by tamryn mcdermott, phd candidate
I am grateful for the opportunity to be a co-conspirator in the Listening and Learning at the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) course in the summer of 2022. This course brought us together in a unique way as we were immersed within the TBA through direct engagement with the curators, staff, artists, artworks, and events. The course experiences leading up to our Toronto trip prepared us to deeply engage with the experience of the biennial. We were offered an intimate look behind the curtain through our discussions with artists, organizers, and participants. Upon reflection, and review of my visual journal, I noticed these collective experiences have trickled into my teaching practice and ideas about what an immersive teaching experience could look like. The visual journal I created to record and reflect throughout the course continues to be a reference for my dissertation study. This fall I created two more visual journals, one to document my teaching experience and another as a research journal. Both journals share strategies and materials developed within the Toronto journal and build upon a visual language I developed using watercolors, organizational structures, and playful engagement with materials, ideas, questions, and reflections.
