Ingold: Lines

I found Ingold's (2007) research into "Lines" very interesting and insightful. I found his expositions of wayfaring and connecting lines fascinating and very relevant to my own studies at this point. Click Here to view some of my thoughts as I was reading the chapter. Below is a summary of what I learned & found interesting:

The fact that the Artist Teacher masters course necessitates the development of personal visual arts practise lends itself very much to the wayfaring methodology presented. This approach has, as Ingold (2007, p. 81) describes, “no ultimate destination, no final point with which they are seeking to link up” rather “there is always somewhere further one can go” (p91). At masters level I feel that we should not feel constrained by preconceived ideas of end results in terms of artwork, but rather have the creativity to explore further, discover further and create with the confidence that, at this level, we can make the connections and developments necessary to complete the requirements. It is about creating artists who will continue to develop as much as it is about creating artwork.

Personally, I feel much of the purpose and benefit of the visual arts modules has been to allow me to begin anew the walk of becoming an artist. I have found it very exciting and, as Ingold (2007, p. 76) states, I have discovered “an ongoing process of growth and development” as an artist. When I began the course it was very much as steps or points I could connect together on the way to a qualification. I had undertaken the journey “not for its own sake or for the experience it might afford, but for the sole purpose of witnessing the sights to be seen at my destination” (Ingold, 2007, p. 79). However, one year in, I feel that the real benefit and learning is actually in the experience of art making along the way and all that this is opening up to me. Ingold’s work encouraged me again not to constrain my ideas but to explore and experiment and let the process lead me on.

In terms of the written aspects of the course at this level, I feel it is important to adopt the same approach. We should try not to hold onto preconceived ideas or views, filtering all new knowledge to fit in with these, but rather embrace the fact that our views will change and develop and that avenues of thought will open up for us to explore - we do not need to know all the ‘answers’. As Ingold (2007, p. 88) explains, we should be developing a "professional ordering of reality", where there are "changing horizons along the way".

Ingold, T., 2007. Lines, A Brief History. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge