Exploring the Impact of Viral Process Painting Using Data Visualization as Art Education Research

On social media, art educators share glimpses into their classroom ecologies—from art projects, to classroom management tips, to cost-effective solutions for specialized tools, materials and more. Recently, process-based art-making methods like “pour painting”, in which paint is poured directly onto a canvas using different colors, have gone viral on sites such as Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram. Considering the need for art teachers to make use of data deluges circulating online (Klein, 2014), this research explores the prevalence and popularity of pour painting techniques on social media using animated data visualization as an art education research tool. Using a custom systematic sampling approach, data was mined from 150 Instagram posts of pour paintings shared by art education influencers, DIY communities, as well as A.I. generated images.

To animate the data, morphing effects were applied to each image sequentially, serving as a means for layered image comparison to help identify variations in the viral pour paintings. Specifically, this study assessed the impact of the “mere-exposure effect”, or, the development of preference for certain aesthetics and art making practices based on repeated exposure to them (Nanay, 2017). To this end, this research postulates that repeated exposure to pour painting techniques posted on social media primes teachers to be inspired to shift the focus from the artwork as a final product back to the process of art making. This is significant as encouraging this gravity-driven approach to painting in the classroom can be more accessible to a variety of grade levels, providing students who are timid about art making with an inviting means to experience the space between control and vulnerability. The resulting data visualization echoes the organic nature of pour painting, and although findings indicate that these artworks are highly derivative, exposure to pour paintings opens opportunities to rethink art making in K-12 classrooms by emphasizing process-based studio habits as form of generative knowledge.

Klein, S. R. (2014). Making Sense of Data in the Changing Landscape of Visual Art Education. Visual Arts Research, 40(2), 25–33. https://doi.org/10.5406/visuartsrese.40.2....

Nanay, B. (2017). Perceptual Learning, the Mere Exposure Effect and Aesthetic Antirealism. Leonardo, 50(1), 58–63. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26808357