Photoshop Teaches With(out) You: Actant Agencies and Non-Human Pedagogy

Visual technologies are important in art education learning spaces, but are too often seen as value-neutral instruments that accomplish visual techniques and graphic manipulations. Using actor-network theory, this research investigates the non-human pedagogy of Adobe Photoshop software. Non-human pedagogy is perceived through actant agency where symmetry between humans and non-humans in the actor-network generates translations that are durable over time. Durable translations are analyzed as expressions of pedagogy in the ways that they create access hubs in how learners understand, become informed, and create with Photoshop. Actant agency and non-human pedagogy are framed through concepts such as modest designers and the live image to ask critical questions pertaining to visual arts pedagogy and the use of software.