In this post, I discuss how I have enriched my everyday job activities with new initiatives to accompany and enhance the academic journey of our students.
As I have explained in the previous posts, in my main job I am a Learning Technologist who supports students and academics whilst working on their creative projects with a gamut of digital mediums (e.g. Adobe, Blender, Final Cut, CLO 3D). My ‘headquarters’ is the Heart Space (HS) based in the middle, like an island, of the 6th floor of our new LCF building and precisely in the heart of where the School of Media and Communication resides.
Since the beginning of this new chapter of the LCF journey dated September 2023, I have been deploying all the resources at hand to communicate with our students, not only by interacting face-to-face but also by sharing content through digital and tactile signage.
For instance, by using a TV screen installed in the Heart Space I have been streaming movies, documentaries, and TV series to commemorate artists, movie directors, fashion designers, and fashion photographers and illustrators who have represented the quintessence of the Fashion industry. For example, in the last week, I have paid tribute to the late American movie director David Lynch by streaming movies like ‘Mulholland Drive’, ‘The Elephant Man’ and ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’. In doing this, I use a virtual learning platform called Box of Broadcast (B.O.B) where thousands of docs and movies are available for free for all the UAL students. In addition, I have used the virtual collaborative platform Mersive Solstice to share the movies from one of the iMacs available in the HS (Fig. 1).
Furthermore, to engage with our students in a tacit conversation based on equality, social justice, diversity, integration and climate change I have also used a corner of our reprographic area to share posters, books, leaflets and academic articles. To paraphrase an article written by Brain Arao and Kristi Clemens called ‘From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces’ I am perpetually in the process of redesigning the purpose of these corners of interaction ‘in favour of a new way of seeing things’ by using a bit of bravery (Fig. 2).
Because of this, I have created a space of interest where students enjoy watching movies and driven by their curiosity, they asked for instance which one was the title of that movie and if they were going to be able to find those resources. In other circumstances, students and academics have grabbed articles and books and read them.
To contradict the article written by Clare Sams, a former technician from Central Saint Martins I have also received consensus and positive feedback from Course Leaders like Stephen Spear, Acting Course Leader BA Hons Fashion Journalism and Content Creation, and Alexander Mein, Course Leader BA Hons Fashion Imaging and Illustration, and the support from other academics, technicians and colleagues.
References
Arts.ac.uk. (2024). From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces by Arao and Clemens | PgCert 2024. [online] Available at: https://syahrizalshafie.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2024/03/17/from-safe-spaces-to-brave-spaces-by-arao-and-clemens/.
Learningonscreen.ac.uk. (n.d.). About BoB · Learning on Screen. [online] Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/bob/.
Mersive Technologies. (2024). Mersive Wireless Collaboration App Downloads. [online] Available at: https://www.mersive.com/download/ [Accessed 29 Jan. 2025].
Sams, C. (2016). How do art and design technicians conceive of their role in higher education? Spark: UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal, [online] 1(2), pp.62–69. Available at: https://sparkjournal.arts.ac.uk/index.php/spark/article/view/18.
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