Learning to walk backwards was my first contact with art education โstumbling over my own steps. This module, which I attended as part of my bachelorโs degree in fine arts, was both weird and inspiring at the same time. It was an attempt to unlearn what I was used to. At the height of the pandemic, I remembered this โout-of-the-boxโ thinking, which is now part of my masterโs project in art education: How can I use abstract means and a playful, experimental approach to break out of a rigid framework?
At first, studying art education plunged me into an identity crisis, which I had to endure. During this time, I read African-American literature and feminist science fiction. Authors like bell hooks and Octavia Butler gave me a new perspective and reinvigorated my practice. I also studied Donna Haraway and her approach to storytelling in the Anthropocene. She invites us to continue weaving new narrative threads of being connected to nature in an imaginary, speculative world.
During this process, I realized that I want to tell stories myself. Storytelling has always been part of my video work but has been characterized by my infatuation with technology. I have discarded technological devices for the time being, except for writing texts on my laptop.
We are currently at a turning point where we are learning to use art ever more purposefully as an interdisciplinary force to overcome dualistic thinking. In preparing my masterโs project, I will be going on a retreat with a biologist to more consciously experience nature. The aim is to find poetic languages that express our interconnectedness with nature. I want to write a story based on this experience, because in uncertain times we need to be emotionally awakened and moved to the core if you are going to respond responsibly to the climate crisis. Besides teaching art and design, I dream of creating a seedbed to collaboratively develop visions and bring them into the world in a sustainable way.