Abstract:

An important contribution that Art and Visual Art Education owe to new technologies is the possibility to generate and use (artistic) products that base either on dynamic or static images, combining different languages in the effort to communicate and “produce meanings”. We departed from the idea that to foster processes that encourage different readings and constructions of significant meanings it is necessary to understand that we must abandon vision/audible centric notions of object hood and offer a more general definition of perceptual object is it visual or auditory. In this context, the aim of our research was to analyze the characteristics of the different kinds of expression through the production and reception of an art work that functioned as a unity of different perceptual experiences. The approach intended to develop a complex understanding of the “information” viewers/students were exposed to. This complex was formed by (at least) visual, auditory and verbal stimuli combined in specific modes pointing out the semiotic level (texts, pictures, and sounds of those signs) and the sensory level (visual or auditory modality).

In order to test the eventual hypothesis about the differences that appear if perception is considered in a holistic way we realized a test. A group of randomly chosen assistants could not see the visual part, another group could not hear the sound, and a third group could appreciate the performance as a whole. At the end, each participant filled in a questionnaire. The results showed that the possibility to “read” the performance as a whole meant a process that encouraged constructions of proper significant meaning. Taking the results into account it would be possible to upgrade the approach turning “visual culture” into “perceptual culture” in order to contextualize visual, auditory or verbal artistic production stimulating sensitive experiences and producing a holistic perception of the world as far as manipulation is effective when its components address different (disconnected) perceptual capacities.

The traditional dimensions of learning are still present in our practices, but at the same time we investigate alternative concepts. Many questions as for example, how can perceptual experiences be stable and continuous in the presence of other interpretations? Or how does adaptation as a perceptual process function in the case of learning about arts? Not to mention the complex relations between auditory and visual stimulus that are many times present in didactic means. It is important to approach art education from critical perspectives regarding the complexity of experiences deeply integrated in current, everyday life. Not only are we all bombarded with visual, auditory or verbal 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 audition, so tightly connected with visual facts. This becomes even more important if we consider the individuality of each viewer, consumer, pupil, his/her necessities, affinities, cultural background, gender etc.

Keywords:

new technologies, multi-media, multi-sensorial experiences, holistic perception.