Teaching Philosophy

Siobhan Rigg

“Artwork exists as a hinting machine which follows pathways between things that might otherwise be unconnected.”
- Nikos Papastergiades


Problem-posing Teaching

My primary goal in teaching is not to convey a certain body of knowledge, but rather to encourage students to develop their own strategies for pursuing their curiosities into the world. I take guidance from Paulo Freire’s concept of problem-posing teaching, which prioritizes processes of cognition over transferal of information. Critical theories of history, power, geography, and sign systems are important components of my pedagogy. As a teacher, I see my role as one that brings materials to the table in order to set in motion a collaborative process of exploration. I aim to incorporate a mode of criticality that instigates students to reflect on themselves and their connections with the world without divorcing that process of reflection from action.


Collaboration: Unalienated labor

My ideal classroom situation is one in which students and teacher both foster the energy of inquiry. When planning for a class, I outline a trajectory I want to follow and the route I think will be the best way of pursuing it (through presentations, videos, readings, field trips, discussions, or projects). Learning to establish connections between seemingly disparate concepts lies at the core of an interdisciplinary creative practice. In the classroom and during individual meetings with students, I try to model the process of trying out relationships through visual or verbal means. My worst failing as a student – an inability to draw the line as to where a given inquiry should end – has ironically become my best asset as a new teacher. When class works well, a high degree of improvisation motivates our discussions and our task is to follow ideas and actions across assumed boundaries. My role in the collaboration is to keep focused on where we have been, where we might be going, and continually question where we are at the moment.

Creating a collaborative classroom environment also means my being willing to relinquish my route to follow through on an idea the class has seized upon. In practice this means valuing the ideas of students enough to put my own plans on hold. As an example, in one of my courses last fall, a discussion developed during a snack break. Someone was wondering why there were two restaurants at the student union: Hatfield’s and McCoy’s, the names of Appalachia’s most infamous feuding families. The ensuing discussion of how hillbilly feuds were constructed by the mass media of the day led to consideration of current mountain stereotypes, and ultimately to the planning of a group show focused on contemporary representations of West Virginia. The projects that were generated for this show related more closely to our readings than anything I could have planned and the connection the students had with their work is greater than I could have generated with an alone.


The Artist as Producer: Idea generation is serious play

More than many kinds of institutionalized educational experiences, art learning is implicitly based in active production. One way I work to encourage students to challenge existing boundaries is by asking them to make the familiar strange and the strange familiar in order to question what they understand as true about their world. I seek to offer exaggeration and humor as tools to expand the field of what seems possible. I ask questions that seem to have self-evident answers in order to question obvious assumptions. A certain level of confusion is an indication of potential understanding: the challenge is becoming comfortable working in a condition of uncertainty. This means recognizing the points where idea generation moves into the territory of disbelief and impossibility. I attempt to reestablish those unbelievable ideas as a jumping off points for further supposition. This process helps students see boundaries, whether personal or social, as constructed and affords them an opportunity to risk challenging them.


Technology and Skill Base: Implementing ideas

It is impossible to comprehensively teach the technologies that are currently, or might one day, be used for artistic purposes. Not only are a vast number of tools available, but they are also continually changing. I attempt to prepare students for the ongoing condition of planned obsolescence by emphasizing the process of learning technological skills. Ultimately, refined skills make it possible to implement ideas. Whether building a practice in a single media, or in a position of intermediality, a skill base must be identified, learned and practiced. In the early stages at least, this is a practice-based approach that demands a degree of mimicry and repetition in order to master the details. When playing an instrument, the learner repeats an action until the memory of that movement is deeply embedded in the muscles. The same principle can be applied to operating a camera, dissecting motion to make an animation, or responding on the fly in the middle of a performance. When a technology becomes an automatic extension of one’s creative expression, there is a rich potential for improvisation and recombination. The resulting creative output reflects both refined skill and unique expression.

I believe, however, it is critical not simply to demystify the uses of technology, but also to “demythify” its role in our culture. I encourage my students to disrespect the surface appearances of consumer technologies, to not take their intended uses as unassailable. As ethical users, it is our responsibility to understand the conditions by which technological developments are produced at the level of research and funding, physical production, and disposal.


Critique: Practicing meta-level analysis

Offering considered critique to someone else is a complement and a gift. In connection with a spirit of collaboration, critique does not always need to feel good, but it should never be designed to cut off the possibility of response and further action. The best critique creates feedback loops that allow those closest to an idea, activity, or product to witness the connection their work establishes with its audience.

The practice of critique is key to the development of students who have the capacity to become independent artists. I ask students to recognize the changes in mindset that occur between learning new material, the excited moments of idea generation, the development of techniques to make the idea happen, and the reevaluation and reflection involved in self-critique. While these processes do not necessarily develop in this order, they mark distinctly different thinking skills and recognizing them as such is an important part of intentionally expanding a creative practice. The ultimate goal is to prepare students who are ready to leave the school environment and work independently.

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