I feel that in the context of ‘using visuals in the classroom’ I should explain, why I have chosen to head my blog with the artwork by Brighton artist Petrusco (incidentally but equally unintentionally in the same week we started talking about visuals in TE714). I think it is a good example of a visual with multiple layers of messages intended partly by the creator but also leaving room for interpretation by the ‘reader’.

I came across this quite by chance in a side street off the London Road in Brighton and instantly loved it for several reasons. Firstly, I like the message or rather the messages – both visual and text (in my opinion it effectively illustrates how the two modes can enhance each other). It conveys that a change of your mindset – at least at deeper levels (‘revolution’) – cannot be achieved without some significant ‘pain’ (the gun to the head) but that after the initial trauma the result can be something rather beautiful, a new freedom (the butterflies). The ‘join in’ communicates furthermore that changing your mindset is not something that should be kept to yourself. Instead it becomes even more powerful if you do it together with other people. Applied to the context of education it could stand for my belief that education needs a bit of a ‘shake-up’ with less attention being given to individual testing and top-down policy decision-making towards more collaborative approaches that value teachers’ and learners’ input, processes and project work and the emotional component in learning. I recently wrote an essay on the potential of using an experiential learning approach in study abroad contexts – an approach that could be considered quite ‘revolutionary’ as it adovates the kind of things I just mentioned – and I found that both teachers and learners find it difficult, at least initially, to move away from the understanding of teacher as instructor and learner as ‘consumer’ of knowledge bites to teacher as guide/facilitator but not necessarily expert and learner as agent and producer. However, by ‘pushing through’ this intial discomfort and by teachers working collaboratively for support, experiential learning practices can be very rewarding for teacher and learner alike (see for example Kohonen et al., 2001 & Kolb et al., 2014).

Secondly, the image’s location to me seems almost as important as the image itself. The fact that it was simply out in the street, reaching a wide and varied audience in that way, represents a very particular definition of ‘art’ and what/who it is there for. It perfectly illustrates one of Pertrusco’s main messages about art: that it should not be hidden away in galleries, the artist at the mercy of the gallery owner’s decision and the art only accessible to a select few (Petrusco’s eye – Outdoor Activities). Related to this is that the image also addresses the issue of ownership and copyright. The fact that it is signed ‘Agent Petruscioni’ suggests that the individual artist is not considered to be of that much importance. What is important, on the other hand, is that the message of the artwork is spread/shared and that it reaches the intended audience, i.e. everyone. This is what enabled me to easily ‘lift’ it and open it up to a new, different, bigger audience by using additional media – my phone’s camera and subsequently this blog. It also opened up the possibility of using the image for my own context of education and language teaching. As I said, this is a very particular view of what art/the purpose of art is and it raises the question of how one can combine this noble vision with the artist’s need to have some financial recognition of their work in order to be able to continue practising the same.

And lastly, the image felt very ‘Brighton’ and as I do consider myself to be a ‘Brightonian’ by choice – heart and soul – I can use it to show my connection to the city and what it stands for. To elaborate on what I consider to be the spirit of Brighton and just for a bit of fun, here another nice visual – this time a video which recently went viral on Facebook. Interestingly it was first brought to my attention by a friend who did the TESOL course with me last year but who has since (and at the time of sharing the video with me) moved abroad. Hail the power of social media!

“Pure joy on the streets of Brighton” by Ezda Beevers

What would our students make of this?!

I think overall Petrusco’s artwork is a great example of how images can hold powerful messages which can be encoded as well as decoded at different levels with different layers of messages being present, sometimes with the intention of the original encoder and sometimes with new messages being perceived and added by the decoder. As teachers we would do well remembering this when using images in the classroom. There is a lot we can teach our students about the reading of images but I suspect equally a lot we can learn from our students. After all, especially when it comes to ELT, the different cultures and backgrounds our students come from will have an effect on how they read an image and consequently on how we communicate about this image.

References:

Kohonen, V., Jaatinen, R., Kaikkonen, P., et al. (2001) Experiential Learning in Foreign Language Education, Harlow, England: Longman.

Kolb, D. A. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Englewood Cliffs, [N.J.];London;: Prentice-Hall.