As this was our first session in this module we were given an introduction to Expressive Arts and Culture and engaged in a class discussion about this, considering what this actually means and how we will go about addressing it throughout the module.
The intentions for this module are that as students by the end of it we will be able to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of how the expressive arts and culture through creativity, aesthetics and value judgement develops cognitive ability.
- Engage with the material culture for one or more of the Expressive Arts.
- Understand the complex relationship between the expressive arts, culture and society.
I am interested by these intentions and look forward to progressing throughout the module.
Throughout the session we focussed on learning through evocative objects for teaching and learning. Prior to this session we were asked to choose an evocative object and bring it in.
At first I was puzzled as I actually had never heard of the word evocative before and did not know what it meant, this allowed me to research and fully consider its meaning.
One definition of evocative is ‘evoking or tending to evoke an especially emotional response, something that brings strong images, memories or feelings to mind’.
This provoked me to consider an object in my possession that is truly memorable, straight away something came to mind. When I was very young, close family members gave me a gold ring which I wore every day and treasured. Nowadays, this ring is far too small for me but it is something I have always kept as it brings back such memories of my childhood.
During this session each person had their own evocative object, as a whole class we went round each person and described our objects and the feelings behind it. This was very interesting as everyones objects were different and unique to the individual, as were their feelings behind it. It was intriguing to see how simple objects can spark such memories and emotion. After discussing this we were shown a book that showed how stories can be attached to an object in 62 words or less. We were given time to try this for ourselves.
To end the session we were encouraged to think about the rest of the module and proposed with the question ‘How will you be able to co create?’ – we created a mind map on this. This was beneficial as we could think about what we should do in the coming weeks within the module.
