Sunday, August 2, 2009

Stages of Aesthetic Development by Abigail Housen

Articles in Review:

1)"A Brief Guide to Developmental Theory and Aesthetic Development" by Karin DeSantis and Abigail Housen

2)"Art Viewing and Aesthetic Development: Designing for the Viewer" by Abigail Housen

During the 1970s, Abigail Housen researched what she would later term aesthetic development, or the way in which individuals develop their capacities for processing visual stimuli. Through her studies, she has developed five stages of aesthetic development that she claims are patterns of behavior that cross both cultural and socioeconomic boundaries. These stages show that individuals process visual imagery in a set sequence, and that through frequent encounters with carefully crafted sequences of art these individuals can process visual information in a predictable manner. Each stage has a set of attributes that links to attributes in the other stages of aesthetic development, while they also correlate to the amount of time individuals have spent viewing works of art. It is important to mention that a person at any age that lacks experience viewing works of art will always start at Stage 1. Exposing oneself to art is the only way to develop one's aesthetically receptive portions of their mind. Each stage is equally important.

The Stages of Aesthetic Development are as follows:

1) Stage One: ACCOUNTIVE (Most individuals are in this stage or stage 2)

Accountive viewers tend to be individuals who tell stories or make lists. When viewing a work of art, they make simple, concrete observations using their senses, experiences, and memories. These observations generally are woven into a narrative form, where the viewer enters the work of art. Emotions infuse their comments on works of art, as their judgments are based upon what they know and like.

2) Stage Two: CONSTRUCTIVE (Most individuals are in this stage or stage 1)

Constructive viewers use their own perceptions of, knowledge of, and values of their world to build frameworks for looking at art. Their observations as always made from concrete details in a work. Because these viewers rely upon what they deem realistic to determine value, if a work does not live up to the way in which these viewers suppose an image should be crafted they judge it to be strange and lacking of value. Although at this stage viewers have an increased interest in the artist's intentions for creating a piece, they begin to distance themselves emotionally from works of art.

3) Stage Three: CLASSIFYING

Classifying viewers begin to be critical of works of art, as they take on the role of the analytical station of art historians. They identity works of art based upon school, style, time, technique, place and provenance, and they dig deeper into these works by using their knowledge of the facts and figures of art history. They want to know everything they can possibly know about an artist and his body of work. Ultimately, this viewer believes that if they can categorize a work correctly based upon their knowledge of art history then that work's meaning will become rationalized.

4) Stage Four: INTERPRETIVE

Interpretive viewers seek to interact with art as they strive to find and cherish the subtle elements of a work. As a result, viewers let the underlying meanings (what it symbolizes) of the work come forward. The critical skills dominant in previous stages are now at the service of intuition and feelings. New perspectives and insights emerge with each encounter with a work of art. Since these viewers understand and value the process of reinterpreting art, they see their own ideas as vulnerable to change.

5) Stage Five: RE-CREATIVE

Re-creative viewers are "willing to suspend disbelief," as they now view works of art as old friends who they know in detail but who they know remain full of surprises. Although they acknowledge that artworks have a life of their own, they also feel strongly connected to them due to their understanding of its history. They begin to look at art with a child-like openness. As Housen states, "this viewer combines personal contemplation with views that broadly encompass universal concerns. Here, memory infuses the landscape of the painting, intricately combining the personal and the universal" (DeSantis and Housen 11).

What are the educational implications of aesthetic development?

Housen's theory on aesthetic development and her articulation of this in the five stages described above most certainly parallel the work of Lev Vygotsky, particularly his acknowledgement of the zone of proximal development. "...what Housen's studies have shown is that teaching anything but what the students are on the verge of learning or what is within their 'zone of proximal development' will not become operational to the student" (DeSantis and Housen 12). I find this to be of particular worth. As Housen states, "Education is about providing a taste of the next, proximal way of thinking (Housen 13). In this mode of teaching/facilitating, the learner is placed within a situation where the potential for further learning is positioned directly in front of him/her. The environment is tailored to their learning potential based upon the images chosen.
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Let's take a look at what Housen says about the role of the teacher:
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"The teacher's role is not so much to impart fact, or manage drill and practice, but to facilitate the learner's process of discovery. The teacher enables development by creating and managing a supportive learning environment that encourages learners to discover new ways to find answers to their own questions, to construct meaning, to experience, and to reason about what they see. The act of constructing meaning cannot be something taught; the learner must discover his meaning on his own" (Housen 14).
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This focus on developing skills within one's students that serve to facilitate and encourage the learner's ability to discover and probe undoubtedly proves value to us as museum educators. Is this not what we are striving to create? Are we not striving to build skills within our visitors that provide the foundation for life-long learning? Perhaps, we are looking for more than that--to provide information (more on that in the next post). Regardless, we cannot neglect the importance of developing the baseline skills that later serve to create meaningful museum visits for our audience members.

1 comment:

  1. So nice to reconnect with this content;I took a Visual Thinking Strategies workshop at the Frye Museum in Seattle and the class refered to Hausen's work. I will use this information, both Hausen's and the VTS practice in my art classroom next year for sure.

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