Madonna and Hypertext: Liberatory Learning in Art Education

Abstract

This article was taken from a 2-year study that examined the use of computer hypertext as a base for art education in high school. Students from advanced, beginning, and intermediate art classes used the hypertext software Storyspace™ to create computer webs of their learning and discoveries. These Storyspace™ webs consisted of boxes or writing spaces containing text, images, and video. Students linked these spaces, as well as words, phrases, images or portions of images within these spaces according to their own interpretations and connective ideas. The examples presented are taken from an encounter with one of Madonna's music videos. In this process, these students and their teacher began to see more meaningful and connective associations between their art study and their world both in and outside of school. Because of the intertextual nature and multiple possibilities for connection through Storyspace™, this study proposes that a hypertext-based art education liberates students and teachers to learn in ways that are not possible through a traditional or teacher-directed approach to an education.