Swarm Intelligence and Collaboration

James Haywood Rolling Jr.

To cite this article: James Haywood Rolling Jr. (2016) Swarm Intelligence and
Collaboration, Art Education, 69:5, 4-6
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1201400
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uare20
 Intelligence
CollaborationAND

A photograph of the public sculpture Stroll (1995), by

William King, located on the South Street walkway at
Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia, serves as a

metaphor E CREATE FROM WHAT WE PARTAKE OF. for the simple dynamics of all swarm

behavior: follow the trail of the individual in front of you, and keep

Every art teacher knows from personal pace with the individual alongside you. Photo by
experience that as a result, art makes us James Haywood Rolling Jr.
smarter—artists routinely immerse themselves
in the processes, resources, artifacts, and vast fi elds of play left behind by all the artists,
designers, and inventors that practiced before us. In making art, we dive into humanity’s
collective genius and see our individual refl ections shimmering brightly upon the
water’s surface. As art and museum educators, we document and display the evidence
of hands-on learning as each student explores some of civilization’s best ideas made
visible, each student working to make personal sense of the cultural architecture they
dwell in while arriving at new understandings through projects all their own.
4 Art Education
Every one of us carries multiple
motivating stories in our heads at the
same time.
Yet, conveying the value of shared resources,
collaboration, and divergent outcomes emerging from
contemporary art studio models and project-based classroom
pedagogies can be daunting in a schooling paradigm fixated on
standardized tests for individual achievement. In order to address
this dilemma, the September 2016 issue of Art Education on
swarm intelligence and collaboration has been assembled to help
tell a story of how art makes us smarter, providing simple
principles for behaving together in varying clusters of socially
responsible creative activity that can channel the benefits of
humanity’s creative genius into any classroom, any workplace, and
any nation. While a negative reaction to the term “swarm”
typically stems from a triggering association with “mindless”
insect colonies, the reality is that all social creatures exhibit swarm
behavior, from animal herds, to apes, to humans (Rolling, 2013).
The more sophisticated the brain, the more sophisticated the swarm
behavior—hence, while a swarm of ants is capable of building an
extensive underground colony and a swarm of mammals (e.g.,
wolves, elephants, dolphins, or chimpanzees) can build a thriving
pack or herd living harmoniously within their local ecologies, a
swarm of humans can build a civilization that lasts for centuries
(Fisher, 2009; Miller, 2010). A human swarm is a social network
of individuals behaving for a time like-mindedly or self-similarly.
While behaving together as a local swarm can at times lead to an
unthinking “mob mentality” or ill-reasoned “crowd hysteria,” for
the most part human swarm intelligence contributes to the ongoing
development of distinct cultural practices, belief systems, and
patterns of mutually beneficial social actions—our general
altruistic intent to perpetuate our species and transmit “from one
generation to the next, via teaching and imitation… knowledge,
values, and other factors that influence behavior” (Boyd &
Richerson, 1985, p. 2).
What triggers a swarm of creative activity? Most often, a
swarm of mutually advantageous human thought and action is
instigated by a common story, whether the collaborators are a
small crowd of three or a nation of millions (Rolling, 2013).
Ultimately, it does not matter whether that story is fictional,
mythical, familial, scientific, cultural, political, or economic
because the truth is that every one of us carries multiple
motivating stories in our heads
at the same time. In this September 2016 issue of Art
Education, Aaron D. Knochel explores the multimodal
participatory cultures of art + design education through the
motivating story of preservice university students remixing
and developing a variety of solutions for do-it-yourself
(DIY) prosthetics intended to enable artmaking. Jessica
Baker Kee, Cayla Bailey, Shabreia Horton, Katrice Kelly,
James McClue, and Lionell Thomas instigate swarm
intelligence and collaborative learning through the studio
arts practice of assemblage, unpacking K–12 student
cultural identities in the process of developing installations
during a class offered at the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in
central New Orleans. Canadian art + design educators Ehsan
Akbari, Juan Carlos Castro, Martin Lalonde, Lina Moreno, and
David Pariser explore the value of collective learning in the art
classroom by presenting a lesson from MonCoin, their mobile
media visual art curriculum. A key objective of their curriculum is
to amplify the conditions for an aspect of swarm intelligence
wherein individuals with a shared affinity for a particular story
construct, self-organize to participate in autonomous activities as
that story deems apt and without the need for outside direction,
ultimately distributing the benefits of their problem solving
between one another through multiple interactions over a period
of time within a peer learning network (Rolling, 2013).
Also in this issue, Lisa Kay offers her perspective on why
collaborations between art educators and art therapists are needed,
providing readers with an example of an effective partnership
program designed for adolescent girls who have experienced
adverse childhoods. Jorge Lucero has organized a collaborative
writing effort with Anna Nichols, Dawn Stienecker, Janet E.
Nisbett, Lillian Lewis, Joana Hyatt, Kristen McCarthy, Lee
Tyler Darter, Linda White Kieling, Jessica Green, Deborah
S. Peters, Robin E. Brooks, Stephanie Brooks, Frank Juarez, Sue
Ellen Jacobs, Laura K. Reeder, and James Haywood Rolling Jr.
that utilizes a crowd-sourcing or swarming method of
accumulative writing as an accessible publication model for busy
practitioners. Kevin Slivka shares narrative vignettes that examine
sovereign and traditional ecological practices of the Indigenous
peoples of the Upper Great Lakes region for harvesting, cooking,
and preserving blueberries as a means not only for enriching
cultural pedagogies and literacies through visual ethnography, but
also to entice Western thinkers and doers to mimic such
sustainable practices until a much needed social adaptation for
greater environmental responsibility emerges. Finally, Syracuse
University graduate student Brianna Prisco presents an
Instructional Resource featuring several interactive art
installations, each one inviting swarms of participants to engage
in and create new iterations of the public art.
September 2016 5
As social creatures, we must learn to see our multitudinous art +
design practices as an “adaptive, dynamic, goal-seeking,
selfpreserving, and sometimes evolutionary” system for perpetuating
the human species (Meadows, 2008, p. 12). Likewise, as artists we
must learn to see our works of art, design, and architecture as the
storytelling exercises they essentially are. We use symbols and
constructed materials to describe our experience of the world
immediately surrounding us… to communicate our relationship
with the people, places, practices, and events we hold dear and want
to be remembered long after we are gone… and to interrogate the
problems that won’t go away. Story inventions are shared in order
 for our best ideas and solutions to spread (Johnson, 2010), Miller, P. (2010). The smart swarm: How understanding flocks, schools, and colonies
can make us better at communicating, decision making, and getting things done. New
allowing humans to move from one swarm of creative activity
York, NY: Avery.
to the next, gathering advantages along the way. n Rolling, J. H. (2013). Swarm intelligence: What nature teaches us about shaping
—James Haywood Rolling Jr., Editor creative leadership. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
References
Boyd, R., & Richerson, P. J. (1985). Culture and the evolutionary process.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Fisher, L. (2009). The perfect swarm: The science of complexity in everyday James Haywood Rolling Jr. is Dual Professor and Chair of
life. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Art Education in the School of Art/College of Visual and
Johnson, S. (2010). Where good ideas come from: The natural history of Performing Arts, and the Department of Teaching and
innovation. New York, NY: Riverhead Books.
Leadership/School of Education, Syracuse University,
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. White River Junction,
VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Company. New York. E-mail: jrolling@syr.edu

Call for Nominations for the 2017 USSEA Edwin Ziegfeld Awards
USSEA’s Annual Edwin Ziegfeld Awards OTHER USSEA AWARDS:
honor distinguished leaders who have The USSEA Award for Excellence in PK-12 Art Education is presented to a pK-12 made
significant contributions to the art educator who has demonstrated leadership in and commitment to multicultural, national
and international fields of art cross-cultural educational strategies in their school/s and communities.
education. Two Ziegfeld Awards will This art educator actively implements an approach that builds respect for human be presented
during the 2017 NAEA dignity and diversity through art. The teacher must be a member of NAEA and USSEA to be recognized, and

their work must be confluent with the mission of

National Convention in New York City:

USSEA, which is to foster “teamwork, collaboration, and communication among one national
award to honor an art diverse constituencies in order to achieve greater understanding of the social and educator from within
the United States cultural aspects of art and visual culture in education.”
and one international award to honor USSEA Award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis is presented to a master’s a colleague from
outside the United graduate whose thesis or creative component reflects the mission of USSEA States, who has made
contributions (see above).
of INTERNATIONAL significance to art The topic investigated in the master’s work promotes pluralistic perspectives, education.
deepens human and cultural understanding, and/or builds respect for diverse learners.
SUBMISSIONS: Nominees should be members of USSEA or InSEA and have NOMINATIONS: May be submitted by any member of USSEA,
InSEA, or NAEA. brought distinction to international aspects Forms available at http://ussea.net. Mail or e-mail nominations to: Angela
LaPorte, of art education through an exceptional and Department of Art, 306 Fine Arts Center, Fayetteville, AR 72701.
continuous record of achievement in scholarly E-mail: alaporte@uark.edu
writing, research, professional leadership, DEADLINE: Nomination materials (nomination form, vitae, letter of nomination, teaching,
professional service, or community and one letter of support) due by November 1, 2016. Letters of nomination, service bearing
on international education in acceptance, and support must be written in English. the visual arts.*
*Past awardees are listed at http://ussea.net/awards. Please consider nominating a
member of USSEA or InSEA who has not yet been recognized.
6 Art Education