Module 1. Compelling experience and Education (Photography)

We sometimes are forced to consider our mundane life as special and unique days. It is not easy, because our eyes and minds are not open to seeking the particularities from everyday life. With this attitude, everything seems the same and every day feels the same to us. I wonder how the artists, singers, dancers and poets are continuously inspired. Without inspiration, they cannot create their works. Are they always in love? Or Are they just very talented than others?

The answer is always in our mind. No one actually can be always creative, motivated, or inspired in their mundane life. However, if we have a slightly different mind and eyes to the world, everything around us seems special and unique. We learn this from design or art education. Art education is not about how you can technically create a great art work, but about how we can change the way we look around us.

This week, we talk about the compelling images. Why is one image more compelling than others? There are some factors which we can find in compelling images. “A good flow, grouping, emphasis and so on.” Why is one person more creative and motivated than others? They have eyes and minds which are open to these factors. If we try to observe a normal object through our unique eyes, it becomes compelling and meaningful to us. Then, it is truly understood by us in our own way.

In the same context, I think we can use this perspective to education as well. If the teacher helps students construct and observe their own way of thinking, the student would be motivated and hardly tired of learning. Finding out their own thinking and learning pattern is the key element for their lives. Thus, if the student finds their own way to arrange the scattered information and knowledge by constructing a good flow, grouping and emphasis on the information, this information/knowledge can become very compelling to them. Then, we can easily imagine how the learning process can be elaborated.  To teach the students how to observe, to arrange by heart is not only the starting point of education, but also everything about the education. Both art and education stem from the basic attitude of observing and feeling something by heart.