I found the ‘Object-based Learning’ event by Judy Willcocks, Jacqueline Winston-Silk & Georgina Orgill very interesting. Objects are multi-faceted, they aid in understanding complex and abstract ideas. understanding materials and visual cultures. Objects are reflective, they behave as portals between generations and history. I have run a workshop once around personal objects at the Glasgow School of Art and at Camberwell College of Art. I asked students to bring an object that is very important to them. In a workshop setting we share the objects and the storytelling the object carried.
As Judy Willcocks described objects contain aura. As Students enjoyed the session, it was an informal social, collaborative experience, a discussion centred around the object and a gateway into peers’ thoughts, dreams and journeys. This session was beneficial for my art practice. In my work as an artist, I work with an object that has crossed cultural lines through the owner’s migration experience, how objects carry culture and language from another place and time, and this intergenerational transmission of knowledge. This object-led learning makes crosses my art practice learning from students, that is why I led that workshop. I think I will do more of this as it is a shared and two-way learning process. I found it interesting to learn through objects’ tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, the deciphering of it is very interesting, learning through touching and exploring.
I also found the explanation of around physical sensorial experience of an object and the digital representation of the object; can operate in a limited but useful way.