SPONGE : an artistic and pedagogical methodology

This thesis introduces SPONGE, a project developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology between October 2006 and May 2007. SPONGE is a workshop model based on immersion, absorption and making connections. The project is both an artistic practice and a method for teaching and learning. My intent in the writing that follows is to give the reader a complete sense of SPONGE. I will begin with a narrative description of the first SPONGE. Once the concept of SPONGE is clear, I will put the project in an art historical context by providing a synopsis of site-specific art and social practice. The current debate about the role of aesthetics in socially based artwork underlies my discussion of the role of the visual and the sensory in SPONGE. Talking about aesthetics also invites an exploration of the autonomy of artistic praxis. I will argue that by creating a distancing framework, SPONGE avoids the dissolution of art into life, even as it celebrates content that exists outside of a traditional art context. A space is thereby preserved for criticality. With criticality comes the politics of the SPONGE, which will be considered in terms of pedagogy. I will address the role of the participant and the way in which SPONGE encourages independent thought and the assembly of ideas.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Ginsburg, Hope

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Krzysztof Wodiczko.

• Architecture.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39322

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39322