“When students witness an instructor searching for answers along with
them, their own learning processes are validated.”
-Pamela Geiger Stephens, PhD
I feel that this quote embodies my approach to teaching. The most valuable skill that I would like my students to leave with, is a process for learning and discovery that can last them throughout their careers.
My own studio practice is one heavily based in material exploration. It is my way of discovering, learning about, and understanding the world. I encourage my students to approach their work with a similar spirit of discovery. When asked a question I try to guide my students through that process. This creates an environment where techniques, answers to problems, and new strategies, are arrived at organically and as a group.
The most beneficial classes I have been a part of have been those where the entire class learns from the process of art making, and from each other as much as from the instructor. In this way teacher acts as facilitator to promote productive discourse and guided experimentation. This role of facilitator carries into critiques. With a comfortable and trusting studio group dynamic comes an honest and beneficial critique.
While art in the studio deals with materials, it is my intention to extend the practice of discovery further. I feel that art exists in the context of the world at large. With this in mind, each assignment has a reading, podcast, documentary, etc. included to further the discussion and direct the intention of the class as we pursue our work. I hope that this will allow for the work of my students to be informed not only by material discovery, but also by broader resources.
Daniel Hoffman