Powerful eyes, imaginative minds : Experiencing contemporary art and science in a third space

In a third space, the boundaries between educational contexts and school disciplines are blurred to look at content from multiple perspectives. Out-of-school organisations, like museums, can offer educational resources that launch a museum-school partnership into a third space. This thesis describes the conceptualisation and validation of such a third space. An interdisciplinary museum programme that supports the cooperation between museum educators and teachers to encourage students in an art-based exploration of science issues is presented. A systematic comparison of the museum programme with the established Framework for Museum Practice resulted in applicable design recommendations for informal educators and schools that strive for a third space. Within an art-based science teaching strategy, this thesis additionally analysed students’ transformative aesthetic experiences and what role imagination plays in those. A newly developed visual analysis indicates how the museum programme offers students opportunities to look at complex aspects of the world depicted by contemporary art and to discern and value their intricacy. The results show how the interdisciplinary approach to science issues allows links between the conceptual and the emotional. By using their own eyes and each other’s company, students observe and create science-related art, expanding their knowledge, perceptions, values, and feelings. It is the imagination that drives cognitive operations, enabling students to envision other perspectives while at the same time considering their own subjectivity. With the conceptualisation of a third space, this thesis coins a suggestion to put the purpose of ‘subjectification’ into science education practice. In addition, it strengthens the position of Arts (A) in Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) education by indicating the benefits of combining the cognitive with the affective and using the hands in conjunction with the head. Students can discover the complexities of images, objects, and aspects of the world with their powerful eyes. With their imaginative minds, they can envision diverse perspectives while at the same time considering their own subjectivity. This thesis shows that by using their eyes and imagination in an art-based exploration of science issues, students can expand their knowledge, perceptions, values, and feelings. The presented art-based teaching approach is enveloped by an interdisciplinary museum programme that allows links between the conceptual and the emotional. Its design is conceptualised in this thesis as a third space, crossing boundaries between educational contexts and school disciplines. Guidelines are offered to support museum-school partnerships and an instructional design that builds on the framework of transformative aesthetic experiences. In addition, embodied and intuitive aspects of the imagination in conjunction with rationality about science issues, direct a discussion about the purpose of ‘subjectification’ in science education.