The Trade of the Teacher: Visual Thinking with Mieke Bal

by Mieke Bal

Over a number of meetings, the theorist, critic, video artist and occasional curator Mieke Bal (born 1946) engaged in a conversation on the art of teaching with the cultural analyst Jeroen Lutters. Looking for a dialogue that would also touch on the role of visual art, Lutters brought in paintings by Banksy, Rembrandt, Marlene Dumas and George Deem as "teaching objects"―one for each conversation. Lutters asked Bal what these paintings might have to say about teaching. The result is this a personal, meandering and precise account of Bal's pedagogy. She reveals her way of thinking through visual art and literature and her ways of exchanging ideas. How do objects speak, and how can we use them? How do they teach us to find answers to important questions, just by looking, listening and reading within the relationship between student, teacher and teaching object?

Genres: Education

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 26, 2018

About the author

Mieke Bal is a Dutch literary theorist, cultural and art historian.

Areas of interest range from biblical and classical antiquity to 17th century and contemporary art and modern literature, feminism and migratory culture. Her many publications include A Mieke Bal Reader (2006), Travelling Concepts in the Humanities (2002) and Narratology (4th edition 2017). Her view of interdisciplinary analysis in the Humanities and Social Sciences is expressed in the profile of what she has termed “cultural analysis”, the basis of ASCA. See the video clip on the right side of this page, where I explain the approach.

Mieke is also a video artist, her internationally exhibited documentaries on migration include Separations, State of Suspension, Becoming Vera and the installation Nothing is Missing and are part of the Cinema Suitcase collective. With Michelle Williams Gamaker she made the feature film A Long History of Madness, a theoretical fiction about madness, and related exhibitions (2012). Her following project Madame B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, also with Michelle, is exhibited worldwide. She just finished a feature film and 5-screen installation on René Descartes and his infelicitously ending friendship with Queen Kristina of Sweden.

Occasionally she acts as an independent curator. Her co-curated exhibition 2MOVE travelled to four countries. She is currently preparing an exhibition for the Munch museum in Oslo.

Reviews

[Amalie]

Simple, beautiful and worth a read. Gonna look up Mieke Bals other writings.
This is the second book I read from the serie vis-á-vis,
I really like the layout.