My experience in higher art education seems to suggest that there is an over-emphasis on mental abilities, like learning to verbalize, contemplate and conceptualize one’s actions. In contrast, therefore, I have developed a physical exercise emphasizing the senses to balance the attention between mind and body. The Wandering Flock: A Bodily Exercise in Unison aims to create a balance between the body and the mind while the individual is learning through a collective activity.

The Wandering Flock is embedded in a framework of educational systems related to Japanese culture, nature, arts, the connection between the body & mind and between the collective & the individual. Specifically, the research connects to pedagogies such as those at Black Mountain College, where practice-based learning through the community was taught; Eurythmy, an expressive movement art in Steiner education; embodied learning practices like taiken, ki ken tai ichi and mimamoru in Japanese preschools; and Zen-based arts and experiential learning in Forest Schools, where it is believed that the natural environment changes and develop the senses. The didactical methods that I refer to are elements of the Kolb cycle of experiential learning. They are derived from theatre education: the Viewpoints techniques for bodily exercises and the DasArts Feedback Method that I use for reflection in order to connect the bodily activities with the mind.

With the Wandering Flock I have developed a method that, through a bodily experience, addresses internal and external senses on a personal and collective level within a group of participants. The movements of flocking starlings inspired me to create the exercise. The goal of the Wandering Flock is to conduct a moment of collective flow, considering that the moment in-between is important and valuable, since personal awareness about one’s inner bodily senses arises when one recognizes personal discomfort.

The Wandering Flock method is important in higher visual art education alongside doing and thinking, as it allows students to become aware of their senses and simultaneously supports them in becoming independent and connected individuals.

External critic: Philippine Hoegen (visual artist, educator and researcher for the lectorate of AKV St. Joost, a commissioned, practice-based research on personhood).