New Pathways and Further Research

Abstract

I have, in past, engaged in an exercise with my students where issues, concerns, and bodies of knowledge associated with education are identified through an analysis of articles published in Studies in Art Education. The list of research topics or points of concern always emerged as lengthy and complex. Not unaware of what is published in our field, this was not surprising and has only been reinforced during my time as Associate Editor and Senior Editor of Studies. Reading every manuscript submitted to journal in past 4 years has served only to magnify for me richness and depth of i nqu i ry associated with our field. Such is an attempt to wrap our arms around nature of artistic experience; processes associated with learning; theoretical, historical, and cultural contexts within which we create, encounter, and understand diversity of human visual and material culture; and plethora of human experiences that in some way interact with, influence, or are influenced by artistic engagements.This issue of Studies, though certainly not representative of this entire breadth, reflects three areas that are currently critical to our field: as research, emerging influence of digital technology, and nature of educational experiences within context of higher education.Research, through which new knowledge is created and communicated, has long affected our comprehension of and capacity to interact in and with world. It has revolutionized our sense of what it means to be human and influenced structures through which we understand and transform our world. It continues to alter our daily experience and paradigms through which our future unfolds. Wilson (1 996) makes clear that art must be an essential part of this process (para. 29) and that can contribute significantly to this discourse by developing new kind of artist/researcher (para. 26). This role is based on what Sullivan (2009) describes as potential of artists to engage in research that is imaginative and grounded in critical reflection through artful thinking and mindful practice.It is within this realm of artful thinking and mindful practice that Rita L. Irwin discusses a/r/tography as a research methodology, creative practice and performative pedagogy that lives in rhizomatic practices of inbetween. As recipient of 2012 Invited Studies Lecture, Irwin walks us through of becoming. In herarticle/'Becoming A/r/tography, Irwin describes three a/r/tographic studies in an effort to explicate nature of becomingintensity, becoming-event, and becoming-movement and how these processes of becoming connect in performative cartography that extends opportunities for inquiring artistically into relationships between and among ideas, peoples, cultures, and environments. Seeing this of becoming as an active performative space of living inquiry those involved in these a/r/tographic inquiries found that materiality of their engagement led to grounded understanding of the arts and education as forms of inquiry.If manuscripts submitted to and published in Studies in Art Education in recent years are any indicator, digital technology and research have become increasingly critical for theoretical and practical development of education. I doubt that anyone would argue point that digital world has had and continues to have significant impact on creation, meaning, and evolution of our visual and material culture. In addition to influencing development of new and evolving forms, digital technology has affected processes through which and knowledge is disseminated and understood. Articles by Robert W. Sweeny and Lilly Lu are two examples of how digital interactivity and networking continue to influence our field.In Complex Digital Visual Systems, Sweeny describes use of network analysis as basis for exploring how works of and digital visual technologies exist within realm of our digital visual culture. …