A Critical Digital Pedagogy for an Age of Social Networks
Robert W. Sweeny
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
In this chapter the author suggests a 'critical digital pedagogy' based upon
the analysis of the relationship between critical pedagogy and
contemporary social networks. This concept is explored through the work
of the art collective Freewayblogger, who create politically-charged work
in public spaces. Such approaches, based in participatory artistic
production, open source knowledge production, and self-criticality, are
then compared with pedagogical approaches in use in art educational
spaces. The author concludes by offering suggestions for art educators
who wish to critically incorporate social networks and social responsibility
in a variety of educational spaces.
"The War is Over" is definitely one of my best pieces. I put it up at night (the overpass
was lit) and was amazed to see it was still up the next morning. Thanks to the freeways,
just about any artist can have their work seen by tens of thousands, even hundreds of
thousands or millions (if they're diligent and reasonably clever about it,) so do what you
can to spread the word (Scarlet P., 6/30/07, personal correspondence)
Freewayblogger is collective who produce works that are critical of current political events, a
large majority of which have been made in reference to the ongoing War in Iraq. Typically made of
large scale photocopies, these works are quickly made, secretly displayed, and often immediately
dismantled. Addressing complex political issues through simple means, Freewayblogger utilizes one of
the most ubiquitous of contemporary social networks: the U.S. highway system.
Many would not consider the U.S. Highway system to be a social network, as it is not primarily
digital in form, and does not allow for the same types of personal expression as seen in networked
digital media such as Facebook, YouTube, and Flickr. However, when one considers the ways in which
automobile users often invest in the identity of their chosen car, and further customize their vehicles
with gestures ranging from expensive aftermarket augmentation to simple bumper stickers, and how
graffiti artists repurpose road signs and billboards, the highway can be seen as a space for identity
production, communication, and creative expression. The works of Freewayblogger helps to expand
this conversation, resulting in the rethinking of contemporary social networks through collective,
emergent artistic activity.
Social networks allow for individuals to participate in processes of media production and
dissemination previously unavailable. Theorists have analyzed the effects of this expanded
participation in fields such as Media Studies (Jenkins, 2006) economics (Benkler, 2005), sociology
(Castells, 1996), mathematics (Barabási, 2002), and ethnic studies (Nakamura, 2007). While art
educator are beginning to make use of such networks (Buffington, in press), possibilities for looking to
social networks as forms of artistic production and critical engagement have yet to be theorized.
It is important for art educators to see the possibilities as well as the challenges related to social
networks as artistic practice, in both digital and non-digital forms.i As contemporary networked media
proliferate and expand they take part in the blurring of social, economic, technological, and personal
boundaries; in the process, they also change the way that users interact with previous media forms. This
is a process that Bolter and Grusin (2000) label remediation, which is important for contemporary art
educators who see the necessities of critical response to digital media forms through digital media. This
chapter presents both challenges and possibilities for the utilization of networked digital media in
spaces of art education, discussing the work of contemporary artists and related pedagogical
approaches, and developing the notion of a critical digital pedagogy in the process.
Critical Digital Pedagogy
To begin, critical pedagogy can be broadly defined as a form of pedagogy that emphasizes the
analysis of forms of political, social, cultural, and personal power as they operate within educational
contexts; the “practice of analyzing practice,” as described by McClaren (1991, p. 27). Critical
pedagogy has been developed in response to diverse educational situations, such as colonization and
community empowerment (Friere, 1999), postmodernism and media theory (Giroux, 1991), and antiracist activism, including the critique of ‘critical pedagogy’ itself (Ellsworth, 1992). In Theory and
Resistance in Education: A Pedagogy for the Opposition (1983), Giroux proposes the following goals
for critical pedagogy:
Critical pedagogy attempts to:
1. Create new forms of knowledge through its emphasis on breaking down disciplines
and creating interdisciplinary knowledge.
2. Raise questions about the relationships between the margins and centers of power in
schools and is concerned about how to provide a way of reading history as part of a larger
project of reclaiming power and identity, particularly as these are shaped around the
categories of race, gender, class, and ethnicity.
3. Reject the distinction between high and popular culture so as to make curriculum
knowledge responsive to the everyday knowledge that constitutes peoples' lived histories
differently. (p. 57)
This chapter looks to develop a variant of critical pedagogy that addresses these three conditions
as they relate to the complex intersections of information, individuals and power structures in
networked art educational spaces. This variation, itself a form of remediation, is what I will call critical
digital pedagogy. It aligns with the conditions described above in the following ways: First, digital
media tends towards interdisciplinarity, as Lunenfeld (2000) has discussed. As an artform, new media
often draws from fields as diverse as computer programming, graphic design, performance art, and
information science. Critical digital pedagogy would aim to explore these intersections, scrutinizing the
influence of each of these fields, with the emphasis on the relationship between modes of artistic
production and related educational approaches. It is through such an analysis that new hybrid
pedagogies based in the dynamic properties of social networks might be conceived.
Second, social networks have altered the ways in which individuals can participate in media
production (Shirkey, 2010). As Jenkins (2006) has argued, these networks have long been a part of fan
culture; however, through the use of contemporary digital media, individuals are finding opportunities
for personal expression and political action that might have been unthinkable in a pre-digital era. Social
networks have certainly raised important questions regarding issues of power and identity, though some
have argued that these arguments have not changed fundamental power relationships (Lanier, 2008).
Others, such as Keen (2007), suggest that social networks have a detrimental effect, eroding cultural
hierarchies and meaningful aesthetic criteria. Each of these arguments rests upon the participatory
nature of social networks, and how this participation might allow for the restructuring of power
relationships.
Finally, the third characteristic of critical pedagogy described by Giroux (1983) seems to be
inherent to the discussion of contemporary social networks; specifically, those that utilize digital media.
As digital media remediates past and present media in the form of a ‘multimedia,' they have questioned
if not leveled many of the distinctions that once separated popular and high culture. As Castells (1996)
writes:
. . . the most important feature of multimedia is that they capture within their domain
most cultural expressions, in all their diversity. Their advent is tantamount to ending the
separation, and even the distinction, between audiovisual media and print media, popular
culture and learned culture, entertainment and information, education and persuasion (p.
403).
Writing in 1996, Castells had yet to experience the major shift represented by the rise of social
networks, also referred to as Web 2.0 (O'Reilly, 2005). The challenge for art educators who wish to
critically implement and respond to digital media may be found most prominently in this last point. The
visual arts, in the 20th century in particular, have a long and rich history of interdisciplinarity, and have
proved to be an effective vehicle for social change with regards to issues of race, gender, class, and
ethnicity. However, many art educators continue to rely upon long outdated hierarchies based in
Western 19th century notions of taste and connoisseurship. (Stankiewicz, 1998). The multimedia
landscape of the 21st century is different in many ways from the visual cultures of the past; however,
one of the most defining differences is the ability for individual to participate in the production and
distribution of this digital visual culture (Sweeny, 2004).
It is for this reason that art educators should be particularly concerned with the applicability of a
critical digital pedagogy, as the ability for individuals to contribute in meaningful ways to the visual
environment will only expand with developing technologies and the increasing globalization of culture.
It is all the more pressing for art educators who live in a digital visual culture, as the imagery produced
is not only participatory but also digitally inflected.
This last phrase requires clarification. As a central term within critical digital pedagogy, the
notion of the digital must be analyzed further. It is important to understand how digital media relates to
social networks, and why art educators should be concerned with critical approaches that utilize digital
media.
The Digital
Social networks as they have been discussed thus far are not wholly digital. The work of
Freewayblogger begins to diagram the complexities of artistic production, dissemination, and response
in a digital visual culture. Though it may seem curious to use this example, as it seems most closely
related to the non-digital artistic strategies of agitprop and street art, I will employ it in order to speak
to the multilayered sociocultural effects of digital technologies. I will therefore return to The War is
Over (2004) (Image One) in order to discuss the relationship between digital media and social networks
as they relate to a critical digital pedagogy.
The work of Freewayblogger has its beginnings in the media, following in the traditions of
street artists such as Shepard Fairey and Bansky, as well as public media approaches such as political
propaganda, journalistic broadsides, and DIY 'zines. Each of the freewayblogger projects consist of
images and words that are pulled from a variety of sources, typically tied to contemporary political
events. The War is Over (2004) combines an unattributed phrase with the now-iconic image of the
hooded prisoner from Abu Ghraib, who still remains unidentified. The image was one of the photos
taken by military guards at Abu Ghraib, which has since been appropriated numerous times, most
infamously in a project that mashes up the image with the 2003 advertising campaigns for the iPod
(Image Two).
In The War is Over, the image of the prisoner is enlarged to beyond life size, and the text is a
bit larger than that found in road signs. As described by Freewayblogger (personal correspondence,
6/30/07), the image and text were taped to the chain link fencing that lines the top of the overpass on a
busy Los Angeles freeway, in the middle of the night. Once the work was installed, it was seen by
thousands of viewers, many of which, equipped with digital cameras and cameraphones, ostensibly
took snapshots of the image. The work was also documented by Freewayblogger, who posted the image
to the blog site, along with numerous other projects similar in nature. This process allows for an
expanded viewership, and for the project to be replicated in other geographic areas.
From this description, we can see that this project incorporates numerous elements that belie its
simplicity. Though primarily consisting of traditional media (photography, photocopying) and nontraditional display (freeway overpass), this project also entails the digital in important ways. First, the
initial image from Abu Ghraib was captured by military guards using a digital camera, and was shared
with others, including the media, via the internet. Second, the image is simplified and enlarged through
digital means, the details of the photograph removed with the prisoner shown in silhouette. Third, the
project is photographed by passersby and promoted on Freewayblogger.com. Each of these layers
points to the influence that the digital holds on image production, distribution, and comprehension
within a digital visual culture, and also maps the complex relationships that take place in contemporary
social networks.
Although this is only one work within a larger series, The War is Over indicates the ubiquity of
digital visuality in the 21st century. This is the first lesson that can be gleaned from Freewayblogger: It
is inaccurate at best to describe contemporary social networks as purely digital or non-digital. As one of
the most popular social networks with hundreds of thousands of users worldwide, Facebook might be
thought of as a purely digital network. However, as anyone with a Facebook account can attest, the
interactions that take place on the site rarely are contained within the digital enclosure; friendships are
expanded into meetings in physical spaces, photographs are printed and displayed on refrigerators and
in scrapbooks, and artistic gestures are actualized in public, as in the case of the recent flash mobs that
organized through social networking websites and text messaging, wreaking havoc in the streets of
Philadelphia. (Urbina, 2010).
As the process of remediation expands and the influence of the digital increases, it becomes
progressively harder to discern the boundaries between the two, as Massumi (1999) has argued. If seen
as a process of generating new knowledge, social networks certainly relate to one of the goals of
critical pedagogy as previously discussed. However, the media landscape has changed dramatically
over the twenty-eight years since Giroux (1983) first outlined his description of critical pedagogy.
Recently, Giroux (2010) responded to these shifts, discussing the dangers of a social media landscape
in which increased interactivity is coupled with individualized marketing towards the young. It is this
concern that necessitates the increased study of digital media through a critical pedagogical approach,
for which educators such as Ellsworth (2005) and McClaren (1991) have advocated.
It is certainly possible that social networks are unable to be controlled within constrained
educational environments. As in the case of the Philadelphia flash mobs, social networking does not
automatically result in interactions that are positive, constructive, or in fact, legal. This is where issues
of power and knowledge production come into play, and where elements of critical pedagogy might
best be applied to the discussion of social networks in spaces of art education; this leads to the second
lesson that can be gleaned from the work of Freewayblogger.
Participation and Participatory Culture
The War is Over invites participation in numerous ways. First, it requires that the viewer
negotiate the relationship between the phrase and the image, resulting in interpretations that may be
diametrically opposed to one another. One might read this relationship as a critique of the Iraq war
policies of former U.S. president George W. Bush, the image and text existing in ironic tension.
Another might see the work as a clear, perhaps patriotic, statement of fact; the war is over because of
the use of torture by American servicewomen and men. Though both may be equally valid, the
approach used by Freewayblogger leads one to assume that his or her intent lies closer to the first
interpretation. The image is raw; it is black and white, is crudely assembled and displayed. If this were
a message of pride and patriotism, it might be presented in a more ‘respectful’ manner, using more
durable materials and vibrant (red, white, and blue) colors.
This is not the only invitation for participation opened up by Freewayblogger, however. The use
of the public space of the freeway is a call for response, for those who feel it disrespectful, or illegal, to
tear it down, while those who agree with the interpreted message to put more up. In fact, the
Freewayblogger site invites mimicry:
Here's what you do:
1) Put paint on cardboard
2) Put cardboard on freeway
3) Repeat
It is in this manner that the work of Freewayblogger accesses the most powerful aspect of social
media; the ability for individuals to repurpose imagery and ideas in ways that are personally
meaningful and socially responsive. The work challenges the central role that the media holds in how
images are read and understood, though, importantly, the images of torture from Abu Ghraib were not
initially distributed by major news outlets, but by the military personnel themselvesii. The image itself
speaks to a changing media landscape, one in which individuals, whether they be soldiers or
freewaybloggers, can contribute to the changing digital visual culture.
As Morris (2005) discusses, the events that were taking place at Abu Ghraib relate as much to
U.S. military policies in Iraq as they do to issues of class and gender in the military itself. A critical
digital pedagogy would scrutinize the various ways in which digital images are produced and
distributed, including who is producing the images, how they are distributed, and perhaps most
importantly, how individuals are interpreting the images through appropriation and repurposing.
The third lesson to be learned from Freewayblogger relates to the eroding distinction between
high and low culture, and how this erosion can be seen in similar binary power structures within the
changing spaces of art education.
Emergent experiences
The open-ended, participatory nature of social networks influenced and inflected by digital
media can result in experiences that might be best described as emergent. Drawn from complexity
theory, emergence is the condition when a complex system develops novel structures and behaviors in a
bottom-up manner. Emergence can be seen in systems such as anthills and weather patterns, and has
been studied as it relates to educational systems as well (Davis & Sumara, 2004).
The work of Freewayblogger invites and involves participation, and as such holds the
possibility that the work can change into something else. This is precisely what happened in the
Summer of 2007, when I was teaching an online Introduction to Art course, offered at Indiana
University of Pennsylvania. In the introduction to this course, aimed towards non-art majors, we had
been discussing the power of images through various examples: Duchamp’s Fountain (1917), Nikki
Lee’s Identity Project (2001-present), and the work of Freewayblogger.
Following readings from the course text, and written responses where students identify one
image to which they have a strong reaction, students were participating in a synchronous chat session
where we reviewed the readings and responses. During a discussion of the work of Freewayblogger we
discussed how the image from Abu Ghraib changed in the making of The War is Over, if it indeed had.
Students were analyzing the transformation and recontextualization of the image, when I pointed them
to the Freewayblogger website. The conversation continued for a few minutes, with students arguing
about the status of the images as art, when one student posted a response stating that she had just
spoken with the artist, and that the artist thought that the process of appropriation steered the image
towards being labeled ‘art.’
The responses that followed were immediate and strong. Many students appreciated the
perspective of the artist, even though one questioned the origin of the comments. This particular
student questioned the process by which her classmate had retrieved the information, thinking it
beyond the boundaries of the class discussion. The conversation, which had started with the work of
Freewayblogger, then turned to a discussion of the class structure itself, opening up dialogue in ways
by which I am still intrigued.
This self-reflexivity was set into motion by the work of Freewayblogger; in particular, it was
facilitated by the accessibility of the artist, via email, through the website. Though not what might be
considered Web 2.0, this interaction certainly represents a form of knowledge production that would be
very hard to replicate through non-networked means. That the conversation folded back upon itself –
having a conversation about what it means to have a conversation in an online college course – is
profoundly tied to the goals of critical pedagogy as they have been discussed. That it was initiated by
the work of an artist collective is of additional importance, as the model for participation is inherent to
the work being discussed. In this manner, the content of the course reflected the methods by which they
were communicated, generated through emergent processes.
The War is Over
At the time of this writing, the War in Iraq is ongoing, although major combat operations have
ceased. Innocent civilians are still being killed in sectarian violence, and American troops are still in
country, although their numbers have been drawn down, in order to boost the military presence in
Afghanistan. The work of Freewayblogger has not ended the war, although it is questionable that this
was the intent of the collective. The declared intent, as seen in the epigram for this chapter, is to
“spread the word.” What that word is, as has been discussed, may differ from speaker to speaker.
What this work has changed is the daily commute for thousands of drivers in Southern
California. It has changed the way in which students in ARHI 101 thought about artistic creativity in
the 21st century, as well as how online coursework was conducted and how knowledge was generated
in and through such interactions. It has changed my thinking about the ways in which digital
technologies are discussed in the spaces of art education, and the possibilities available to individuals in
heavily mediated societies where, though social media is allowing for more access, independent media
outlets are quickly disappearing.
What, then, should art educators take from this work? Are teachers working in Pre K-12 settings
to make mini-freewaybloggers of their students? Are museum educators to organize educational
fieldtrips to local highways, or inspire curators to save and exhibit roadside rantings of their
communities? Are teacher educators to use the bully pulpit of their classrooms to preach political
positions? Perhaps, though if this is what the reader gleans from this chapter, then I might have failed
to communicate what I feel is most pressing about contemporary social networks.
As I have discussed, the work of Freewayblogger does include a call for participation; however,
in the syntax of social networks, this process can take many forms. It can be seen in the making and
posting of signs just as it can be seen in the tearing down of such signs. It can be seen in the blog
postings of the artists and the viewers, and it can also be seen in the rethinking of our public spaces,
where a roadside scrawl becomes blog posting and highway becomes social network. Perhaps most
importantly, participation as informed by the work of Freewayblogger becomes something new,
something unpredictable, something emergent, as the discussion of art in our online forum became the
discussion of the online forum itself.
It is when digital media is viewed in a larger sociocultural context that it becomes something
different. Art educators must be concerned with such viewings; it is not simply a discussion that must
happen in computer labs and design classrooms, but one that pertains to creativity across age groups
and disciplines. It is through a critical digital pedagogy that scrutinizes disciplinary boundaries and
points to new forms of interdisciplinarity, that analyzes how power and identity is transformed through
digital media, and that unsettles cultural hierarchies through the complex workings of social networks,
that art educators will participate fully in the development of new forms of knowledge, new forms of
subjectivity, and new types of imagery in a digital visual culture.
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i
Following Massumi (1999), I will problematize this binary later in the chapter. To clarify, when referring to social
networks I will be referencing those forms of interaction that entail the use of digital technology in some substantial
manner.
ii See Hirsch, S (2004) for a detailed description of the events leading up to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal.