Watch a recording of this online symposium, which introduced a special issue of iJADE dedicated to the examination of contemporary methodologies for researching art and design education.
Watch a recording of the symposium
'In his March 1976 germinal work Inside the white cube, Brian O'Doherty critiqued the modernist gallery space as a highly ideological construct that shapes our perception and understanding of art. O'Doherty located the white cube as a purified, clinical container that claims timelessness, power and autonomy. Within its walls, art is housed in a hermetic space of aesthetic contemplation, severed from politics, histories, and life itself. Today, we find ourselves confronting a similar challenge in academic publishing, where the peer-reviewed journal article functions as a kind of intellectual white cube. Just as the gallery space claims neutrality while imposing specific viewing behaviours, the academic article asserts objectivity while enforcing particular ways of thinking and knowing to its subject.'
- Editorial: 'Rethinking Methodology Matters in Art and Design Education Research Through the White Cube', Kathryn Coleman, Abbey MacDonald & Pat Thomson
Focusing on the tensions explored in their thought provoking ‘non-editorial’ Kathryn Coleman, Abbey MacDonald and Pat Thomson reflect on the process of developing the issue and propose ways of working beyond ‘the white cube’.
Explore iJADE Volume 45: Number 1 'Methodologies' special issue.
This online symposium included a conversation between Kathryn, Abbey and Pat, followed by a Q&A.
Image: Becoming co-conspiratorial © Kathryn Coleman & Abbey MacDonald (2020). Oil, acrylic and digital elements on canvas, 80cm x 80cm.
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This symposium originally took place on Thursday 14 May 2026.