Wabi-Sabi as an Effective A(n)esthetic in the Teaching & Learning Process Mike Courtney Indiana...

Wabi-Sabi as an Effective A(n)esthetic in the

Teaching & Learning Process

Mike CourtneyIndiana University

EMBRACING IMPERFECTION AND

THE CRAFT OF “THINKING WRONG”

To enjoy good taste we only have to decide for ourselves what good sense is.

-- Jean de la Bruyere as paraphrased by Donald Richie

Don’t “cut any new channels of consciousness but simply dig deeper into old ones that have become silted in with the debris of thoughts grown stale and platitudes too often repeated.”

-- R. Pirsig

The struggle: Do you teach students what they need to know with the foresight that [it] will blossom into a romantic awareness? Or do you teach the romantic viewpoint and hope that a love of the idea of the subject evolves into a fascination with the parts that make it operate?

-- S. Johnson

You’re in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.

The best [pathways] always connect nowhere with nowhere and have an alternate that gets you there quicker… the main skill is to keep from getting lost.

-- R. Pirsig

Searching is often nonlinear and iterative

Learners:

• exhibit mental flexibility and creativity• are persistent • suspend judgment on value until the larger context

is better understood• are adaptable, flexible, and recognize ambiguity is

beneficial • synthesize ideas

Instruction is imperfect…

Students are imperfect…

Assignments are imperfect…

Writing Haiku

EXERCISE ONE

Japanese aesthetics is…

a net of associations composed of listings or jottings, connected intuitively, that fills in a background and renders the subject visible.

-- D. Richie

We should not strive for logical conclusions. Rather, we ought to define those perceptions and variances…through a style that conveys something of the very uncertainty of their description.

-- D. Richie

Follow the brush, allow it to lead.

It is the dismissal of linear structure, the neglect of logical method that allows this progression.

-- D. Richie

Be more concerned with process than with product…

with the actual construction of a self than with self-expression.

-- D. Richie

Things as they are, or Nature itself.

Nature should be our model, we are to regard it, to learn from it.

-- D. Richie

If man were never to fade away… but lingered on forever in the world, how things would lose their power to move us. The most precious thing in life is its uncertainty.

– Yoshida Kenko (1283-1340)

Wabi Sabifinds beauty and harmony in what is simple, imperfect, natural, modest, and mysterious.

It can be a little dark, but it is also warm and comfortable. It may best be understood as a feeling, rather than as an idea. – M. Reibstein

Four Basic Tenets of Wabi Sabi

• Everything is in flux• To embody and suggest

impermanence• Peaceful contemplation of

transience• Appreciation brings holistic

perspective

– A. Juniper

Sabi is an aesthetic term rooted in a given concern – it is concerned with chronology with time and its effects, with product.

Wabi is a more philosophical concept, a quality not attached merely to a given object. It is concerned with manner, with process, with direction.

– D. Richie

Video:Wabi-sabi: The Beauty of Imperfection(Rachel Nabors)

https://youtu.be/zd9fVvVQUVs

An acceptance of the natural order of things.

Learners understand: “yeah, it’s not perfect, but it’s useful and this beautiful in and of itself.”

Visualizing Haiku

EXERCISE TWO

The Great Cover-Up

EXERCISE THREE

Mike Courtneymicourtn@indiana.edu@liboutreach

THANK YOU!