Research Symposium

BIO

My name is Cameron Spencer, and I am a first year student at FSU. I am from Boynton Beach Florida and am currently studying Business Administration and Psychology. I am part of the FSU honors program, as well as UROP, and I am studying Art Education with my mentor Hung-Chi Chu. My personal research interests are in the field of Social Psychology, specifically focusing on parasocial relationships and their formation within young adults. However, my current research project, an exploration of Participatory Socially Engaged Art, has given me a new perspective on other kinds of research I may be interested in. I plan to continue working in this field and hope to develop a psychological approach to Aesthetic-Based Art Education. I hope to achieve a bachelors in both Business Administration and Psychology, eventually working to become a corporate consultant.

My name is Cameron Spencer, and I am a first year student at FSU. I am from Boynton Beach Florida and am currently studying Business Administration and Psychology. I am part of the FSU honors program, as well as UROP, and I am studying Art Education with

Abstract

In our study my colleague and I aim to explore the merits of Participatory Socially Engaged Art (PSEA), specifically, its potential educational and social impacts. We explored other methods of education utilizing aesthetic theory, few of them include all the potential benefits PSEA offers. My colleague conducted field research, attempting to implement the system in a classroom. We also read literature on the subject to build a stronger understanding of PSEA as a whole. Our method of teaching has the potential to engage learners in a novel way. Within our paper we outline the theory used to justify our education style, and explore the modern application of aesthetic learning, specifically through PSEA. We analyzed a number of similar systems, as well as explained actual scenarios that have involved PSEA styles of education. Our data is mostly anecdotal, but my mentor organized it into a study exploring the optimal benefits of PSEA. We focused on Claire Bishop's balance of social factors with aesthetic value, and her exploration of secondary audiences to highlight the social importance/impact of our style. Our results showed that learning was to some degree improved by implementing PSEA. Students felt that they could be more active and involved in creating Social Art. The next step is collecting more data to support our theories and practices, by implementing this technique in classrooms, comparing it with classes not utilizing PSEA. Our study could change the way art education is taught, allowing projects to be more impactful and socially relevant.

Keywords: Participatory Socially Engaged Art,