Corrosive Subjectifications: eorizing Radical Politics of Art Education in the Intersection of Jacques Rancière and Giorgio Agamben DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of e Ohio State University By Juuso Ville Tervo, M.A. Graduate Program in Arts Administration, Education and Policy e Ohio State University 2014 Committee: Sydney Walker, Advisor Jack Richardson Joni Boyd Acuff Arthur Efland Kevin Tavin Copyright by Juuso Ville Tervo 2014 Abstract is dissertation is a philosophical inquiry on the possibilities and limitations for radical political theorization in art education. By conducting an analytical reading of passages of the existing art education research that concerns the social and political role of art education in the United States, I construct a critique of the current strategies of politicization and propose an ontological shift in a political imagination; a shift that denotes a radicalization of political theory. My theoretical framework is rooted in Jacques Rancière's and Giorgio Agamben's political philosophies, especially in their critiques of the constitution of a political subjectivity qua subjectification. I conceptualize the theoretical difference between these two thinkers in terms of a radical politics of actualization (Rancière) and a radical politics of potentiality (Agamben); two strategies of radicalization that point to the intricacies of the relationship between potentiality and actuality in the process of subjectification. e central thesis of this study is that seeing subjectification through art education merely as a process of an actualization of identities and subject positions, art educators construct a linear passage between a human potentiality and its politicized actuality, which makes political theorization highly predetermined, reduces art education itself into an empty threshold between a past and a future, and makes the humanness of human life dependent on ii art educators' pedagogical control. Rancière and Agamben offer tools to disrupt such linearity by rejecting all forms of predetermination, thus opening learning and political action to their potentialities beyond teleological thought. iii Acknowledgements I wish to express my greatest possible gratitude to my wonderful advisor, Sydney Walker, who encouraged me to pursue with this project and helped me to understand my own thinking. You are truly a wonderful human being and a scholar. ank you. Similar gratitude belongs to my mentor and former advisor Kevin Tavin. No words can express how thankful I am for having you around. ank you Jack Richardson for our wonderful conversations at Cup O Joe's. Arthur Efland and Joni Acuff Boyd, thank you very much for serving in my committee. omas Davis and Brian Rotman, thank you for the encouraging comments and feedback during my candidacy examination. Matthew O'Malley, thank you for your thoughts and poetry. Also, thank you for sending that William Blake's passage. All my friends, colleagues, and professors at OSU, especially Michael Kellner, Kate Collins, and Verónica Betancourt, thank you for great discussions, good times, and general amazingness. My family (Hannele, Pauli, Miia, Martti, and Sakari) and friends in Finland, thank you for everything. iv Friends and my extended family (Loren, Brianna, and Ryan) here in Columbus: thank you for making Ohio feel like home. Lastly, I am grateful for e American-Scandinavian Foundation for the financial support during my first year of doctoral studies at OSU. v Vita 2009…………………………………………B.A. Art Education, University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland 2011…………………………………………M.A. Art Education, Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland 2011 – present……………………………….Graduate Teaching Associate, e Ohio State University Publications Tervo, J. (2012). e problem of representation. Studies in Art Education, 54(1), 81-83. Fields of Study Major Field: Arts Administration, Education and Policy Minor Field: Comparative Cultural Studies vi Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements...............................................................................................................iv Vita......................................................................................................................................vi Table of Contents................................................................................................................vii Introduction..........................................................................................................................1 Research Questions..........................................................................................................6 eoretical Framework: Jacques Rancière and Giorgio Agamben......................................8 Methodology..................................................................................................................15 e Design of the Study.................................................................................................21 Significance of the Study................................................................................................26 Limitations.....................................................................................................................27 Part I...................................................................................................................................30 Chapter 1: Subjectification as a Necessity: e Problem with Art Education as a Universal Human Right............................................31 vii Constituting the Political in Rancière and Agamben.......................................................35 Rancière and Equality.....................................................................................................38 Agamben and Bare Life..................................................................................................42 Radical Actualization, Radical Potentiality......................................................................47 Art Education as a Universal Human Right Revisited.....................................................57 “You Gotta Have Art”: Necessity Reframed....................................................................70 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................76 Chapter 2: Historicizing Subjectification in Art Education: e Entwinement of Life, Art, and Education in the Progressive Era..................................79 e Institutional Context of Art Education Before the Progressive Era...........................83 eoretical Undercurrents of Progressivism: John Dewey's e School and Society........89 Progressivism in Art Education.......................................................................................97 Reconstructionism: Art for (Beautiful) Life....................................................................98 e Owatonna Art Education Project...........................................................................102 Expressionism: Fully Developed Life............................................................................110 Rugg's and Shumaker's e Child-Centered School.....................................................112 Progressive Education in the Light of Rancière and Agamben.......................................121 Chapter 3: Subjectification and Belonging in Visual Culture Art Education......................130 Visual Culture Art Education as a Historical Context...................................................133 Four Strategies of Subjectification.................................................................................138 viii Strategy 1: Content......................................................................................................141 Strategy 2: Methodology...............................................................................................149 Strategy 3: Socio-Cultural Perspectives.........................................................................163 Strategy 4: Cognitive Capacities...................................................................................172 VCAE in the Light of Radical Actualization and Potentiality........................................178 Content Reframed........................................................................................................180 Methodology Reframed................................................................................................182 Socio-Cultural Perspectives Reframed...........................................................................184 Cognitive Capacities Reframed.....................................................................................186 Conclusion...................................................................................................................188 Part II...............................................................................................................................190 Chapter 4: e Precarious Life of an Obscure Subject: Pilvi Takala's “e Trainee”...............................................................................................191 Pilvi Takala: e Trainee (2008)...................................................................................193 e Trainee and a Radical Politics of Actualization.......................................................201