Life Stories and Disused Objects: Processes of Hybridization in Artistic Production

Abstract Book of the 10th International Academic Conference on Education

Year: 2026

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Life Stories and Disused Objects: Processes of Hybridization in Artistic Production

Vladimir Ramos, Sofia Sobenes

ABSTRACT:

The relationships between disused objects and individuals leave traces over time that open avenues for exploration within the field of visual arts pedagogy, linking techniques, material poetics, and ethnographic strategies that enable visual research. The methodological intersection between anthropology and contemporary art constitutes a space that has increasingly found expression through research-creation practices.
The purpose of the pedagogical experience entitled “Clothing Stories: Fabricating Identities” was to enable students to produce artistic pieces through the appropriation and re-signification of discarded garments, grounded in reflection upon the life context of the clothing’s user. Likewise, the project sought to foster the recovery of micro-narratives capable of generating group discussion during the artistic production phase.
Through a critical art education framework, the study analyzed how everyday objects function as repositories of memory and contribute to reflection on vital aspects of our societies, thereby serving as catalysts for dialogue. The working methodology was replicated in different contexts: at Wichita State University, Kansas, with Art Education students, and at the National Autonomous School of Fine Arts of Peru.
This experience has enabled the development of a pedagogical proposal in which experimentation with diverse techniques generates hybrid artistic pieces and expands intercultural dialogue. Its applicability extends to academic environments within Schools of Art as well as in mainstream basic education.

Keywords: Visual Culture; Critical Art Education; Identity; Interculturality; Micro-Narratives