Pictorial Bestiary: Rethinking Educational Roles from an A/r/tographic Perspective

Abstract

This study uses generative painting as a method of visual experimentation and, within the methodological framework of A/r/tography, constructs a visual critical educational role record called Bestiario, which allows the study to re-recognise and rethink the roles in education. In the field of research in art education, most studies use photographic recording for investigation and overlook the evolution of painting, while painting itself possesses a generative function of visual criticism. The generative manner of painting, as a methodological path of research, highlights the capacity of the image to generate new knowledge and to criticise society. Through the combination of bodily gestures and the random stains produced by postural movements, the stains acquire new educational meaning, enabling the reconstruction and generation of unexpected role images. In the process of thinking while painting, the researcher explores the metaphorical roles of the images, generating and constructing visual metaphorical models of educational roles with emotional and bodily characteristics.

The research methodology is based on A/r/tography and is developed through mutual reflection between painting practice and the research process. Painting may be regarded as a method of thought training that expands cognition. The final generation of Bestiario functions not only as a record of an artwork but also as an experimental result of research in visual education. Through the participation of students and other participants, new educational roles may also be generated, producing metaphorical roles with new critical perspectives. The research results expand, at a theoretical level, the cognitive dimension of visual painting in the field of art education. At a methodological level, they also break through the possibility of painting as an effective form of research. In practice, the feasibility of constructing and generating visual critical thinking has also been established.

Although the methodological research still presents great limitations in terms of social participation and dissemination, the research methodology based on painted images and the method of visual criticism of education have achieved important innovative breakthroughs. Therefore, the study of the visual educational roles constructed in Bestiario responds to the issue of media imbalance in the field of art education. It proposes the value of painting in expanding cognition and becoming a tool of visual criticism, and provides a theoretical foundation and practical method that may be developed in future education research based on painted images.