(The Centre for Learning and Teaching in Art and Design) CLTAD 5th International Conference ‘Challenging the Curriculum: exploring the discipline boundaries in art, design and media’ was held in Berlin between 12th and 13th, April 2010. It was the first time for me to be at the conference and to be honest, I did not know what to expect. The fact that the conference was in Berlin and the curiosity of meeting a new group of people motivated me to participate.
CLTAD 5th conference was what I would call a best-practice conference in the sense that delegates were mainly there to exchange practical teaching experiences and knowledge and to share their common concerns. The delegates were from 12 different countries but majority of them was from the UK. And this fact set perhaps the tone and content of discussion at the conference. On the one hand, the delegates were very discursive and issues-focused and showed also genuine concerns for the education of their students. These aspects made the conference atmosphere very enjoyable. On the other hand, most of the presentations were reports of teaching practices, so the level of discourse was not as deep and fundamental as I would have desired. I believe the link between research and education still need to be strengthened.
Having said that, besides practical teaching projects there were presentations of some action research. One theme that stood out was ‘reflection’ and ‘writing’. Nobody would deny the need for reflection, but its form and its process in Art and Design education seem still to open questions. Particularly, Susan Orr problematized reflection, saying that it has become an orthodoxy - a detachment from action. I think she raised an important question that deserved our attention.
The organisers also hand-picked their interesting keynote-speakers (I missed one of the three unfortunately). John Carson, a practising artist (veteran), and now the head of the School of Arts at Carnegie Mellon, showed his life work that crossed traditional boundaries of arts. Philip Barnard, a cognitive scientist from Cambridge University, presented his research on understanding mental skills/intelligence for dancing making and his efforts to transfer research results to dance practice.
The organisers also ordered very nice spring weather and conference dinner menu at the Reichstag restaurant. And for all these, I must especially thank them.