Students work together on a learning activity. Groups can be allocated by staff or initiated by the students involved.
Teamwork, communication, negotiation, delegation, diplomacy.
Project Title: Cross-School Course
Student Name: Karlie Wu
School/Department: Fine Art – Painting and Printmaking
Year of study: One
Project Length: Six weeks
Project Location: Studio-based and site-specific
To introduce students to the ideas of place and the city of Glasgow, as well as key ideas around developing studio practice within a critical environment.
The project aimed to integrate all departments, so that first-year students shared and developed individual creative processes, breaking up the usual social environment and, more importantly, encouraging a multi-disciplinary way of working.
The project started off with four lectures, one each week, in order to give students a grounding on the brief – the idea of people and/or things that had been lost in the context of a particular site. In the fourth week, all students were divided into mixed groups of between five and eight and allocated a tutor and a location in which to base their project. The brief required a collective studio-based piece, as well as individual reflective journals that documented work-in-progress and research. Groups met in their allocated studio spaces on a daily basis, discussing the previous day’s findings and individual research and setting a task list for the day ahead. After a day’s work, groups reconvened to update on individual progress as well as to evaluate collective progress. Tutors performed regular checks, in the shape of formal tutorials (two during the penultimate and final weeks) or drop-in sessions. The project culminated in a critical feedback session involving another group and their tutor.
Internal partners included the allocated tutor, who acted as the main point of contact throughout the course, and another group of students and their tutor when engaging in the critical feedback session. External partners were the managers of the allocated sites.
In undertaking work with others in a multi-disciplinary environment, students reflected upon both process and output. The Cross-School Course led to a final piece created by each group, which was showcased in an exhibition held across the school. This allowed students to appreciate the common and distinct aspects of creative disciplines within the school.
Students developed their own creative skills and processes when working individually and collectively.
Working in a group allowed students to develop their own critical thinking and voices when giving each other feedback on their progress, either informally or during more formal sessions with tutors present.
Perhaps more importantly, students were able to learn from, and further their understanding of, the methods and thinking used in other disciplines. In this way, collaborative creative practice was encouraged from the very beginning of the students’ art school career.
Graphics – 2nd Year – Karan Saneinia Junior
Group work can often prove difficult. 2nd year Graphics student KJ discusses the value in both positive and negative collaborations experiences.
Textiles (VMC) – 3rd Year – Giverny Simm
Giverney describes the benefits of cross course collaboration and how it can relate to creative work in the future.