The aesthetic meanings of Shadow Play and its application in Traditional Art Education

This study attempts to search for the way to expand the contents and methods of traditional art education by teaching Shadow Play based on oriental aesthetics. The historical literature manifests that the screen in Shadow Play creates the space filled with light and at the same time empty with nothing. Thus, it is a conceptual space in which symbolic objects can appear, act, and disappear. These artistic elements embody the oriental aesthetics that values emptiness, spirituality, and transparency in traditional art. In order to extend this historical and aesthetic investigation, this study presents the concrete way to utilize tradition Shadow Play in art education. The process of making the screen and objects for Shadow Play is elaborated so as to visualize how Shadow Play can be taught as means of teaching the value and meanings of traditional art. As conclusion, the art educational implication of Shadow Play is discussed in two aspects. First, Shadow Play can be a significant method in art education because it connects life with art, tradition with contemporary, and the oriental with the western. Second, by utilizing Shadow Play, art teachers can make traditional art more familiar and interesting to students who may feel tradition as remote and eccentric