Conductive Transmission

Figure 1.

Dustin Garnet, 2011, Conductive Transmission [Steel, copper wire, wood, acrylic paint. 24 × 36 in.].

My professional role as an artist-researcher and art educator carries with it the responsibility of facilitating positive transformative practice in my students. Irwin and Springgay (2008) explain that a/r/tography cannot be limited to the study of the mechanics of doing art, nor can it be defined simply as multiple identities. A/r/tographers are intimately connected to the conductive current that links researching, teaching, and art-making processes. As an a/r/tographer, I see my journey as a process of creation and interaction, working with learners and peers to become critical consumers and producers of visual culture.

Following a/r/tographic practice, my artwork explores the conductivity between my identities as an artist, PhD student, and high school visual art teacher. Engaging in these three identities has opened a new location in my practice, allowing the exploration of metaphor/metonym—a rendering that demonstrates for me the organic process of meaning-making. Metaphor/metonym resembles osmosis, a fluid movement through a semi-permeable membrane to inner cognitive processes, which allows an active exchange of creativity, art-making, and ideas and thoughts to be absorbed and expelled over time. My artwork “Conductive Transmission” reflects this process through the wound copper wire binding brazed steel squares. The conductive quality of the copper allows the free flow of information through to the organic core, which is symbolized by a tree chard displaying its many layered rings. This artwork utilizes minimalist aesthetic forms while relating a complex embodied understanding of aesthetic inquiry, and in this way, represents my living inquiry as an a/r/tographer.