DAP presentation

1. • How can fine art students improve their practice to make it more
sustainable?
• Jane Higginbottom - MA Fine Art
• Why? Because this is an aim which I think is critical to our future and which
UAL claims to support in it’s practice - Debates in Enterprise and
Sustainability May 2013 and they have asked David Cross to look at how
they can implement better practice.
http://workflow.arts.ac.uk/group/integrating-sustainable-practi/debates-in-
enterprise-and-sustainability
Introduction
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2. Reasons And Theory
• Humanist Social and Situational theories of learning - theorists Freire
and Giroux - because they are concerned with social context and
learning in relationship to environment (and people).
• With Reference to the paper by Stephen Stirling - Transformative
Learning and Sustainability: sketching the conceptual ground
Mezirow (2000) suggests that transformative learning:
refers to transforming a problematic frame of reference to make it more
dependable ... by generating opinions and interactions that are more
justified. We become critically reflective of those beliefs that become
problematic.
(Mezirow, 2000, p.20)
• Reason suggests that it ‘implies an experience of self much more fully
in transaction with others and with the environment, a participatory self
or participatory mind’ (Reason, 1995, p.3).
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3. Sustainability in relation to
Fine Art or design
fine art
• more commonly studied in architecture, fashion and design. Fine artists
only tend to consider this if the subject of their work is environmentally
linked.
Chelsea Xpo Pavilion – Story of
4000 pcs of swimming suits…
Material Futures -
Rebecca Earley
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4. Cornford and Cross -
The Abolition of Work
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5. Designing for a Safer Future -
Chapter 2
The Green Imperative - Victor
Papanek
• The choice of material
• The manufacturing process
• Packaging the product
• The finished product - do we need it?
• Transporting the product (or material)
• Waste - disposal of produce and waste
material
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6. The Activity
• Work with a group of BA students mixing some year 1 and year 2 students to
benefit from peer learning - (p96. Biggs and Tang - Teaching for Quality Learning at
University - most people learn 70% of what they talk over with others) : 2-3 week project
18 hours total
• Presentation of the issue to whole group using slides to reinforce and enhance the
presentation (we learn through activating different senses p.95 B +T - in this case
hearing and sight)
• Research a material or tool that they use - apply Victor Papaneks’ rules and see if they
can find an alternative, more sustainable material.
• Make a piece of work which has one intervention that makes it a more sustainable
practice. Implications ? Produces a better, same or diminished quality of artwork? Does
it affect the conceptual values of the work?
• Pair up - and discuss with a student from different year
• Group discussion of project and outcomes - possible additional actions to take
• Reflect on the project in their reflective journals
• Time Period 2-3 weeks total (alongside other study)
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7. why?
• Using the Kolb cycle of experiential learning the students are
experimenting, experiencing the activity, reflecting on the activity in
small and larger groups and then finally individually.
• The several stages of this project give the students time to process their
ideas,which according to Jenny Moon gives time for the learner to
process the ideas and link them to previous learning. They can also
reach a deeper level of reflection by using collaboration as also
discussed in Jenny Moon’s paper, Reflection in Higher Education
Learning.
• This returns us to the aim of the teaching - transformative learning - a
transformation of current understanding as described by Jenny Moon in
her paper on Reflection (p6) because we are asking students to look a
their assumptions and habits of thoughts.
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8. 8
Kolb Cycle
Make a Piece of Art
(with sustainable intervention)
Think about possible changes to practice
Try out a new material
Discuss with Peers
and write in reflective journal
Triangle of effective Learning Biggs 2003
Enhanced understanding of sustainable art practice
Making artwork with intervention
Reflecting on it
Evaluation of students study of sustainable practice
Reflection on impacts of change
Collaborative working

9. Learning Outcomes
• Evaluate the sustainability of your practice
• Explore options for improved sustainable practice
• Reflect on the impact of changes made to practice (when improving
its sustainability)
• Work collaboratively to critically analyse this issue
• Explore the issues raised by this process
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10. Conclusion
• Sterling - transformative learning is challenging for the individual and
teacher
• This could be a hard issue to assess. Is the best student outcome the
most successful idea that changes practice to give the best
environmental outcome or a genuine engagement with the issues which
may or may not provide any solutions. Do we assess the quality of the
artwork made itself or in environmental context only?
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