Mikel Otxoteko. Artist, researcher, and UNIR Master’s professor
He develops artistic research projects at the intersection of experimental anthropology and image-making media. His doctoral thesis Audiovisual Arts and Neo-materialism (UPV/EHU) received international distinction and included an invitation from filmmaker Manuel DeLanda as a visiting researcher at Pratt Institute (New York).
He has exhibited his work at institutions such as the Musée d’Art Contemporain Les Abattoirs (Toulouse), Centre del Carme Cultura Contemporánea (Valencia), The Rag Factory (London), San Telmo Museoa, and Centro Cultural Montehermoso (Basque Country), and has undertaken research residencies in Newfoundland, Puerto Rico, and Bakersfield. His film Invierno (2019) was screened at festivals including Cinespaña and Zinebi.
He will soon present a solo exhibition at MUNTREF, Museum of Immigration and Contemporary Art Center (Buenos Aires, Argentina), as part of the EAZ/EZE program.
This website has received support from the Department of Culture and Linguistic Policy of the Basque Government.
This is an original manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Educational Philosophy and Theory in July 2026, available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2026.2706551
Abstract: This article explores the figure of the student through the philosophical lens of François Jullien’s "situational potential," offering an alternative approach to dominant pedagogies in arts education. It argues that, rather than being confined to a predesigned curriculum, the student is an active agent engaged in a situation. Consequently, the development of their own potentialities and learning processes is intimately linked to the potential inherent in successive situations, conceiving learning as a silent transformation. The article examines how this paradigm, which prioritizes "deployment efficiency" over "efficacy understood as control and planning," is intrinsically suited to address the diversity of students’ styles, rhythms, and interests. Finally, the concept of "deployment islands" is proposed as a practical strategy to foster creativity, connection, and affirmation of difference, allowing students’ "cognitive and bodily differences" to become a constitutive part of the learning process.
Keywords: Neuroeducation, Neurodiversity, Situational Potential, Arts Pedagogy, Diversity, Inclusion, Artistic Learning