A/r/tografi som tilgang til udvikling af en sanselig bæredygtighedsdidaktik i kunstfagene

Abstract

This article presents a study conducted in the spring of 2020 by three researchers from the University of Agder with the aim of exploring and developing possible sensory-based approaches to sustainability in teacher education with a special focus on the arts. Due to the consequences that followed in the wake of Covid-19, the inquiries took an unexpected turn: Digital platforms, isolation and separate borders, became key focal points for the implementation of the project. Using a /r/tography as a methodological frame (Roussel, Cutcher, Cook & Irwin, 2018; Triggs, Irwin & Leggo, 2014; Irwin, 2013), the authors explore how everyday events characterized by affect (Massumi, 2015) and intimacy (Morton, 2018) can form the basis for bodily and sensory approaches to ecological and social sustainability. The empirical material of the study is generated in connection with the authors' implementation of three “propositions”: preparation of a joint meal, joint contact with nature, and running as a joint ritual. The focus was on sensory interaction with each other and with more-than-human actors, including beets, landscapes, bodily routines and not least the digital media. In the concluding part the article analyzes and discusses how the work with the the a/r/tographic propositions led to experiences of risk, loss of control, uncomfortability and vulnerability among the participants, and how these experiences can be related to sensuous experiences in connection to the necessary transition to a more sustainable lifestyle, e.g. experiences of insecurity and loss. Finally the authors propose the areas of attention for future work with sensuous sustainability education in arts teacher education: propositions a a didactic tool, ecological awareness, and sustainability as a sesnsuous form of relating to the world.