Visual and Material Cultures and Learning

The project Full loop (Varvet Runt) outside the Museum of Technology in Stockholm 2021.

The research area Visual and Material Cultures and Learning at the University of Arts, Crafts and Design (Konstfack) is conducted on the basis of educational sciences.

Learning is studied as situated and always framed by social and cultural aspects. Visual Culture Studies involve studying pictures and other visual phenomena, such as practices of looking as well as practices of image-making. Material Cultural Studies involve studying artifacts and how sensory and material aspects influence our understanding of the surrounding world. In other words, Visual and Material Cultural Studies are not just about studying images and objects in themselves but also studying the role of the visual and material in knowledge production. Analyses are made based on both theoretical knowledge and composition practices.

Our research projects investigate how knowledge is created and performed in text, speech and action as well as in the creation of objects and bodily expressions. Aspects of how knowledge is performed are studied in both formal, semi-formal and informal learning environments such as schools, museums and through leisure activities.

Examples of projects and project collaborations:

Effects of digitization for meaning-making in collaboration with Stockhom University and funded by The Swedish National Heritage Board.

Stockholm Teaching & Learning Studies (STLS) is a collaboration between school principals in the county of Stockholm and Stockholm University. As part of STLS, Camilla Gåfvels, Senior Lecturer at IBIS, conducts subject matter didactic research in the subject of ‘Image’.

Doctoral students Annika Sandahl, Sophia Desport and Elisabet Jagell conduct research at the National Graduate School in Visual Art and Sloyd Education (Nationella forskarskolan för bildpedagogik och slöjdpedagogik, FOBOS).