ART AS VISUAL LITERACY IN LITERATI‘S SHISHUHUA (POETRY-CALLIGRAPHY-PAINTING): SELF-EXPRESSIVE VISUAL EDUCATION AS A PRIMARY DISCIPLINE A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY HYUNKYOUNG SHIN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THOM SWISS, JAMES BEQUETTE January 2012 © Hyunkyoung Shin 2012 i Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking my committee members, Professor Swiss who helped me to elucidate the power relationships in culture study, Professor James Bequette who helped me to illuminate the history of American Art Education in a socio-historical context, Professor Sato who helped me examine American curriculum development and the theory of schooling and gave me useful advise about writing, and Professor Clover who helped me understand how to develop inquiry-based art education. This dissertation was possible during my sabbatical year (2007~8). Thanks also go to the Youngsan University (YSU) family. My special thanks to you Lee Hyekyoung who has been a wonderful representative of the Feminist Artist Network in Korea (FANK) where I ran ―Self-Expression through Arts: An Art Journey Searching for the Self‖ workshops from 1997 to 2006. I also want to thank the participants who joined the programs. Dr. Lee Jeungeun, my student in Korean painting, and my colleague Ava also deserve special thanks. Special thanks to my family, my husband, and especially my oldest son, Sewon, proofread part of this paper even though he has been busy writing his own dissertation, and my younger son, Semoon, who also helped by typing my red-colored handwritten drafts and provided me with erasible red pens along with my sister Hyunsook. In addition, my nephews and their families who are good in English helped me proofread my drafts. While they helped my writing, we began to share our understanding of the part where they met in this dissertation. Finally, many thanks go to the more individuals who I cannot describe them all. ii Dedication I dedicate this dissertation to my father who already passed away but he has been beside me, and to my mother who has always been the center of six daughters and an older son, and their families. iii Abstract This study re-examines integrative approaches to traditional literati‘s education and explores the modern condition of Korean vision regarding the modern Cartesian perspective as a posed problem. The Cartesian perspective is a dichotomy with a rational self-centered perspective, supported by a text-based education system, but it has enhenced students‘ left brain laterality ignoring the harmonious both brain‘s development of reason and emotion, and brought rationalization and marginalization of visual ability which are symptoms of visual immaturity. The modern condition has continued to degenerate this traditional harmonious way of seeing up to the present day along with losing the symbolic meaning of images. As a result of these large-scale cultural shifts, not only has the Eastern tradition of educating literati disappeared but the role of art has also become separated from everyday life, and become stifled without adapting to today‘s context. Losing traditional values means losing oneself as a cohesive whole. Koreans have lost their way of seeing which was previously unified within a monistic universe along with the changes from traditional ways, even though one‘s visual ability is connected to their perceptions and cognition. We must start from a critical point of view to review the causes of this situation in terms of its historical, socio-cultural, and educational contexts. An educational goal is to find a way to solve this modern visual immaturity, which is the eyeless state in terms of Buddhism. Traditional education can play a role not only in relation to educational goals, but also as a means to recover the Korean identity and their way of seeing. To achieve the harmonious unification of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, we need to reinforce the right hemisphere of the brain in this left brain-centered educational environment. iv The main focus of this dissertation is to reconstruct this lost vision and to develop the right hemisphere of the brain, which is people‘s latent ability in their true nature. These two goals can gain from recovering the role of Eastern literati‘s Shishuhua (詩書畫, poetry, calligraphy and painting) education. Shishuhua unified philosopy/writing and art/drawing and painting is literati‘s tool for learning and expressing their thoughts through symbolic meaning of a nature. Indeed, traditional education is Shishuhua practice. It provides a unifying worldview to solve the problems of modern times and is the way to teach visual self-expression which is the role of art as visual literacy as a contemporary conversion. However, literati‘s Shishuhua tradition is already dead. To recover its role , we have to deconstruct the Cartesian, self-centered way of seeing and revitalize the role of traditional art as visual literacy. That is, it is to deconstruct the modern construction and reconstruct the lost vision and symbolic meaning within a mind and body connection. It is not to teach how to make a good art but to teach how to see well in our school curriculum. In conclusion, this dissertation proposes an emergence of self-expressive visual education. Issues of reeducating teachers and discussion for further implementation of visual self- expressive education are explored and described. v Table of Contents Acknowlegdements……………………………………………………………………………i Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………iii Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………..v Lists of Figures…………………………………………………………………………….xiii Lists of Cases………………………………………………………………………………..xv Lists of Appendices…………………………………………………………………………xvi Biography………………………………………………………………………………….xviii 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ ..1 Puzzling with Art (?) 1.1 Dewelling Inbetween ............................................................................................... 2 1.1.1 Searching for A Light Inbetween: My Rewritten Drawing Diary I 1.1.2 Learning for Life 1.1.3 Sharing: ―An Art Journey Searching for the Self (AJSS)‖ 1.1.4 Seeing inbetween and Mending Jogakbo (Patchwork wrapping-cloth): My Rewritten Drawing Diary II 1.2 Modern Problems in Korean Vision: Modern Conditions.......................................... 10 1.2.1 Rationalization of Cartesian Perspective and its Dichotomy 1.2.2 Visual Limits of the Modern Self-Centered Way of Seeing and Marginalization of the Other 1.2.3 Lost Tradition: Twisted Vision and the Othering Process 1.2.4 Functionalized Roles in Traditional Art and Literati Education 1.3 Art as Reconstruction of One‘s Way of Seeing: The Role of Visual Self-experiential Expression in Literati‘s Shishuhua ......................................................................... 16 1.3.1 Unified Role of Shishuhua (Poetry/Painting/Calligraphy) as the Expression of One‘s Mind in Literati Education 1.3.2 The Role of Shishuhua as Visual Literacy for Contemporary Conversion 1.3.3 Visual Expression as a Basic Discipline in Education 1.4 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 20 1.4.1 Theoritical Perspective/Framework 1.4.2 Assumptions and Research Questions 1.4.3 Strategic Research Desigh: Mending Jogakbo (조각보, a Wrapping fabric with patches) and Seeing Inbetween 1.4.4 Rationale for Strategic Research Design 1.4.5 Limitations 1.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………25 1.5.1 Overview of the Problems 1.5.2 Statement of the Problem 1.5.3 Organization and Overview 1.5.4 Previous Research vi 1.6 Definitions and Lists .............................................................................................. 36 1.6.1 Definitions 1.6.2 Lists of Chinese and Korean Concepts in Shishuhua and Theories 1.6.3 Lists of Literati by Chronicles 2 Reviewing Inbetween: Deconstructing the Caretsian Perspective Modern Systems Relating Education, Art Education and Art inbetween 2.1 The Self-centered Perspective in Modern L-mode Centered Society ......................... 46 2.1.1 Seeing/Knowing: Rationalism of Cartesian Perspectivalism 2.1.2 Vision is Cultural Construction 2.1.3 Materialism and Operational Functionalizm 2.1.4 Marginalized Others and Women‘s Desire to Be Gazed at 2.2 Left Brain-centered Modern Education ..................................................................... 51 2.2.1 Eyesight Divided from the Soul: The History of Human-centered Eyesight 2.2.2 L-mode/R-mode Separation 2.2.3 Rationalization of L-mode: Knowing and Believing in One‘s Perspective in Self- centered Fantasy 2.2.4 Laterality of the Left Brain 2.2.5 Verbal Way of Seeing: Annihilation of the Right Brain Development 2.3 Modern Conditions of American Education .............................................................. 58 2.3.1 Separation between Theory and Practice and Fragmented Roles in Academic Areas 2.3.2 Social Differentiation Strategy and Uniform Standardization 2.3.3 Educators‘ Misunderstanding and Confusion about the Teacher‘s Role 2.4 Problems of American Art Education ....................................................................... 62 2.4.1 Beginning of Art Education: Pestalozzian and Industrial Drawing 2.4.2 Failure of the Visual Expression of Child-Centered Art Education (CCAE) 2.4.3 Modern Art and Region-centered DBAE 2.4.4 Standard Assessment and