The in-between space of learning is an other-kind of space outside the institutional context that is autonomously chosen by students as they pivot towards professionalism. It is through the space in-between that student-professionals develop new personas that broaden the scope of what it means to become a professional in art and design. Drawing from the context of higher arts and design education in Singapore, this study examines how individuals learn to perform a delicate dance by navigating a range of different positions – caught between student and professional, neither fully belonging to one nor the other, or emerging at the very cusp of professionalism. Findings also show how student-professionals challenge conventional ways of belonging, develop their becomings, deepen the sense of being, and break out into something new while engaging with an unknowability of the other. These experiences highlight the need to shift from learning within institutional confines to embracing learning beyond the campus, urging art schools to question established norms as students navigate the shift between academic and professional identities. The key implication of this article is to examine how the in-between space serves as a vehicle for change, reproduction and transformation within institutional learning, as demonstrated by the practical insights presented in this study.
Momentous changes across the global higher education landscape, including the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, have affected students' beliefs about how to respond to academic challenges and seeking support. Therefore, understanding how to increase students' ability to meet the challenges they face at university and access support is crucial in order to increase their academic and creative success. This paper seeks to better understand how to support students in complex and volatile higher education settings through a student-staff podcasting project. We identified two core themes related to the importance of building networks for resilience and the necessity of providing structured opportunities for students to develop an independent understanding of how they learn best. I hope it [i.e. the podcast] reduces uncertainty [for student listeners] and supports a feeling of control over situations. (Feedback shared following Podcast 3, 2023)
How could one forge a creative dialogue between texts and the physical spaces that they document, imagine or reinvent? This article explores the idea of intersemiotic translation from a work of literature to architecture through a selection of student works produced in an undergraduate elective (Building Texts) offered online in 2020 in the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut (AUB). In the course, students were given the task of ‘building’ the Turkish novelist Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s internationally acclaimed novel, The Time Regulation Institute (1961) in the form of visual representation. The purpose was not to illustrate the content but trigger an intermedial exchange: Tanpınar’s novel gives a detailed account a fictional modern institute, which serves no purpose other than synchronizing every clock in the country and fine those whose watches are running slow. But the complexity and eclectic character of the architecture, as well as the absurdity of its supposed function, compelled students to go beyond straightforward solutions and minimized the likelihood of ‘translating’ the content into familiar shapes and forms. By introducing one final project in more detail that explores translation as a central theme, the article discusses how such interactions between architecture and literature could be mobilized as an imaginative pedagogical tool. As the project illustrates, students have not only connected textual spaces to the ‘actual spaces’ informing the novel’s narrative structure but also critically resituated these spatial discourses within the mutually dependent social, political and cultural contexts in which they were imagined.
Since building systems play a key role in shaping the final design of a building, knowledge about their foundations has been an integral part of the undergraduate architecture curriculum. However, building systems are often considered by architecture students as engineers’ main responsibility. This mindset has caused inadequate attention in education. VR technology, with its ability to simplify complex concepts through immersive, interactive experiences, offers a promising solution. This study proposes a VR-based building systems-learning (VR-BSL) system, which aims to increasing architectural students’ motivation and engagement in understanding the fundamentals of building systems. A prototype of the VR-BSL system was integrated into the classroom activities, where students and lecturers explored virtual spaces of major building systems using HMDs and controllers. This study demonstrated that VR-BSL enhances learning experience by allowing students to easily grasp distributed information and knowledge through the visualization of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in the VR.
This article presents an extensive exploration of design education in Africa, with a focus on Ghana, employing storied-ethnography to critically contrast it with conventional western methodologies. It draws upon the narratives of prominent Ghanaian design educators – Sela, Isaac and Patrique – whose experiences and insights emphasize the need to integrate cultural, historical and social realities into the design curriculum. This study uncovers a significant divergence from western educational paradigms, which often prioritize technical proficiency and a universal design approach, potentially neglecting the rich cultural specificities integral to the African context. The research highlights the necessity for a design education system in Africa, particularly in Ghana, that balances technical skill with a deep-rooted connection to local culture and social nuances. It advocates for a model that honours and preserves African cultural heritage while preparing students to make impactful contributions in both local and global design spheres. The findings shed light on the complex nature of design education in Africa, calling for a decolonized, inclusive and culturally sensitive educational model, with profound implications for policy-makers and educators across the continent. Relevance to design practice: This research offers practical insights and strategies for integrating Indigenous knowledge and contemporary methodologies, shaping a more culturally nuanced and globally relevant design practice.
This Special Issue of the journal of Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education ( ADCHE ) is a partnership with the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), building on the 2023 ELIA Academy, ‘Exploring Situatedness’. Through an international call for manuscripts, individuals working within and beyond the academy were invited to consider the relationship between where an art programme is situated – its place – and what it aspires to offer higher arts education today. Contributors report on educational experiences that intentionally integrate local communities and environments as a primary component of the learning. While ‘Part 1’ of this issue focused on ideas about ‘situatedness’ explicitly or implicitly woven through the ELIA conference, ‘Part 2’ features contributions which explore the theme of situatedness more broadly.
Review of: Drawing, Well-Being and the Exploration of Everyday Place: 228 Sketches of Clifton Street , Nicole Porter (2024) Bristol: Intellect, 500 pp., ISBN 978-1-78938-820-6, h/bk, USD 134.95
Practice-led research provides opportunities to look at craft practices differently and to articulate their epistemic potential. This study enhances theoretical learning by integrating creative craft techniques. An intervention course was offered during the first year of the craft teacher master's degree programme at the University of Helsinki. One course task involved materializing theoretical mind maps, and the research focused on how students resolved this task. Data included 52 individual mind maps, materializations and reflections. The analysis revealed three main themes in meaning-making strategies of theory-based crafts: (1) creating symbolic artefacts, (2) personalization and (3) product development. The findings suggest that craft educators should seek a balance between academic thinking and practical training when addressing current topics such as tradition, sustainability and well-being.
This article examines the perceptions of master's students in design and social innovation regarding the mediation practices taught in their programme, building on the framework established by Marie-Julie Catoir-Brisson and Marine Royer. It explores the interactions established with users and stakeholders and the skills utilized during co-design activities. By analysing the designer's roles as facilitator, coordinator and translator of user experiences, this study underscores the importance of mediation in developing solutions that address complex social and environmental challenges. The findings contribute to understanding how mediation practices can better support designers in effectively undertaking these roles within multifaceted sociocultural and environmental contexts.
Artists have always related to what happens around them, both on local and global levels. The professorship 'Artistic Connective Practices' at Fontys Academy of the Arts in Tilburg, the Netherlands, addresses the notion of 'artistic connectivity' as a lens towards artistic research in relation to society. One of the central approaches of the professorship is the form of artistic research residencies: artist-researchers engage in the context at hand, from a socially engaged perspective and work with what the people and contexts have to offer. We choose for a situated approach and consciously leave space for the residencies, their forms and purposes to emerge from the ground up. In this article, I share the notion of artistic connectivity and the approach of socially engaged artistic research residencies and explore how such approaches can contribute to situatedness as a conceptual framework for socially engaged artistic practice and research.
This article reports on the preliminary findings of an ongoing study by the Faculty of Architecture and the Service-learning Office of the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) on whether and how service-learning can act as a lever for integral education. While integral education aims to foster the whole person's development, service-learning typically seeks to give students ownership of their learning process and simultaneously attend to community needs. Using the Doelland service-learning initiative as a case study, we distinguished five principles and mechanisms that can function as levers with transformative potential. Solidarity was identified as an overarching principle that grows through a circular process resulting in even deeper connections and mutual support among equ & scy;& acy;-tors, students and the community. Applying the insights from this study to architectural education can allow students and societal partners to learn and experience how architecture can become a critical, inclusive and situated practice.
This article explores the innovative fusion of critical disability studies and research through design (RtD) within a university course. Through partnership with Luca Szabados, who has a congenital limb difference, the course shifted from a traditional 'design for care' paradigm to a collaborative endeavour, embracing the co-Ability framework rooted in posthuman perspectives on disability. This transformative journey challenged traditional hierarchical classroom structures, emphasizing bidirectional and non-linear interactions in the learning process. It placed a strong emphasis on experiential approaches, fostering meaningful validation derived from Luca's experiences and aligning with the principles of design for social innovation. The course employed prosthetic prototypes as tools to foster knowledge construction through embodied interaction, shedding light on the underlying normative assumptions embedded in the designed environment. The various methods applied during the semester facilitated emergent learning outcomes, leading to an enriched understanding of the complex ethical and political dimensions of disability's intersection with design. This course exemplified the potential to reshape educational processing through design, emphasizing the value of situated learning.
Revolution RETOLD is an educational research project that utilized a local fashion retail store operated by the university as a place-based learning opportunity for connection between fashion design and merchandising students and their community. The project aimed to situate students within their local community to address real-world challenges within an actual retail setting. More specifically, this store learning lab course was developed for students to address the need for more sustainable practices, experiential marketing and explore a new era of retail and manufacturing at an existing store within their local community. Students in the course worked together to develop a concept that included key items, retail experiences, visual displays and marketing. Key items were created with thoughtfulness to more sustainable manufacturing processes such as zero-waste pattern-making, upcycling and use of local labour. Retail experiences engaged the local community through repair and upcycling workshops, while visual displays focused on second-hand use. Students were tasked with creating weekly working reports from store visits that identified store traffic and sales reports while also completing peer evaluations and self-reflections of their experience. Student responses suggest this place-based learning experience had a positive impact on learning in the following ways: (1) reflections on strengthening weaknesses, (2) learning to negotiate and compromise and (3) improving communication skills.
How might we imagine and develop innovative ways of coexisting with the interplanetary telecommunication infrastructures (IIT hereafter) that shape our daily lives and make global communication possible? This article explores the constraints and possibilities that these infrastructures pose to generating situated forms of knowledge. While IIT are foundational to enabling communication across the globe, their physical, technical and economic requirements and obligations often hinder meaningful civic participation and limit opportunities for creative engagement. At this critical moment, we ask: What kinds of practices and approaches can acknowledge the elusive, distributed and transspatial nature of interplanetary signal flows, while also supporting a framework for inhabiting both urban and interplanetary environments? Drawing from the 'Manifesting space cities' workshop (held in May 2023 at Concordia University, Montreal), we reflect on the strategies we developed to critically examine and creatively interact with IIT. By bringing together diverse forms of knowledge-ranging from disciplinary and technical to tacit and expert-we examine three relational techniques: critical cartography, sensory attunement and place-based pedagogy.
8 Acts of Love is an interactive exhibition inspired by the Out of Site Chicago artist collective's archive (https://www.outofsitechicago.org/, accessed 22 October 2023). Over the past thirteen years, this international collective, comprising women, trans and non-binary artists, has come together through collaborative, multimodal public performance across diverse global locations. United by the transformative power of performance art and practice research, the work in Out of Site Chicago's archive has been co-curated as 8 Acts of Love by Dr Alice Bell, Site Chicago organizer and artist in residence at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom. This project brings together the sites of Chicago, United States, and Lincoln, United Kingdom, in an integrated exploration of how diverse artistic and social encounters can engage different places, spaces, artists, students and educators, opening new avenues for cross-cultural understanding and exchange.
Reflective practice is understood as a key element of art and design pedagogy, with Donald Sch & ouml;n's ideas considered seminal. While Sch & ouml;n's concept of 'reflection- onaction' is widely respected, the related concept of post-rationalization has received scant attention and is often viewed as disingenuous. This article draws on research from management and organization studies and pedagogic theory to explore the value of looking back and reasoning after the fact in design. It discusses how this can support 'self-regulated learning', particularly for students who rely on intuition. The article examines different forms of knowledge (tacit, implicit and explicit) and how they influence students' ability to explain their creative decisions. It considers how seemingly inexplicable creative choices can be validated in academic settings. Various models of reflection are compared, including pre-active (before action), inter-active (in real-time) and retro-active (after action). The article concludes with practical strategies to help educators foster reflective reasoning within the classroom.
A successful career in fashion, as with most creative industries, is rooted in aptitude and networks developed through experience in the field. Situatedness here has long supported the teaching of fashion through encouragement of work placements and interning alongside education. Scholastic efforts alone are rarely enough to secure a career and as such situated learning in a professional environment is a key supplement to post-education opportunities. As the adage goes, it’s not what you know but who you know, or, as Bourdieu would put it, the connections attributed to ‘social capital’ mean that work experience is instrumental in broadening professional circles for students. However, the first steps towards building networks can be exacerbated by location, socio-economics and personal limitations, meaning a large subset of fashion students begin their professional journey at a competitive disadvantage despite all completing the same degree programme. This report seeks to investigate pedagogical solutions to simulating experiences through a board game where situated learning is limited or not possible. This report discusses the preparation, development and implementation of a playful resource using action research that aims to facilitate learning about fashion industry careers for students at a higher education provider in the north-east of England.
A group of teachers and students involved in film education travelled to the Atlantic coast of Norway – outbound from Gothenburg, Oslo and Helsinki. They took part in an intensive course on the island of Vega (Vegaøyan) guided by an idea of isolating each of the five senses to deepen individual artistic practice through film – using situated pedagogy and embodied learning approaches. This article offers a case study of wild pedagogy, with reflections from individual teachers who took part in the course, as well as broader lessons learned on the island, and from the island – lessons that speak to the practice and pedagogy of film and situatedness.
This Special Issue of the journal Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education is a partnership with the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA), building on the 2023 ELIA Academy, ‘Exploring Situatedness’. Through an international call for manuscripts, individuals working within and beyond the academy were invited to consider the relationship between where an art programme is situated – its place – and what it aspires to offer higher arts education today. Contributors report on educational experiences that intentionally integrate local communities and environments as a primary component of the learning. This issue, ‘Part 1’, focuses on ideas about ‘situatedness’ explicitly or implicitly woven through the ELIA conference, revealing an array of approaches to situatedness in arts education.
The author crafted immersive experiences specifically designed to guide and inspire students, academics and design professionals. These experiences challenged participants to confront real-world problems and actively experiment with potential solutions. In May 2023, ELIA recognized the author’s contributions by inviting her to present at their Academy event in Évora. During the presentation, the author shared insights from her ongoing research and facilitated an interactive workshop that engaged all participants. The author explored the concept of situatedness, emphasizing the importance of feeling connected to the environment, the people around us and our own bodies. This exploration highlighted the need for educational practices that prioritize a bottom-up approach, where the body is positioned as a foundational element, not because of its lesser significance but simply due to its physical location beneath the brain.
