Phase #01: Setting the Framework

Mind Mapping Supervision


Output from the Work Package "Mind Mapping Supervision: The Boundaries, Challenges and Potentials of Doctoral Supervision in Relation to Mentoring, Coaching and Teaching in Artistic Research".

Lead Partner: Academy of Fine Arts Prague

(c) Mindmapping Supervision using Ernst Mach´s Self-Portrait (A Study of Self-Perception, 1886), AVU Prague 2018

Mind Mapping Workshops

Synopsis
Over the course of the project time six brainstorming sessions and workshops have been realized in Bergen, Prague and Stuttgart. On these occasions we developed a mind-mapping workshop strategy that can be easily used in new setting with the primary aim: to bring various actors in artistic supervision around the table. At any institution or across institutions, this pop-up workshop can create a specific, inter-related and situated archive of ideas, notions and tools collectively. It is always constructed anew.

We explored the boundaries of supervision, aiming to come up with a working definition of what notions supervision is connected in minds of supervisors, doctorate students and institutional actors. We advanced and situated the concept of doctoral supervising within larger clouds of practices around thinking through art, coaching, institutionalizing and teaching.

What other verbs come to mind when we say ´to supervise´ in the context of artistic research? The verbs inscribed in the inner ring represent the harvest of all verbs the project partners come up with in the first brainstorm session in Bergen. All these initial verbs are inscribed in the circle to form a dial around which participants sit around the table.

The four main tags are selected from the pool of initial verbs in the central ring as the main concepts that define supervision. Here we nominated following verbs: to teach, to coach, to institutionalize, to think through art. These are always decided collectively anew.

To construct a deeper mind-map we multiplied this basic frame in the form of large printed A0 table grid on canvas. It can be copied cheaply on used papers at art schools, drawn by hand, or directly reused online on a tablet. We used paper copies for 4 table-game workshops during The ELIA Academy, co-hosted by Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, and State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart „The Boundaries, Challenges and Potentials of Doctoral Supervision in Relation to Mentoring, Coaching and Teaching in Artistic Research“.

Advancing Supervision Mind-map is a collective exercise taken in various occasions around different tables. A table game of a kind. A brainstorm to start from. It starts from saying any verbs related with what we do in and around supervision and writing these verbs down around a circle. Namely, what we do as various actors involved in artistic doctorate education, research, and all institutional labour it needs as a support base. And who we are in relation to artistic doctorates matters too. To add a verb and connecting it with another meant a conversation among those sitting around a table. These situations resulted in drawing four maps on simple paper table grids and in a recorded session to harvest fragments of arguments. The online mind map is a transcription superimposing these layers of situated knowledge. A new map can be always drawn anew in other situated conversations of those who want to listen, understand, and therefore advance supervision in artistic and academic environment. This mapping exercise was where we started listening and speaking.

Credits: We want to thank all project partners and participants in our workshop sessions and discussions „The Boundaries, Challenges and Potentials of Doctoral Supervision in Relation to Mentoring, Coaching and Teaching in Artistic Research“ during the ELIA Academy, co-hosted by Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, and State University of Music and the Performing Arts Stuttgart in September 2019. Their many insights informed this map and we will make sure we keep it alive and open for further academic re-use. Project team of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague: Anna Daučíková, Maria Topolčanská, Tomáš Pospiszyl, Dušan Zahoranský in collaboration with Vít Havránek, Magda Stanová, Danica Dimitrijevic, Ondřej Buddeus. Design: Jakub Mynář, Maria Topolčanská.


All Outputs

Phase #01

Phase #02

Distinguishing the actors


Phase #03

Add-on
activities