A Brief Foray into the Field of Light: Possibilities for Generating Affective Data

The deliberate use of light to evoke an emotional response in artist Bruce Munro’s (2016) environmental installation Field of Light at Uluru entices visitors to join in an ephemeral experience that promotes a shared connection with the world at large. In this way, Field of Light can be seen as an example of a potentially affective learning environment, with the affective being a key component of the art installation; a component that invites emotive engagement with such things as the landscape, weather, and the transitions through sunset and sunrise. I argue that sites like Field of Light encompass a range of educational and pedagogic practices that contribute to pedagogic and curricula assemblages. As such, they provide unique and valuable learning experiences worthy of further investigation by educational researchers interested in how emotional affordances of particular learning environments may lead to affective pedagogic moments. This paper discusses a formative tool for generating data that will help us to better understand the affective pedagogic moment, with a view to applying it to a variety of heterogeneous learning contexts. At the heart of the tool is the development of an approach for identifying affective moments within the pedagogic assemblage and mapping their trajectories