A Ritornello Pedagogy: Troubling School Art Orthodoxies

In the studio, there are routines and rituals to be observed. One of those is making gesso. The quantities change each time and the ingredients vary, but the mechanical process remains the same: soak rabbit skin glue for 3 hours, double burner melt the glue, sieve in champagne chalk whiting, stir slowly, and tap the sides to remove air bubbles. Brush on first layer. Dry. Sand. Repeat × 10. Out of repetition each new territory is unique with its own lumps, drips and curves on a straight edge board. Making gesso is a kind of ritornello. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari, a ritornello is a repetition leading to a transformation; it is a methodical kind of time that is rhythmic, local and spatiotemporal. It contravenes the idea of a universal, overarching time to consider heterogeneous, plural experiences of time in the art classroom. Ritornellos exist in both the studio and the art classroom, but in the art classroom, they often sediment into endless repetitions without rupture: tonal scales, colour wheels, drawing grids and pastiche. We apply the concept of ritornello to pedagogy in Secondary Art and Design education to think about school art orthodoxies and how they can be reterritorialised.