Artist Lunch Box: object-based learning workshop

^{Images credit: Catherine Li}

Context

As a Fine Art Lecturer, I support students in developing skills that contribute to their careers as artists. This involves helping them think analytically and critically about their own and their peers’ artistic practices. A key aspect of this is supporting their ability to articulate language that conveys artistic intent, connects subject matter with materiality and process, and engages with meaning-making, visual analysis, and creative decision-making.

For this object-based learning activity, I used Artists Lunch Boxes – each assembled by an artist and filled with objects reflecting their practice. I selected six lunch boxes for participants to open, explore, and use as the basis for describing the corresponding artist’s practice. The goal is to create a fun, engaging and inclusive activity that encourages learners to reflect critically. Objects serve as anchors for abstract experiences, help trigger memory recall, and spark curiosity (Hardie, 2015, p.19).

The session was structured into three parts:

• Explanation: I introduced the activity, explaining its purpose and the learning outcomes.
• Individual exploration: participants engaged with the objects, considering how they related to artistic processes, materials, and themes.
• Group discussion: participants shared their observations, building connections between objects and artistic practices.

To guide their thinking, I provided each table with prompts covering subject matter, process, and materials. Each category included sub-questions designed to help participants make connections and articulate their interpretations.

This activity encouraged students to think about visual language and how they might articulate their own artist statements – without the pressure of focusing on themselves – while also drawing indirect connections to their practice. According to Graham Barton and Judy Willcocks, referencing Nina Simon, objects provide an opportunity for individuals to direct their attention towards something external rather than on one another. This ability to facilitate discussion and shift focus beyond the participants is what makes object-based learning an effective approach for engaging diverse audiences (2017).

Reflection:

This was an experimental session, as I had not tested the approach before. Overall, I think it went well. Compared to my colleagues’ sessions, mine was more reflective, with extended time for individual exploration and contemplation. Some colleagues said that this format enabled more focus and individual learning and was as much a non verbal exercise as a verbal one.

What I learnt:

• Using objects with an inherent narrative, like the artist-made lunch boxes, sparked curiosity and deepened engagement with the task.
• The activity was unexpectedly playful, and allowed participants to invent narratives around the objects, which linked well to a previous session on screenwriting and drama. Many described it as feeling like detective work or “studio snooping”—piecing together clues to infer an artist’s practice and personality. The absence of a right or wrong answer encouraged imagination and allowed time for free association.
• It introduced themes beyond what I had anticipated, such as cultural associations embedded in objects, biases, and the entanglement between artists – those who created the boxes and those interpreting them.
• The session could serve as a stimulus activity or icebreaker, especially for new groups, by facilitating discussion without requiring students to present their own work directly. It could evolve into paired discussions on topics such as studio practices, inspirations, processes, materiality, or artistic influences. Or, students could create their own lunch boxes or produce a piece of work inspired by the artist they were assigned.
• Observing my colleagues engage with the lunch box made me consider whether fine art students might have a different experience. Given their tacit knowledge and haptic understanding of materials and processes, they may respond differently to the objects, recognising certain techniques or associations that others might overlook.
• Building structured reflection into the session helped participants engage more critically with their observations.

What I would do differently:

During the session, I attempted to write my own observations and found it unexpectedly difficult. There was a lot to unpack—themes, processes, materials—and I struggled to find a starting point. Ironically, I felt a bit lost in my own session, which highlighted the need for more structured questioning and gradual interaction rather than relying on a single extended period of silent observation.

Next time, I would break the session into more stages beyond the three broad phases (introduction > individual exploration > discussion). Incorporating structured moments of guided observation and targeted interventions could help sustain engagement and prevent participants from feeling adrift in their looking and thinking. Additionally, I would prepare more prompts to encourage connections between the objects and artistic practices, offering a clearer entry point into the activity.

References:

Barton, G. and Willcocks, J. (2017) ‘Object-based self-enquiry: A multi- and trans-disciplinary pedagogy for transformational learning’, Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, 2(3).

Hardie, K. (2015) ‘Innovative pedagogies series: Wow: The power of objects in object-based learning and teaching’, Higher Education Academy, pp. 1-25.

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Worksheet

Artist Lunch Box 

‘Artist Lunch Box’ is a participatory project initiated by curator Catherine Li that connects 25 London-based artists with 25 students at the Academy of Fine Art Vienna, through a workshop where they collaboratively created a group of lunch boxes. 

Each lunch box was assembled by an artist and contains objects that reflect their practice. The curator asked artists to ‘prepare’ a lunch box filled with items found in their studios that inform their practice.

For more information visit: www.artistlunchbox.com

Objective: Describe the art practice of the artist corresponding to your lunch box.

Learning Outcomes:

• Communication – Express observations clearly and discuss interpretations.
• Aesthetic judgement – Consider artistic choices and their significance.
• Visual literacy – Identify how objects convey meaning, understand materials and processes, and connect subject matter to artistic practice.

Step 1: Individual exploration (8 minutes)

• Choose one lunch box.
• Open and explore its content.
• Make notes on key aspects such as subject matter, process, materials, etc that you think the objects reflect.

Step 2: Group Discussion (12 minutes)

• Try to describe the artist based on the lunch box contents:
  
  • What kind of work do you think the artist makes?
  • What might the finished artworks look like?
  • How do the materials contribute to meaning?
  • Could you describe the making process?

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