static and Dynamic Visuals." Learning and Instruction, Vol. 13, Number 2, April 2003. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd.. 177-190.

MAYER, R. E. "The Promise of Multimedia Learning: Using the Same Instructional Design Methods Across Different Media." Learning and Instruction. Vol. 13, Number 2, April 2003. Amsterdam, Elsevier Science Ltd., 125-140.

MURRAY, P. Historia de la Arquitectura--Arquitectura del Renacimiento. Buenos Aires: Ed. Viscontea. 1982.

MUSIL, B. Kiberpsihologija--Psihologija Kiberprostora: Intrapersonalni in Interpersonalni Pojavi. Anthropos, Vol. 33, Number 4-6/2001. Ljubljana, Slovensko: Filozofsko Dru_tvo. 353-370. 2001.

SAGADIN, J. Poglavja iz Metodologije Pedago_kega Raziskovanja. Ljubljana, Pedago_ki In_titut pri Univerzi v Ljubljani. 1997.

SCHNOTZ, W. and BANNERT, M. "Construction and Interference in Learning from Multiple Representation." Learning and Instruction, Vol. 13, Number 2, April 2003. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd. 141-156.

SCHNOTZ, W. and LOWE, R. (2003). "External and Internal Representations in Multimedia Learning." Learning and Instruction, Vol. 13, Number 2, April 2003. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Ltd. 117-124.

TACOL, T. Didakticni Pristop k Nacrtovanju Likovnih Nalog. Ljubljana: Debora. 1999.

NOTES

1. For those who are not familiar with the significance of these experiences, it is interesting to mention a simple example: computer applications enabled the mass production of furniture with curved forms, something that was unthinkable before. Curved forms are complicated to design, not to mention difficult to construct, cut, and assemble. These operations are much easier with computer programs. <back>
2. Vitruvio was the most important theoretician of classical architecture, and his writing were the basis of renaissance theories. <back>
3. Other writers from this period include Sebastiano Serlio, Giacomo Barozzi Da Vignola, Andrea Palladio, Vicenzo Scamozzi, Philibert de L'orme, Hans Blum, Vredeman de Vries, Wendel Dieterlin, John Shute, etc. <back>
4. The importance of this comparison is also supported by the fact that with computer in architectural design, it is possible to actually build many objects that were not so long ago mere utopic projects. This is an interesting thematic which actually exceeds the objective of this paper. For those interested in it, see the work of these architects who are pioneers in working with computers: F. Gehry, Morphosis, S. Perrella, NOX, Oosterhuisassociates, M. Novak, G. Lynn, Decoi, etc. in PUGLISI, P. (1999). Hyper Architecture: Spaces in the Electronic Age. Basel, Birkäuser and ZELLNER, P. (2000). Hybrid space -- New forms in digital architecture. London, Thames and Hudson. <back>
5. Visual Art Education in secondary school is mostly a practical subject. This means that students develop their own projects in the different fields of Visual Arts. <back>
6. The detailed presentation of the entire research exceeds the objective of this paper. <back>

Academic Exchange Extra invites reader responses to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.

Page Viewed:   / Created: 30 June 2003 / Updated: 2 July 2003