Tamryn McDermott
Livable Futures graduate student fellow 2022-2023
Biography
I am a PhD candidate in the Arts Administration, Education and Policy program with a concentration in Art Education and a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Fine Arts. I am an artist, educator, and arts administrator with experience in museums, schools, organizations, and universities.
Recently I am focused on discovering what an intermedia journaling and artistic research practice looks and feels like. This investigation led me to learn new skills in video/audio production and editing. I would like to continue to develop this part of my practice and consider how intermedia art practices can inhabit spaces such as classrooms and less-formal "art" spaces. How can my work encourage public engagement, be interactive, and exist within alternative digital spaces such as augmented and virtual reality spaces? Through this work I continue to explore concepts such as distance, connection, and translation as they relate to the visual and performative.
My dissertation is taking the form of an exhibition plan that will be realized in physical form during the fall of 2024 in Wittenburg University's Ann Miller Gallery. I envision my practice entering an intermedia/performance space as I continue to learn new skills and develop this direction in my work, exploring my experience as a visual artist, researcher, and teacher through an artistic practice which manifests in both analog and digital form.
Q & A
What makes more livable futures for you?
Currently (2023) my focus is on my dissertation exhibition project about creative reflective practices and teaching an introduction to art education course. The work I am doing in the classroom and in my own creative practice supports community and a healthy well-being for myself and my future students, many of whom will move through their degree program as a community of practice as future art teachers. Learning to reflective collectively and independently in creative ways feeds my passion for promoting the arts as an integral part of a more livable future for everyone. I enjoy sharing new ways of creating together through hands-on workshops and experiences that support others in discovering their own creativity alongside one another in community.
What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?
Most of my viewing and listening right now involves my students. I began my semester within a new asynchronous, online environment as my classroom. I am already making deeper connections with my students through weekly video discussions in the platform, Flip. Weekly reflections bring each student into focus and provide space within our classroom community to listen to one another, share visually and verbally what our learning and inquiry process looks and feels like, and support one another through ongoing dialogue. I look forward to continuing to learn alongside my students as we discover new ways of reflecting together.
What practices are sustaining you?
I am currently working alongside my students to develop our own process of intermedia journaling. For me this involves working with a wide variety of media including paper, watercolors, markers, audio recordings, video, and creative explorations within, and beyond the format of a journaling process. I am also developing several workshops in collaboration with colleagues and this process of planning together inspires me to take risks and try new things as we design these experiences together.