58. årgang, nr. 4 – december 2021: TEMA: Diskussioner og demonstrationer af æstetisk praksis

What motivates young people generation after generation to paint graffiti? An exploration of the tensions in graffiti activity

By Mariane Hedegaard
Abstract:
Through graffiti activity, young people positioned themselves in a youth movement that violates public spaces . This article focuses on the contradictions and tensions of being part of an illegal subculture and being recognised as painting art . The ten- sions will be analysed from the perspective of societal conditions, as well as pain- ters’ experiences, drawing on literature about graffiti and an interview project with graffiti artists in Denmark . Psychological aspects of the young person’s engagement are analysed using concepts from Vygotsky’s theory of creativity and art . The ana- lyses contribute to understanding what graffiti activity means for a group of young persons in their change of position from childhood to young adulthood and a diffe- rentiation of Vygotsky’s theory of art .

Keywords: graffiti, art, youth culture, development, Vygotsky, identity

Aesthetic processes: performance and the production of subjectivity in social work

By Mads Bank
Abstract:
This article analyses how social workers and young drug users in a Danish drug- treatment agency work with aesthetic processes and media technologies in order to open up for new relational subjectivities . In the article, I propose Heidegger’s con- cept of ‘Stimmung’, [attunement, mood, atmosphere] as a concept that makes it pos- sible to analyse how discursive and affective processes interact and how these pro- cesses can facilitate change and development and overcome problems of participati- on and stigmatisation .

‘A brainwreck can turn the world into a salmon’ – Creative writing as aesthetic documentation

By Kristian Holte Kofod
Abstract:
This article describes how creative writing can be used in social work . It’s based on experiences from a writing group with young adults from U-turn – an institution in Copenhagen municipality treating young people with problematic drug use . It shows how a creative praxis can supplement talk therapy and activities in social work . A parallel is drawn between Baumgarten’s theory on logical and aesthetic knowledge and therapeutic treatment within these spheres of knowledge . Experi- ences from practice are shown using interviews, examples from practice and the author’s own experiences of participating in a writing group .

Aesthetic documentation – of young people’s self-narratives

By Sonny Kaasing & Kristian Holte Kofod
Abstract:
In this article we describe an alternative approach to the dialogical focus that cha- racterises most psychotherapeutic practices . The authors, who have been working with young substance users for a decade, look into some of the advantages of enga- ging young substance users in aesthetic-oriented practices . The ideas of this aesthe- tic approach are reflected in the description of selected cases with youngsters who attended substance treatment . It is suggested that the creative and playful aesthe- tic practices provide an important shift in the feel of the power relation, from thera- pist-client to assistant-artist relation . This (as if) symmetric turn-around is descri- bed as crucial because the youngsters’ feeling of agency tends to be strengthened both in and after the therapeutic project . Furthermore, the authors state, in the playful process, the engagement with the difficult, traumatic story, as well as with the valued and preferred ones, often means the substance user can move forward with a clearer sense of preferred identity .

HANDHOLDS BUT NOT HANDCUFFS – esthetic reflection and responsivity in consultative practice

By Anna Fjeldsted
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potentials of aesthetic reflection and re- sponsivity as frames for creative consultative practice on the edge of systems . The paper tracks the core concepts in dialogical encounters of theory, art, and practice . Foucauldian theories of the ethos of modernity and the aesthetics of existence are weaved together with insights from Inger Christensen’s systems poetry and brought to bear on concrete consultative practices of clinical therapy and social in- tervention, both focusing on young people . The examination of clinical practices do- cuments that aesthetic reflection and responsivity developed when saving the said as artwork on whiteboards was used as creative obstacles . In group therapy, these even gave rise to a sense of community that made it possible for the young partici- pants to transcend stigmatising cultural discourses . Finally, the potentials of the core concepts are examined within the frames of The ROCKWOOL Foundation NExTWORK project . A principle-driven approach inspired by Devising theatre was developed within this comprehensive social intervention project, directed at young people who were out of work and education, and based in municipal contexts . In communities of practice, professionals are challenged to develop consultative practi- ces that transcend traditional municipal systems while also maintaining dialogue .

Can the implementation of democratic, aesthetic processes in teaching mediate expansive learning processes?

By Thomas Gylling-Andersen
Abstract:
Even though Danish primary school students have been deemed ”world champions in democracy”, this honour seems to be due to the students’ theoretical knowledge about, rather than their practical experience with, democratic practices . As few ar- ticles have been written about children’s practical experience with democratic prac- tices in a Danish educational setting, which will be a central unit of analysis throughout this article . The analyses will be executed within the theoretical fra- mework of German-Scandinavian critical psychology, and the empirical foundation will be a case from the author’s field research in a fifth grade of a Danish primary school . In this case, a group of fifth-graders are given the aesthetic assignment to create and agree upon a rewriting of a cartoon in order for it to become a theatre manuscript . This practice, where democratic and aesthetic processes are combined, will be referred to as a democratic polyocular practice . The first part of the article is a theoretical analysis of the contextual and structural conditions of the democratic polyocular practice . The second part consists of empirical analyses of both inter- views and observations from the author’s field research . Based on these empirical analyses, it is finally discussed whether the democratic polyocular practice can be utilised as a means to mediate processes of expansive learning (Engeström, 1987) amongst communities of children in Danish primary schools .

Creative writing group and the concept of resonance

By Birgit Bundesen and Bent Rosenbaum
Abstract:
Creative writing groups led by professional fiction authors in collaboration with mental health care professionals can be useful interventions for people suffering from mental health problems . The writing groups as resonance spaces can be seen as hybrids between an art workshop and group treatment . It combines a safe hol- ding enviroment and an invitation to a playful investigation of creative texts, not focusing on illness but the formal structures of fiction texts . This may reinforce po- sitive group-dynamic effects such as feelings of empowerment, interconnectedness and installation of hope, promoting aesthetically based mental health care. The article will present empirical data from a Danish pilot study . The findings will be viewed within theories of resonance, playing a role in consultative work, as well as psychotherapy, and psychodynamic theories of playing and transitional phenom- ena that make it possible to investigate the self-not-self space in playful group work .

Composition and professional work in PPR a mirroring in jazz-music

By Ole V . Rasmussen
Abstract:
This journal revisits an earlier article about PPR (Pedagogic Psychological Counsel- ling), interdisciplinary work – and jazz (Rasmussen 2010) . From here, reflections follow on mirroring professional work and cooperation in a PPR with the work and interaction that happens in jazz music . The author of this article has the experience that the assumptions for this kind of mirroring are often missing . At least, this is the case in this work . Therefore, some essential results from two research projects in PPR-organisations of this author are reviewed to show how such mirroring pro- fessional work in jazz can make sense . This research shows that the ways children’s problems are described in a PPR among psychologists (among others) have to be nuanced and composed to open essentialist formulations and make and express complex and real-life descriptions of difficulties children, teachers and parents face . The improvisation over common ”standards” in jazz, and the basic interaction and composition in the play can act as a mirroring process for learning and creation in professional work .
A project describes a Danish jazz band’s performance at a conference in a PPR, and conveys how they make music, interact and improvise over common standards . This conference and subsequent interviews with the orchestra’s leader, Pernille Bévort, is the prerequisite for mirroring and reflecting professional work in a PPR in this article .
To conclude, the author reflects on the often missing but important user perspec- tive in PPR . It could be helpful to mirror the many ways clients shape, are dis- turbed, compose, etc ., their own meaning and use of interventions and therapeutic meetings – like a spectator or a listener to a piece of art or music .

On playing with texts at school

By Morten Nissen and Julie Kordovsky
Abstract:
The article discusses sequences from a memory work session in the framework of the authors’ ‘Laboratory of Dramatic Reflections’ dedicated to studying and developing applied drama . A Memory Work text is displayed, and we follow the discussion of it in the session . The session is seen to perform the playing-with-text, which is also a core aspect of drama applied in teaching, and it highlights the continuity of teaching with role-playing . The aesthetic dissense of the text – its conjunction of se- veral ‘regimes of sense’ (Rancière) – is taken up playfully to challenge the ideal of applied drama itself . It is hypothesised that this playfulness implies an ongoing dy- namic framing of activity and thus opens participants’ premises to both power and care . This is proposed as relevant to cultivating care at a time when forms of activi- ty, representation, and governance are challenged and transformed .