Is a way of engaging in a variety of urban and rural spaces
that is conducive to learning i.e. a learning eco-system. These are not typical
‘learning environments’ found in an institutional context. These spaces and
places of learning are identified based on interests gathered through a variety
of processes investigated and observed in areas of ecological concern for
example a bus stand, a park or a market place etc. In this context ‘other
learning spaces…’ is valued by how connected a community, group of individuals
or an individual in a particular site is found engaged and interactive in an
atmosphere that is ‘open’ to new and dynamic ways of exploring and being
conscientious to the local environment. Understanding and exploring prospects
of a multiplicity of modalities in learning is key. In this sense a learning
environment is thought of as a place where people are immersed in the act of openly
being aware of their experiential self however it comes and wherever it is
situated, hence the ‘openness’ and indeed the ‘ecology’.
In this I hope to engage children and adults to be creative
and engaged in public spaces as catalysts for individuals (and other animals)
to explore different ways of experiencing environments. Learning is thought of
as a multiplicity of experiences and expressions explored in a multi-faceted
way. I would like to encourage children to find interesting areas of learning
that are as it were invisible and hidden from the usual view of a person
interested in pedagogy or ecology, who often identifies a learning environment
by a set criteria of known pedagogical frameworks and factors that make up a ‘learning
environment’. I would like to explore with children those other facets of
pedagogy and ecology that make up a tacit and intuitive knowledge system that
exists in our day to day life. Learning in this sense is seen as an open awareness,
playfulness, mindfulness - as an experience of being embodied in life; as
becoming. Learning is thought as developing an aptitude to perceive reality in
a multiplicity of ways; this can be rational, critical, imaginative, fantasy
and playful and also of valuing other forms of life and being sustainable in
this.
In this context art and craft is thought of as a creative
way of exploring the self- mind/body and environment. The arts and crafts
tradition in all cultures and periods of our past and present has played and
plays an important role in the subject of pedagogy as well as ecology. What is
revealing through the arts is a culture of inquiry, a culture of curiosity and
imagination. The arts and crafts tradition has often remained in a peripheral
region in the institution of learning by its very constitution of not being
rigid or dogmatic. Often art and craft have been forgotten as one of the core
elements of pedagogy because of the nature of the creative artisan and artist
who immerses her or himself into the very dilemma of ‘not knowing’ and yet
being in the world. For a learning institution the dilemma of ‘not
understanding’ can be seen as an anti-thesis to the very foundations of the
purpose of its existence.
In such a dilemma I find myself as an artist sympathetic to
those areas of our learning awareness where we are engaged and immersed as
learners to trudge through the deeper mysteries of not knowing and to find
meanings and insight in our consciousness that exceeds a definition or an
articulation of that which we have learnt and experienced in the process of our
exploration and findings.
The arts and crafts tradition in this context I feel comes
to life in this interstitial space of the known and the unknown both public and
private. Living folk traditions both in urban and in rural areas in India and
indeed elsewhere, are of immense value both materialistically and
intellectually for the growth and exposures of different modalities of learning
and living holistically in the world. I find my research work and interventions
in the field of pedagogy in public spaces as trying to explore how different
children and adults within living folk (urban and rural) traditions survive and
transform their environments. Through interacting with children and adults of
diverse public-social settings that are unique because of its particular
ecology and cultural milieu I hope to foster a creative temperament. I consider
the complexity and opportunities found in these given learning environments such
as a bus-stand, park or market, at home, in school etc. unfolds a different
scope and prospect offered within the setting of material and/or its creative
human capital towards the future creativity of children. Children are given the
right to be adventurers, explorers, creators, ecologists and innovators,
inventors in relation to their world views, cultures, and exploring ways of
expression, extension and integration of knowledge and living systems.
Process:
In the initial part of this project I have visited a variety
of local public space contexts within Bangalore urban and rural areas and
explored the diversity of learning environments found in these areas. I
consider this exploration and experiment as a way to engage and share in a
deeper insight into the multiplicity and diversity of modalities in learning. I
want to explore those areas of learning that are layered and possibly at times
made redundant by environments and its people who choose not to see the
potentials of their existing places to be a learning space in their immediate
vicinity i.e. wastelands and wilderness.
