• The classroom = studio, not just a room.

• We learn with students, guiding their explorations.

• We don’t have to know everything, we open doors.

2. Teaching for Concepts

• Help students explore big ideas like identity, memory, transformation, power.

• These ideas give depth and let learning transfer across contexts.

3. Teaching in Contexts

• Students work from their world (local, personal) → connect with the bigger world (global, intercultural).

• Helps them situate their art in a larger conversation.

4. Teaching Collaboration

• Break the “lone artist” myth.

• Use critique, co-curation, shared research walls.

• Show that art is a community practice.

5. Teaching for Inclusion

• Every student has a voice.

• Respect pace, background, identity, language.

• Mistakes = steps in the creative process.

6. Teaching with Assessment

• Formative = conversations, feedback, reflection.

• Summative = clarity, deadlines, student curation.

• Remember: assessment is not just grading, it’s guidance.

7. Teaching Ethically

• Guide students to handle sensitive topics with care (race, gender, body, politics).

• Ensure art doesn’t harm, glamorize violence, or disrespect others.

• Always connect art-making with care for people + planet.

2. When exploring traditional materials, how can technology help open up unexpected possibilities?

3. How do artists learn from trial & error?¹

4. In how many ways / How can ______ [insert media/material] be transformed? 

5. How far can ______ [insert media/material] be pushed?

6. What risks am I willing to take to push the boundaries of ______ [insert media/material] ?

7. How can I engage my whole body in the process of using ______ [insert media/material] ?

8. Which alternative tools open up new possibilities for working with ______ [insert media/material]?

9. How do processes build upon one another over time?

10. What meaning(s) does ______ [insert media/material]  carry?

11. How do materials affect mood?

12. How do different approaches affect the ways materials are seen/understood?

13. Why/how do artists translate the world around them through materials?

14. How does time [i.e. this year, seasons, time of day, right now] affect the way I use materials?

15. How does time [i.e. this year, seasons, time of day, right now] affect how I portray the world around me?

16. How does place [i.e. this classroom, city, country] affect the way I use materials?

17. How does time [i.e. this classroom, city, country] affect how I portray the world around me?

The SCAMPER method was developed by Bob Eberle in 1971 in his book SCAMPER: Games for Imagination Development, though it built upon a brainstorming checklist created by Alex Faickney Osborn in 1953.

How to use SCAMPER for visual artists in your own work

When is it best to use SCAMPER for visual artists? The answer is anytime in the process when you pause for reflection. Use it at the start of a process? Absolutely! Take your core idea and run a session with yourself (or others) to kick the idea around in different formats. Of course you do this already when conceptualising but SCAMPER for visual artists gives you a framework to address the possibilities in a more ordered way than before. It allows you to leverage a more organised approach to idea initialisation.

If you feel backed into a corner with a bit of work and you are struggling to get bring it to a satisfying conclusion or feel like you’ve embarked on something that is ultimately unfulfilling? SCAMPER may well be what you need. Run the idea, and product if you have one, through these hoops and see what comes out.

Who to involve in this process

Whether or not you involve others in the process is a matter of personal choice. There is no right and wrong with that. Other perspectives are certainly useful and I advocate getting feedback from peers in my version of the creative process. Sometimes you just need to think it through yourself first. You certainly wouldn’t be alone if when doing this you end up reaching for any distraction to hand. This type of thinking is hard work and your brain just wants to take the path of least resistance until you train it do otherwise.

By adapting the SCAMPER technique in this way, you can approach your work with a more structured and systematic way of thinking. This will help you generate new ideas and assist in overcoming the challenges of creative block. My hope is that these modified SCAMPER prompts will help you focus more on the development of ideas and conceptual thinking earlier in your creative process, which may in turn lead to more unique, innovative and satisfying work.

2. When exploring traditional materials, how can technology help open up unexpected possibilities?

3. How do artists learn from trial & error?¹

In how many ways / How can ______ [insert media/material] be transformed? 

4. How far can ______ [insert media/material] be pushed?

5. What risks am I willing to take to push the boundaries of ______ [insert media/material] ?

6. How can I engage my whole body in the process of using ______ [insert media/material] ?

7. Which alternative tools open up new possibilities for working with ______ [insert media/material]?

8. How do processes build upon one another over time?

9. What meaning(s) does ______ [insert media/material]  carry?

10. How do materials affect mood?

11. How do different approaches affect the ways materials are seen/understood?

12. Why/how do artists translate the world around them through materials?

13. How does time [i.e. this year, seasons, time of day, right now] affect the way I use materials?

14. How does time [i.e. this year, seasons, time of day, right now] affect how I portray the world around me?

15. How does place [i.e. this classroom, city, country] affect the way I use materials?

16.How does time [i.e. this classroom, city, country] affect how I portray the world around me?

2. Using all five senses, what do you observe in the physical location where you’re sitting right now? Take 2 minutes to look and observe before beginning to write.

Picture this same spot in the past and future, what changes?

3. Imagine you had to explain something about the time in which you live (now) to someone …100 years ago.

4. Imagine you had to explain something about the time in which you live (now) to someone …50 years from now.

5. Recall a historical or current event that has affected your country or culture.

6. Describe a tradition, celebration, or custom from your culture or nationality. 

7. How does language shape the way you see and describe the world around you?

8. Imagine meeting an artist from another time or place—what would you say?

9. Imagine making art in a different country or time—what would change?

2. How do traditions shape the material or technique choices used by an artist in this artwork?

3. How do the artist’s material choices in this artwork reflect resources, technologies or innovations in their original context?

4. What dominant ideas, events or movements of their era is the artist addressing or challenging within this artwork?

5. What is the artist’s background (culture, gender, religion, class, nationality) and how does this influence their selection of concepts within this artwork?

6. How might the meaning of this artwork change if viewed by an audience of a different place or time from the artist’s original context?

7. How does the representation of certain groups of people within this artwork reflect the artist and/or the culture’s social attitudes of the time in which it was made?

8. What story is the artist telling in this artwork that’s particular to their culture or time/place in the world?

9. Which cultural or historical symbols/motifs did the artist use in their artwork and why?

After conducting some initial research through 1-2 questions above, it's time to investigate an artist's work practically. What does this mean?!

Examples of practical investigation include:

• Recreating a small study using the same materials or techniques as the artist (i.e. Pablo Picasso's continuous line drawing, Bisa Butler's quilts)

• Experimenting with the artist’s process or approach (i.e. George Seurat's pointillism technique, Henri Matisse's paper cutouts, Hannah Hoch's photomontages)

• Creating a series of sketches or mock-ups inspired by the artist’s themes, subjects, or compositional strategies (i.e. Do Ho Suh's use of memory, Yayoi Kusama's polka dots)

• Combining research on the artist’s context with your own hands-on work to see how historical or cultural factors that influenced their choices could inspire your unique ideas.

As you engage in practical investigation, be sure to analyse and annotate your own experiments in a visual journal, noting what worked, what didn’t, and how your results compare to the original artist’s work. As your projects conclude, you can reflect back on this stage of your inquiry process to better understand how it informed and shaped your work.

Is Fashion Modern? -fashion

Onggi Master - ceramics

Photo Montage Collage -photography

Shinique Smith -textile sculpture

Graffiti and Street Art -ditto

The Clock, Christian Marclay  -video

Mona Hatoum -sculpture

William Kentridge -animation

Textiles: Boro and Sashiko  -textiles, fashion

New Video Art Visions  -video and internet art

Ephemeral Art -that 'bout says it...

Sound Art  - big discussion here...