The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country
Papert was one of the founders of constructionism, which builds on Piaget’s theories of constructivism — that is, learning occurs through the reconstruction of knowledge rather than a transmission of knowledge. In constructionism, learning is most effective when the learner constructs something meaningful.
Behaviorism Won
The central tenet of his Constructionist theory of learning is that people build knowledge most effectively when they are actively engaged in constructing things in the world. As early as 1968, Papert introduced the idea that computer programming and debugging can provide children a way to think about their own thinking and learn about their own learning.
Professor Emeritus Seymour Papert, pioneer of constructionist learning, dies at 88
For me, constructionism lies at the heart of what I want to study—how do students construct music knowledge in a school makerspace? My hypothesis is if students make music artifacts in a makerspace, they will construct music knowledge. At this proposal stage of my dissertation, prior to any research, I am using a constructivist/constructionist definition of music knowledge: meaning derived from an experience with aural phenomena (Shively, 1995). A music artifact would be a representation of this constructed music knowledge through performance, creation, or description (Shively, 1995; Wiggins, 2015).
Constructionism is being practiced anywhere where people are making artifacts to represent their knowledge constructions.
On Constructionism, Makerspaces, and Music Education
Pretty much immediately Poly Styrene and X-Ray Spex’s influence was felt. Just like seeing the Sex Pistols had convinced Styrene that getting onstage without much musical grounding was possible, a generation of punk and new wave women saw X-Ray Spex and thought “That could be me.” Her left of centre look also helped in that, not being the traditional male fantasy of many other women that had appeared on Top of the Pops. “The idea that just anyone could (start a band) was really big to me. That people in your neighbourhood could start a cassette label or a record label, that you could see people who were making records walking down the street. And they didn’t necessarily have to be in a glossy magazine, and they didn’t have to weigh 90 pounds and have blonde hair down to their ankles or whatever was the fashion of the day.”
Before Riot Grrrl: X-Ray Spex & “Oh Bondage Up Yours!” | New British Canon – YouTube
Constructionism is being practiced anywhere where people are making artifacts to represent their knowledge constructions.
On Constructionism, Makerspaces, and Music Education
Every time someone engages with something you make, that means that a whole actual, real human being was really genuinely affected by a thing you put into the world. You are a fucking artist. Each thing you put into the universe represents the time, energy, care, and passion that you have nurtured throughout your journey of existence so far. Each thing you make is a showcase of all of your skills and talents. And those inevitable areas where you aren't as skilled as you want to be? Just think of how much more you have to learn. Think of how fun it'll be to challenge yourself to figure that shit out. They're not evidence that you lack something; they're just little voids of potential for waiting for you to explore them. You are a fucking artist. When things get tough - and things will get tough - remember all those other creators whose work inspired you to make your own stuff? They have gone through exactly what you are dealing with. Reach out. Talk to them. Send them a message and form a connection. Artists want to support each other. And what's more is we have to. Being a content creator can be overwhelming. There's a steep learning curve, but there's also a wealth of knowledge that people genuinely love sharing with each other. You'll probably never feel like you really know what you're doing, but none of us feel like we really know what we're doing. When you become a creator, you have a built in community. You just have to find it. Artists have to work together and support one another. And you are a fucking artist. So make those apology videos. Or don't. Make whatever kinds of videos you want. And it might just work out. Or it might not. This whole thing is mostly luck. Any advice I could give would be tainted by my own experience as one of the survivors who happened to get lucky. So don't listen to me. Just do your own thing. Because the good thing about success being mostly luck is that it means that all of that stress and pressure to do things the right way... That's all gone. There is no right way. There's no secret recipe for getting a thousand or 10,000 or 100,000 subscribers. This is art. And art is scary. But you. You're a fucking artist. You'll be all right.
The truth about being a content creator (or, “quit apologizing and be an artist”) – YouTube