The immersive method is a new concept of visual education that is better
suited to the needs of students in contemporary post-industrial society.
The features of the immersive method are: 1) it emerges from interaction
with visual culture; 2) it encourages understanding of contemporary art (as
an integral part of visual culture); and 3) it implements the strategies and
processes of the dominant tendencies in contemporary art (new media art
and relational art) with the goal of adopting the creative process, expressing
one’s thoughts and emotions, and communicating with the environment.
The immersive method transfers the creative process from art to the process
of creation by the students themselves. This occurs with the mediation of an
algorithmic scheme that enables students to adopt ways to solve problems,
to express thoughts and emotions, to develop ideas and to transfer these ideas
to form, medium and material. The immersive method uses transfer in
classes, the therapeutic aspect of art and “flow state” (the optimal experience
of being immersed in an activity)/aesthetic experience (a total experience
that has a beginning, a process and a conclusion)/immersive experience
(comprehensive immersion in the present moment). This is a state leading
to the sublimative effect of creation (identification with what has been expressed),
as well as to self-actualisation. The immersive method teaches one
to connect the context, social relations and the artwork as a whole in which
one lives as an individual. The adopted creative process is implemented in a
critical manner on one’s surrounding through analysis, aesthetic interventions,
and ecologically and socially aware inclusion in the life of a community.
The students gain the crucial meta-competence of a creative thinking
process.
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