Toward an Ethic of Adjacency: Defining Critical, Arts-Based Phenomenological Breaching Experiments

The authors propose critical breaching experiments as a means to destabilize and render inoperative the white, male, colonialist gaze. We begin with an overview of breakdowns in phenomenological and critical phenomenological literatures and how this can be articulated within the breaching experiment model composed of four dimensions including collective and sustained breakdowns, hesitant looking practices, critiques of how bodies hold onto sedimented habits of seeing, and a subsequent new mode of seeing embodying an ethic of adjacency. We then discuss three critical breaching experiments conducted in our preservice art teacher education courses, highlighting the effects (positive and negative) on students.