DIGARTS: A CASE STUDY OF DIGITAL VISUAL CULTURE, TEENAGERS, AND TENSIONS IN THE THIRD SPACE BY BRAD M. OLSON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art Education in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Paul Duncum, Chair Professor Emeritus Robert E. Stake, Director of Research Assistant Professor Juan Carlos Castro, Concordia University Assistant Professor Tyler Denmead ii ABSTRACT The concept of the third space has long been an area of interest for educational researchers, particularly those within Art Education. In prior literature, the informal art learning experiences of youth are demonstrated to have close ties to elements of popular culture, and often enter subversive, transgressive, and inane territory. In the 21st century, teenagers are spending more and more time online, engaging in the same informal types of play, socialization, learning and art-making as occur IRL (in real life). Because of these issues, some have responded by creating a hybrid “third space” (Staikidis, 2006; Wilson, 2008a; Wilson, 2008b) between formal and informal learning spaces to investigate concepts that do not fit into the rigid structures of the classroom. The third space integrates concepts like playful pedagogy into learning, although the third space is rooted in a discourse of dissent and conflict. Some have also drawn connections between the third space and visual culture produced and consumed by teenagers on the Internet. In the academic world, a few years is not a long time to see findings published in a paper or book. However, the online world changes much more quickly than that, and as a result, teenagers are always occupying new digital realms we are unaware of as researchers. Therefore, this study investigated the nature of online visual culture today and employed a qualitative case study of the tensions that arose in one specific third pedagogical space for tech- savvy teenagers. The DigArts workshop was designed with the third space in mind, to facilitate connections and learning amongst area teenagers. This study finds evidence of the digital visual culture of today’s teenagers, identifies the tensions that arise in the third space, and compares the organic and unpredictable learning in the third space to a rhizomatic structure. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Written with my immense gratitude to: Mom, for encouraging and supporting my lifelong interest in art and teaching. Dad, who taught me that anything can be accomplished with hard work and two hands. The members of my committee, whose guidance, advice, and encouragement were invaluable in my pursuit of learning. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: We Don’t Need No Education ............................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Hey Teacher, Leave Us Kids Alone! A Literature Review................................. 14 Chapter 3: Methodology......................................................................................................... 63 Chapter 4: Results .................................................................................................................. 88 Chapter 5: Analyzing the Third Space ................................................................................ 155 Chapter 6: Summary of Findings......................................................................................... 218 References:............................................................................................................................ 239 Appendix .............................................................................................................................. 249 1 Chapter 1: We Don’t Need No Education 1.1: Introduction I have a confession to make: I once broke the law in the name of art. The year was 1998, and to be honest I don’t feel particularly bad about it. Compared to most other adolescent acts of rebellion, I suppose my offense was pretty light in nature, and in fact it has proven to be a seminal moment in my development as an artist, educator, and researcher. For my 14-year-old self, salvation from teenage angst and boredom came at the hands of a pirated copy of Adobe Photoshop, downloaded on a 14.4k modem. Growing up on a farm can be a fairly isolating experience, even with two brothers. Living 15 miles from the nearest town and having only a bicycle for transportation cut down on the options for socialization. Thankfully, we were one of the first families I knew of to have Internet access at home, which provided a much- needed lifeline to the outside world located just through the cornfields. The computer, as a result, became a hotly contested war-zone between my brothers and myself during after-school hours. However, art was always my most consuming interest, and I sought out every opportunity I could to learn more, especially online. In my youth I had attended a Saturday Art School program at the nearby University of Illinois in Urbana- Champaign. In art class at high school, I was eager to learn new skills, art history, and criticism, and I filled my sketchbook with copies from photographs of my favorite movies and dead rock stars. However, I rarely felt fully challenged by the work I was given in school, and our library computer lab’s machines functioned best as super heavy, electricity sucking typewriters. In terms of art production, these machines were simply not capable, did not have adequate software, and were rarely available for free use during school hours. As a result, I began looking for other ways to supplement my love for art-making. 2 I was intrigued by some digital graphics I had seen online, and after some searching found a download link for an outdated version of Adobe Photoshop along with a registration cracker. After a few hours of watching the progress bar tick by percent by percent, the download completed and I started it up, registering it under a pseudonym stolen from a TV sitcom. From here, it was as if Pandora’s box had been opened. I immediately began to immerse myself in tutorials and messed around with the various tools of the program, eventually seeking out other forms of software that could help me in my quest for online media creation. Around the same time, I formed a garage band with a group of friends, which served as an informal, peer-centered learning group. We all started from scratch, teaching ourselves the instruments, covering songs with online tablature, writing our own material, and organizing mini music festivals with other bands in basements and garages. By high school, I had taught myself basic web design in order to start a band website to host our recordings from the garage (also recorded on pirated software). I turned to my trusty stolen copy of Adobe Photoshop, designing graphics for the website and posters to promote the small shows we would play. As a band, we learned to screen print t-shirts and stickers, and we eventually designed and self-produced the album art and packaging for our debut CD Like a Minivan out of Hell. With this album, we made contact with a local radio station and gained airplay during a contest between local high school bands. With the use of online and offline social networking, we won the first round of this vote- driven contest and earned even more shows (and inspired a “flame war”1 by the defeated band’s fans on our guestbook). In my case these experiences were much more than a pastime, and offered a new appreciation of how the Internet opened a new world of learning. I had achieved 1 Internet lingo for a heated argument between two individuals or groups, often straying from the actual point of debate or resulting in personal attacks. 3 these things on my own, without much adult intervention. For me, it encouraged an appreciation for self-guided discovery in the arts that I continue to embrace today. I later came to understand my experiences with the pedagogical power of computing as something experienced by other youth even well before the Internet was commonplace. In The Hacker Manifesto (Phrack, 1986), a teenage hacker under the pseudonym “The Mentor” writes after his arrest about his thoughts on the public education system as an adolescent: Mine is a world that begins with school… I'm smarter than most of the other kids, this crap they teach us bores me… Damn underachiever. They're all alike. I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms. Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head...” Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike. I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me... Or thinks I'm a smart ass... Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here... Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike. (Phrack, 1986) This indictment of our school system was written by a bright-but-bored youth who found solace in the world of computer programming and hacking, and through self education he became adept enough to gain an enormous amount of power in the digital world, even though his actions were directed toward the digital equivalent of vandalism. Concepts such as the online community and Do-it-Yourself (DiY) culture presented a way for this youth to learn when public schooling had failed him. This seems especially relevant today as the online world continues to expand and offer more opportunities for education to take place outside of conventional school buildings and bell systems. 4 As an adolescent, I became motivated to use online technology to supplement what was impossible for me to learn in the constraints of my public school’s facilities, resources, and curriculum. I was fortunate enough to have been provided the context and resources at home to allow these types of opportunities to take place. In retrospect, my experience in the garage band was not simply an idle pastime or simply a chance to make noise with friends (although this was definitely a part of it).