Within the BAACC course, I teach an essay planning seminar supporting dissertations for students specialising in textiles, ceramics, painting, performance, digital, sculpture, woodworking, musical instruments, and horology. The 35 students have individual character and range in neurodiversity and gender identity across the ages of 22 to 76.
Evaluation:
The challenge is to respond to diverse creative practices of different mediums and industry expectations. Teaching Craft Practices is a new terrain as I usually specialise in Contemporary Art. This meant gaining relevant knowledge of craft workshop practices, specialist skills and techniques, historical and contemporary makers, and industry knowledge. My objective was to enable each student to use diverse visual and theoretical research for developing their dissertations to inform their unique studio and workshop practices.
Recognising the students’ required initial concept support was key and resulted in delivering research methodologies lectures based on a guide to Visualising Research in Art and Design (Gray and Malins, 2004). Organising 1-2-1 tutorials in their individual workshops, effectively enabled me to analyse their practical projects, understand the different workshop cultures and gauge their individual needs before the seminar. I’ve previously found visual and oral presentations excellent for accommodating diversity with artists, so I applied this to the Craft students, despite it being an unfamiliar format for them. Combining the disciplines across 2 seminars was effective for encouraging transdisciplinary research and the generous group feedback enabled me to create bespoke draft essay plans using resources across the students. These proved so effective the Head of the School requested dissertation presentations alongside written assessments.
Moving forwards
By recognising the difference between each student’s unique needs I was able to mobilise their diversity as a resource for each other. Going forward I would like to build on the transdisciplinary exchanges that the combined student groups offered one another in the seminars to establish a network for the students to support each other’s projects.
Lectures: Opening my Critical Studies lectures to Craft students will enable them to independently choose subject areas of individual interest for their practical projects and physical exchange with Contemporary art students. While I have included craft examples in some of my art lectures, I intend to include more diverse objects and practitioners in every lecture.
Workshop introductions: To encourage cross-pollination of disciplines similar to the Bauhaus I would like to introduce the students to each other’s workshops during Orientation week. This would allow them to gain knowledge of available resources beyond their departments that might trigger initial making ideas and support project development.
Seminars: In the future, I would like to combine the disciplines during essay planning seminars and presentations. I believe this is possible by arranging with the different Course Leaders allocated sessions scheduled in the individual programmes.
References
Gray, C and Malins, J. (2004). Visualising Research: A Guide to Research Processes in Art and Design. Hants, Ashgate Publishing.
The temporary bauhaus-archive museum, available https://www.bauhaus.de/en/ (accessed Feb 7 2024)
Contextual Background : Within the BA ACC Theory in Practice, I wanted to plan a one-day teaching session on Habit, Repetition, and Accident in relation to mark-making for a group of mature female students who are managing menopause and fatigue after 3 days of intensive learning, of which my session is the final class.
Evaluation : The challenge is to maintain afternoon engagement following a morning lecture. My aim is to transgress skills when fatigue is at its highest and concentration at its lowest. For that reason, I intended to offer in the afternoon a variety of individual and collaborative activities that encouraged peer-to-peer learning and independent decision-making, while embracing the fatigue of “happy accidents”. Inspired by a Howard Caygill lecture at Kingston University that used discussion prompts with slides I modelled my morning lecture on Malabou and Deleuze’s understanding of Habit, Repetition and Accident similarly by connecting prompts to visual art examples of the theoretical concepts. I wanted to test Bell Hooks proposition for students to speak from their own experience to create more enthusiastic learning as I don’t always invite the students to share their own personal experiences as it can result in a loss of focus. The prompts encouraged students to relate the concepts to students’ personal habitual gestures, mark-making and looking. I also wanted to use a dynamic approach to the session reading (excerpt of Deleuze’s Repetition & Difference), which I tested by projecting the text with highlighted sentences. This enabled a group analysis demonstrating their understanding of key areas and encouraged peer-to-peer learning.
Moving forwards: Using prompts for students to identify concepts related to their own experience was an excellent way to focus mental energy on a specific understanding of substantial material. I was surprised at how effective this worked. Unexpectedly, it built student confidence owing to some students highlighting similar sections. I was able to use this as a demonstration of a “happy accident”. Students responded positively to the afternoon (film/drawing), and the divergent learning associated with identifying Brown’s terms in their drawings assisted in maintaining enthusiasm.
Film analysis: I often use dynamic workshops rather than films to accommodate menopausal afternoon energy levels. Using a film of Trisha Brown’s choreographic method to introduce a collaborative drawing activity unexpectedly led to students requesting to see more of Brown’s work, which involved showing further episodes (that I will plan for future sessions).
Collaborative activities: Creating a wall drawing collectively encouraged teamwork through the self-allocation of “choreographer” (directing) and “dancers” (moving, placing, and drawing). The “accident” was explored by students adopting Brown’s method of turning things sideways and upside down to shift the overall composition. (See Doc-C attached) Duration was key to momentum, so activities were timed by changing students’ physical positions from working sitting in pairs to working upright collectively. A key phase of learning to make senseless gestures via repetition was identified at 5 minutes which prompted a change towards making the wall drawing. These can be scheduled into future LPs.
I would like to test the session in a larger classes to invite more varied personal habits and to allow for collaborative drawings in groups. Going forward I will use discussion prompts in future lectures alongside projected readings and have scheduled another session with another class.
References
Brown, T. (1996). Choreography to Bach’s Musical Offering. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2tBfmjIr-0 (accessed 19 Feb 2024).
Caygill, H. (2022). Planetary Aesthetics. YouTube. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geTAXnm_U2w (accessed 10 Feb 2024)
Deleuze, G. (1994). Difference and Repetition. Trans Paul Patton. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Malabou, C. (2012). Ontology of the Accident: An Essay on Destructive Plasticity. (Cambridge) Polity Press.
West Dean Colleague 1: Had a read through your intervention. It is very clear and intentional, outlining the clear need, rationale and context for it’s implementation. The Padlets clearly evidence the intentions of the interventions, some better than others but that always going to be the way as some students are stronger than other. Despite this, what is clear is that they all understood and saw the value of the intervention in widening their frame of critical/visual references.
I was wondering if there would be an opportunity within the project to get direct feedback from the students in terms of how it has directly impacted their work and mode of study. This could add further weight to your argument, particularly in relation to the specific demographic we are working with at WD. You could also get feedback from tutor in terms of your idea of creating a shared Padlet for non-western research references. I know I will really value that as a shared resource within my teaching.
West Dean Colleague 2: Your aim to broaden diversity references in written projects has been a tremendous success, having had tutorials with both L4.1 and L.5.1, for the first time students are investigating the provenance of materials that make up specific artefacts in the collection, from which questions arise about ownership, acquisition and contextualisation regarding the makers, their history and the culture in which artefacts have arrived in the West Dean collection. This knowledge offers a valuable mindset for the students when visiting collections elsewhere.
The complexity around the inclusion of diverse (Indigenous) voices or even mentioning/researching this area has become so complex that in some instances tutors have become inert, therefore a knowledge library will be an incredible resource. There is also a generalisation that ethnocide/discrimination etc does not happen today/here/now so being able to shine a light on the past in an effort to draw attention to the present is an incredible asset.
Reflection on Feedback Following conversations and written feedback with Level 4/5 and Level 6 Studio tutors they indicated the project was having an impact – on them and the students. Despite the results of the written work thus far showing minimal selection of artists that are not white there is a raised awareness of their whiteness, which feels like a small positive step towards consciousness raising.
It became evident to me through the materials / methods category that students were possibly not exposed to diverse methodologies in the studio workshops. Few artists of colour are invited to the college as VL’s, residencies, commissions or as guest speakers. Both colleagues indicated a positive response to creating a resource of diverse references, which invites further possibilities for the project and a continuation beyond the PgC unit. I think this is a positive result. I would like to propose the concept of an online resource for teaching / students to the Research Committee. This would enable dedicated time / funds to establish it.
My name is Michelle Ussher, I am an Associate Lecturer teaching in Fine Art (Painting / Drawing) at CSM on Foundation and the Subject Leader of Critical Studies & Art Theory at West Dean College, University of Sussex.
My research question is: Can I effect the diversity of student references at West Dean College, changing the dominate white perspective even if only on a micro level?
Aim: The aim of my intervention is to enrich the written outputs of the West Dean students by expanding the diversity of their research.
Goals: Broaden the diversity of references students initially gather to develop ideas Initiate personal engagement motivated by the student (rather than being given references by tutor) Raise an awareness of whiteness and white cultural behaviours such as progressive racisim (conscious or unconscious) Instil a value for diversity that enriches their work (beyond “racial goodness” of progressive racism)
What: The Find 30 Research Padlet Activity. Students are prompted to find 5 references each under 6 categories: 1) Historical Western European (white) 2) Historical non-Western European (not white 3) Contemporary 4) Cultural/Everyday 5) Political 6) Materials/Methods
Ahmed, S. (2017) Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press, Durnham and London
Allport, G. Contact Hypothesis. Facing History & Ourselves. Available: facinghistory.org/sounds-change/gordon-allports-contact-hypothesisArao. B, & Clemens. K.(2021) From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces, A New Way to Frame Dialogue around diversity and social justice.
Crilly. J. Spark: (2019) Decolonising the library: a theoretical exploration. UAL Creative Teaching and Learning Journal., Content and Discovery, Library Services, University of the Arts London Vol 4 / Issue 1 (2019) pp.6-15
Dall’Alb. & G, Barnacle, R. (2007) An ontological turn for higher education Ontology in higher education. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, Studies in Higher Education Vol. 32, No. 6, December 2007, pp. 679–691, Society for Research into Higher Education.
DiAngelo, R. (2019) White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism). Audiobook Unabridged, Random House UK.
Heidegger, M. (1971) Being, Dwelling, Thinking from Poetry, Language, Thought , Harper Collins, New York.
Hooks. b(1995).Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. The New Press, New York.
Leigh, J & Brown, N. (2021) Embodied Inquiry as a Research Method. Kent Academic Repository. University of Kent.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2012) The Phenomenology of Perception, Oxon, U.K and New York, U.S.A: Routledge
Savage. P (2023) ‘The New Life’: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity. John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of the Association for Art History.
Templin, C (2021) Why Citation matters: Ideas on a feminist approach to research. SoSe.
The Sage Handbook of Action Research. Overview of the Action Research Process, Available: www.sagepub.com/mertler3study
Tjora. H Arsel (2006) Writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observers’ observations. Sage Publications Thousand Oaks and New Delhi vol. 6(4) 429–451
Tuhiwait Smith, L. (2021) Decolonising Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Third Ed. Zed Books, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Warmington, P (2014). Black British cultural studies. Black British Intellectuals and Education : Multiculturalism’s Hidden History, Taylor & Francis Group, London. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [11 December 2023].
This might be password protected if it contains participant names
What have I found about the initial draft methods? – Those unfamiliar with Padlets are resistant (assist and make with them?) – The empty categories challenge the participant to find resources – Enables me to know less visible cultural aspects of a student – What isn’t there? Who isn’t there? Generally, there are no people of colour, trans or lesbian, global south. – Where is the voice of the immigrant (within their Western European references)? – Research itself is a colonisers term / discipline. What are decolonised or anti colonised approaches to gathering information to inform creativity? Further Reading: Decolonizing Methodologies Linda Tuhiwai Smith Alport Contact Hypothesis
Examples of Student Find 30 Research Padlets after 4-5 weeks (1/2 Blocks)(Levels 4 & 5)
Initial Findings of all Padlets across Level 4, Level 5 and Level 6.
Level 4 findings Student 1. West: 6 Non-West: 2 (S.E Asian) Contemporary: 9 (2 of colour/Brown) Cultural: 2 (2 non-white) Political: 1 (1 non-white) Materials/Methods: 3 (all white) Black in Cultural / Political Studio padlet had no artists of colour. Research padlet included Iranian, Dutch, Japanese, Indian, American, English. Student 2. West: 8 Non-West: 5 (Chinese, Ghanian, Iranian, Japanese) Contemporary: 9 (all white) Cultural: 9 (all white) Political: 9 (all white) Materials / Methods: 18 (all white) (Black) 0 Studio padlet had no artists of colour Research padlet included only artists of colour prompted by specific category. Student 3. West: 3 Non-West 0 Contemporary:6 (all white) Cultural: 3 (2 non-white) Political: 7 (3 non-white) Materials / Methods: 4 (all white) (Black) 4 in Political and Cultural Student 4. West: 13 Non-West: 8 (Japanese, Mexican, Iranian, Australian Indigenous, Contemporary: 10 (Indian, Japanese, American Middle-Eastern, English-African) Cultural: 10 (6 non white) Political: 15 (5 non white) Materials / Methods: 5 (3 non white) (Black) 1 in Contemporary, 5 in Political, 2 in Cultural.
Level 6 findings Student 1. West: 6 Non-West: 4 (Japanese, Native-American, Cuban) Contemporary: 5 (Korean, Japanese, Chinese-American, Chinese, English) Cultural: 5 (2 non-white) Political: 6 (5 non-white) Materials / Methods: 5 (all white) (Black), Cultural and Political – also Nepalese, Indigenous Australian, Mexican, South-African Student 2. Did not complete properly West: 8 Non-West: 0 Contemporary:as above in West (Black): 0 Student 3. West: 5 Non-West: Indigenous-Australian, African-American, Chinese, Uk-African Contemporary: 4 (Chinese, African, English) Cultural: 6 (1 non-white) Political: 5 (2 non-white) Materials / Methods: none (Black) 3 Political+ Cultural Student 4. Did not complete Student 5.Did not complete Student 6. Did not complete
Student 1. https://padlet.com/Taralocana/find-30-activity-ss11h84cf9mwi5t0 Student 2. https://padlet.com/clairediedrichsen/baacc-6-1-cbozlw6ypsltmrcj Student 3. https://padlet.com/s24jh2/baacc-y2dgmsab4d3tju1g Student 4. Did not complete Student 5. Did not complete Student 6. Did not complete
Findings after minimising to Level 5 focused on research for Exhibition Review Assessment
Minimising the project to Level 5 allowed for more focused reflection and analysis however the quality of Level 5 is misleading as these students have entered the course at Level 5 and are First Year students, not having a foundation (level 3) or introductory Level 4 Art Theory & Critical Studies. This is a Course Leader decision and is reflected in the narrow breadth of the student searches and understanding of research, which should hopefully improve as the year continues.
Observations of Level 5 Padlets: 1/9 students selected an exhibition of a person of colour. This student is not British and selected a Japanese artist in the context of a European artist (Student is European). 1 student with Irish heritage selected an Irish artist’s exhibition. 7/9 students selected white British artists and are white British. 7/9 Students found non-Western references when prompted by the category search. 9/9 Students selected majority white Contemporary artists. 1/9 students selected 2 contemporary artists of colour compared to the same student selecting 13 contemporary white artists. 2/9 students placed artists of colour in Political category (rather than Social/Everyday). 1/9 ignored the categories and placed all the references together differentiating with their own categories between Western / Non-Western / Cultural.
Check-in Online Tutorials One student who had selected an artist’s exhibition that used post-impressionist stylistic references, was very responsive to engaging with a discussion on white conditioning and why they had been drawn to this exhibition that they described as “beautiful”. Two students confessed to selecting exhibitions due to their convenient location to the home/situation rather than their artistic interest. One student needed clarification that Non-Western European referred not only to geographical location but approach to thinking / perspective. When students selected artists of colour they were artists who were well recognised having exhibited in Venice Biennial, or historically recognised within the Western canon. Only one student introduced an artist of colour unrecognised by the Western canon owing to the students own cultural background/knowledge (Mexican/Spanish). None of the students were adventurous in their selections, sticking to mainstream galleries and newspaper/online searches. Disappointingly, none used any references from the session of shared journals offering varied exhibitions. No student included artists of colour shown to them in lectures.
Intro: I included the Find 30 activity to the module schedule on Moodle in preparation for the Art Theory & Critical Studies classes across Level 4, 5 and 6.
Level 4 and 5 included new students to the course (first year running Level 4, and some students were allowed to enter at Level 5). Each year Level had a written assessment introduced aligned with the Find 30 research project – Only Level 5 has 2 written assessments. Level 4 an essay on a selected artwork due end of year; Level 5, an exhibition review on a selected exhibition due after Xmas and Compare and Contrast Essay due end of academic year; Level 6 dissertation supporting their practical studio project.
To support the Find 30 Research project the students were given it during an intro to the Library session, where they began the project. They were also given an Example Padlet of Find 30 that I made to guide them and aide clarity of the categories.
Module and Session Descriptor’s with Find 30 Activity
Level 4 This unit provides a contextual and theoretical foundation for the study of contemporary art practices, focussing on the 19th -21st centuries. Students will be introduced to a range of arts practice, encompassing fine and applied arts, and will gain broad understanding of global contexts. They will be introduced to the provenance of key ideas in art history and develop an understanding of how they have developed. Students will attend a series of six lectures and related seminars and reading groups. Through attendance at taught sessions, and through on-to-one discussion with tutors, students will write a 1500-word essay. Students must reference their essay in the Harvard style and use appropriate image to illustrate their ideas and intentions.
Level 5 This unit provides a broad overview of contemporary practice as it relates to the making and legacy of place. Students will be introduced to a range of arts practice, encompassing fine and applied arts, and will gain a broad understanding of global contexts in which they were made. Students will explore how artists and curators present work that is concerned with the place, site, and location and how such presentation can act as a form of communication. Students will attend a series of lectures and related seminars and reading groups. Through attendance at taught session and one-to-one tutorials, students will write a journal-style 700-word review of an artwork or exhibition and a 2500-word essay.
Level 6 This Unit develops the students’ research methodologies, culminating in a self-directed dissertation that demonstrates critical thinking and a broad awareness of their subject. Students will be supported through lectures and seminars, tutorials, and guided reading. At the end of the Unit, students will submit a 3500 dissertation. Students must reference their dissertation in the Harvard style and use appropriate images to illustrate their ideas and intentions.
Example of Find 30 Activity shared with students for guidance of categories. https://padlet.com/michelleussher/find-30-kt6fcys8u1nfvf0m
Revising the ARP– narrowing to Level 5
Following my initial observations of the Padlets across all 3 year Levels I began to consider how evaluation would occur across the data. I decided to narrow my findings to Level 5 owing to the timing of their first assessment being an Exhibition Review. Doing this would allow me to observe the relationship between their Find 30 Research Padlets and their Written Assessment and observe the choices they were making and if any of their non-white research had any impact or influenced their work.
To support raising an awareness of their whiteness as a race that is embedded with conditioned aesthetic values, I delivered a lecture on Art & Ethical Relations. I included Donna Haraway’s Situational Knowledge (from Inclusive Practices) and also shared the Haraway film with them alongside the dedicated reading being a video lecture of Haraway discussing Staying with the Trouble. This was complimented in the lecture by a discussion on the Copernican Turn, Kant’s aesthetics and Australian Indigenous bodily sense of Country.
The feedback on my initial plan was very helpful, however I found the feedback confusing at first as it seemed contradictory to say ‘the missing part is the self, the researcher’ and to ‘depersonalise it’. During a follow up tutorial I understood this meant to consider the scope of the project in relationship to myself, what I was expecting of myself to research for the students and to shift this responsibility onto the students to initiate the change. I also understood the feedback to minimise the scope of the actual project being a small-scale action, and to consider the larger scale of impact it might have. This enabled me to adapt the initial plan ever so slightly to refine it and have more focus. The 3 documents below show: 1. Final Ethical Action Plan 2. Feedback 3. Initial Ethical Action Plan
ARP 2024-5
Ethical Action Plan (Final)
Name of practitioner-researcher: Michelle Ussher
What is your project focus? How can I reframe the Fine Art & Crafts programme at West Dean College in a small way, which has a 100% white heteronormative mature aged student intake and teaching team.To nurture the use of diverse references for developing student creative projects beyond the Eurocentricity of West Dean College To build a resource of diverse references through the accumulation of student findings that can be used by tutors or future students.To introduce an awareness of student positionality through exposure to plural knowledges and methodologies, which have the potential of informing their project outcomes.
What action are you going to take in your teaching practice?
As the critical studies lead across all BA levels of Fine Art, Contemporary Craft and Craft Practices, I am well positioned to set a research task that focus’ students references to include non-eurocentric artists/makers/thinkers. At the beginning of each year, to kickstart the research for their studio practice and written assessments I will introduce a non-assessed research activity called Find 30 that specifies finding different artworks and articles from specific areas by category such as; Eurocentric (white), Non-Eurocentric (not white), Contemporary (Living), Everyday, and Political/Social. Find 30 will be introduced in a brief using the online free Padlet platform. Find 30 asks the student to build a Padlet page themselves and add columns with the specific categories. In addition, I will ask them to add a column for Reflective Writing to keep their notes on the research in one place. These notes can be used towards writing their essays and will enable me to check student temperature towards the activity. As the course is block delivered, the students have 3 weeks to upload research and personalise their padlets, and in the following study blocks I will ask the students to share their padlets with each other to make comments and add any suggestions. This will encourage sharing their reference findings and supporting one another with finding less visible artists/writers/designers.At a key point (Block 3) I will share the padlets with other tutors and ask them to comment and make any suggestions, which will broaden the scope of diverse references beyond the student cohort and myself.To set the tone of positionality and offer an example of how a white person can acknowledge colonisation in England I will draw attention to my positionality by adjusting my introduction at the start of the module (Block 1) to introduce myself in the following way (noting First Nations people refer to Australia as “Country” owing to this name referring to their bodies, history, ancestors and nations they are collectively of): ‘Firstly I would like to acknowledge County. I am an immigrant and originally a settler artist of the Moree, Nulla Nulla, Mulubinba, and Narrm lands where I was born, lived and worked as an uninvited guest. Sovereignty was never ceded. There was no consent, no treaty and no compensation. I acknowledge the benefits I have accrued through colonisation and the ongoing dispossession of First Nations people. This includes my position as an academic where I am often complicit in the operations of academia as a privileged centre of Eurocentric power. The structures I have benefited from have impoverished society, research, methodologies and knowledge production. I want to extend my respect to anyone who is a First Nations person in the group or has been directly or indirectly impacted upon by colonisation.’ Students regularly ask where I am from and this can be supported by using an image that presents the country by indigenous nations, where I can highlight the lands I lived on.To evaluate the impact of the Find 30 activity I will compare the subject focus and references used in their written and studio assessments. Unit 3 completes before assessment however I will be able to use preliminary preparations in the form of presentations and draft submissions to gauge the effectiveness of activity. To further evaluate the impact longer term I can compare previous written and studio assessments from (2022-23) with those of this year (2024-25) and each future year, to gauge the qualitative and quantitate results.At the end of the academic year I will ask students to complete a voluntary survey to gauge feedback and effectiveness through questions such as: Where 1 is not at all and 10 is excellent 1. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe your level of knowledge about non-white artists, makers and thinkers before the Find 30 activity? 2. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe your level of knowledge about non-white artists, makers and thinkers after the Find 30 activity? 3. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe the difficulty of finding non-white artists, makers, and thinkers for your research? 4. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe the level of impact your research of non-white artists, makers and thinkers had on your written assessment? 5. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe the level of impact your research of non-white artists, makers and thinkers had on your studio assessment? 6. Please add any further comments or feedback. This could be done anonymously electronically through Moodle or manually on paper.
Who will be involved and how? Mature students studying Level 4, 5 and 6 Fine Art and Contemporary Craft, and Level 6 Craft Practices (Furniture, Musical Instruments, Clocks). They will be participants in my sessions on Research Methods and Methodologies supporting their dissertations and regular Contextual / Theory sessions supporting their studio practices.They will be participants in my introduction and the Find 30 activity that kickstarts their research for their projects, essays and dissertation in the first session of the academic year.
What are the health & safety concerns, and how will you prepare for them? No significant physical risks are identified however there may be mental discomfort. around my introduction owing to it acknowledging the racial positionality of white people and the ongoing complicit colonisation that impoverishes knowledge, methods and society. I will prepare them by acknowledging beforehand that my introduction of acknowledgement to Country may be new to them, or they may have experienced it before when exposed to cultural practices outside of Britian. I will highlight that as students embarking on artistic research, they will encounter non-neutral voices in articles and my aim of drawing attention to my own positionality is for them to consider the positionality of all the writers and makers they find, and also to consider their unique positionality. Within the lectures across the different levels I will sign post the relationship between positionality and understanding. For example, in Level 4 the first lecture introduces Aesthetic Colonisation, which examines the connection between the East India Company and Eurocentric styles such as the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau. Level 5 includes a lecture on Art & Ethics, which examines the connection between Kant’s Copernican Turn and the historical perspective of art “Movements” in relation to the decentring of Eurocentricity seen in Francis Morris’ restructuring of the Tate collection rooms. Level 6 begins with a research methodologies lecture that uses Haraway’s notion of paying attention to what one is not paying attention to, and Anna Tsing’s contamination concept that acknowledges research is a situation where the researcher is affected by relations, which transform our existing positions. There is also the possible concern for cultural safety regarding students interacting with sensitive cultural material eg images of the deceased, use of deadnames etc which they are not sensitively culturally aware of. This may result in an offence and mistreatment of cultural integrity for example, student mimicry of museum/gallery display practices of a First Nations ritualistic object/image.I will inform students to regularly share their research (via Padlet) in classes and tutorials for the monitoring of cultural uses, and if in any doubt with using imagery or terminology to reach out and ask tutors, or research best practices related to their object/image.
How will you protect the data of those involved? I will inform all students sharing their padlets that their names will be visible and to redact them if they wish for other students not to identify them.I will protect cultural data of references through monitoring of student research regularly in classes and tutorials. Planning time in lectures and seminars to share and oversee progress and uploads of research material. If using the students research in the future to show as examples for research projects I will redact names (unless given consent). Manual and digital surveys can be anonymous (unless given consent).
How will you work with your participants in an ethical way? I will be transparent about my intervention and its aim by disclosing my intentions at the beginning of the module and the purpose of the Find 30 activity (which is not assessed). I will ask students for participatory consent in my using their progress for qualitive evaluation, offering the option for their right not to participate.
2. Ethical Action Plan Feedback
Dear Michelle, this is a very sophisticated and comprehensive form already. It includes lots of relevant material, some great thinking and feeling, appropriate actions and a very specific field of research; a specific adult education context. The only missing part is perhaps the self of the researcher! Let’s depersonalise it, what should or could the researcher do to support themselves or get support for the task without all of the work being done, effectively, by them. That is, without overwhelm.
Possibility 1
What would best benefit the researcher in this context in terms of time, resources, energy or space in order to be productive or move towards an intervention. Perhaps this is an opportunity for the researcher to develop something themselves, which they may, or may not, have the time – within this project – to implement and evaluate, as such. They may get feedback from another practitioner, colleague, friend or ally on what they have produced and then research how best they might share it in the research field.
Possibility 2
What could the researcher reasonably ask of the participants, the results or affect of which could be reflected on and evaluated.
Possibility 3
Where is the centre of focus of this project? Researcher, teaching resource, activity, participant, College or systemic context, the ‘curriculum’, other, e.g. a social situation in the world, another artist or practitioner or a cultural tradition. Because of the breadth of the proposal it could be possibly any of these and that would be quite legitimate. This might mean, firstly, You are excellent at holistic thinking!:) Secondly, in a project of this small scale, you may need to hold one aspect more tightly, or follow one thread. Or, you have a situation/question; How do I change/reframe the whole system in a small way.
I hope this helps, have a go at adding a couple more sentences, here or there, that could add to this wonderful start of a document, and give you the guiderails you need in doing the project with joy and ease:) Ideally?!
There is very little to do, and its mainly conceptual, around the research design. Make sense? If not, do send an email to your tutor! 🙂
ARP 2024-5
3. Ethical Action Plan (First Submission that was revised above following feedback)
Name of practitioner-researcher: Michelle Ussher
What is your project focus? To nurture the inclusivity of diverse student references beyond the Eurocentricity of the college (West Dean College Sussex University)To develop awareness of student positionality through exposure to plural knowledges and methodologies, which have the potential of informing their project outcomes.
What action are you going to take in your teaching practice?
As the critical studies lead across all BA levels of Fine Art, Contemporary Craft and Craft Practices, I am well positioned to set research tasks that focus students on diversifying references. At the beginning of each year, to kickstart the research for their studio practice and written assessments I will introduce a non-assessed research activity called Find 30 that specifies finding different artworks and articles from specific areas such as; European (white), Non-European (not white), Living, Everyday, and Political/Social. To set the tone of positionality and offer an example of how a white person can acknowledge colonisation in England I will draw attention to my positionality by adjusting my module introduction to include my positionality. I intend to introduce myself in the following way: Firstly I would like to acknowledge County. I am an immigrant and originally a settler artist of the Moree, Nulla Nulla, Mulubinba, and Narrm lands where I was born, lived and worked as an uninvited guest. Sovereignty was never ceded. There was no consent, no treaty and no compensation. I acknowledge the benefits I have accrued through colonisation and the ongoing dispossession of First Nations people. This includes my position as an academic where I am often complicit in the operations of academia as a privileged centre of Eurocentric power. The structures I have benefited from have impoverished society, research, methodologies and knowledge production. I want to extend my respect to anyone who is a First Nations person in the group or has been directly or indirectly impacted upon by colonisation.To evaluate the impact of the Find 30 activity I will compare the subject focus and references of previous written and studio assessments from (2022-23) with those of this year (2024-25), to gauge the qualitative and quantitate results.There is a possibility at the end of the year asking students to complete a voluntary survey with questions such as: Where 1 is not at all and 10 is excellent 1. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe your level of knowledge about non-white artists, makers and thinkers before the Find 30 activity? 2. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe your level of knowledge about non-white artists, makers and thinkers after the Find 30 activity? 3. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe the level of impact your research of non-white artists, makers and thinkers had on your written assessment? 4. From a range of 1 to 10 how would you describe the level of impact your research of non-white artists, makers and thinkers had on your studio assessment? This could be done anonymously electronically through Moodle or manually on paper.
Who will be involved and how? Mature students studying Level 4, 5 and 6 Fine Art and Contemporary Craft, and Level 6 Craft Practices. They will be participants in my introduction and the Find 30 activity that kickstarts their research for their projects, essays and dissertation. N.B. If any of your participants/co-researchers will be under 18, please seek advice from your tutor.
What are the health & safety concerns, and how will you prepare for them? No significant physical risks are identified however there may be mental discomfort. around my introduction owing to it acknowledging the racial positionality of white people and the ongoing complicit colonisation that impoverishes knowledge, methods and society. I will prepare them by acknowledging beforehand that my introduction of acknowledgement to Country may be new to them, or they may have experienced it before when exposed to cultural practices outside of Britian. I will highlight that as students embarking on artistic research, they will approach this with a unique positionality and my aim of drawing attention to my own positionality is for them to consider theirs. Within the lectures across the different levels I will sign post the relationship between positionality and understanding. For example, in Level 4 the first lecture introduces Aesthetic Colonisation, which examines the connection between the East India Company and Eurocentric styles such as the Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau. Level 5 includes a lecture on Art & Ethics, which examines the connection between Kant’s Copernican Turn and the historical perspective of art “Movements” in relation to the decentring of Eurocentricity seen in Francis Morris’ restructuring of the Tate collection rooms. Level 6 begins with a research methodologies lecture that uses Haraway’s notion of paying attention to what one is not paying attention to, and Anna Tsing’s contamination concept that acknowledges research is a situation where the researcher is affected by relations, which transform our existing positions. There is also the possible concern for cultural safety regarding students interacting with sensitive cultural material eg images of the deceased, use of deadnames etc which they are not sensitively culturally aware of. This may result in an offence and mistreatment of cultural integrity for example, student mimicry of museum/gallery display practices of a First Nations ritualistic object/image.I will inform students to regularly share their research (via Padlet) in classes and tutorials for the monitoring of cultural uses, and if in any doubt with using imagery or terminology to reach out and ask tutors, or research best practices related to their object/image.
How will you protect the data of those involved? Through monitoring of research regularly in classes and tutorials. Planning time in lectures and seminars to share and oversee progress and uploads of research material. If using the students research in the future to show as examples for research projects I will redact names (unless given consent). Manual and digital surveys can be anonymous.
How will you work with your participants in an ethical way? I will be transparent about my intervention and its aim by disclosing my intentions at the beginning of the module and the purpose of the Find 30 activity (which is not assessed). I will ask students for participatory consent in my using their progress for qualitive evaluation, offering the option for their right not to participate.
Task: write about primary research. Add comments on secondary research reading about Research Methods. Write about the findings from it on this page but don’t include raw data with participant info (unethical)
First Notes on Draft ARP : Research Principle is to enable West Dean students agency and choice. Consider what is meaningful and what matters for West Dean students Research to effect change. Ask myself: 1. What bearing does my research have on the lives of the West Dean students? 2. Are the perspectives or needs of the West Dean students at the core of the research? 3. How can West Dean students experience not being the majority and dominant race to comprehend how it feels and what is lost when your race/gender/voice is not included. 4. How can I enable them to experience how it feels when the artistic and theoretical references do not resemble them, to experience how it feels when a point of reference is not their own and someone else, and to experience how it feels when their voice minimised and how it can enable a wider perspective by having other voices in the room and in their own research and thoughts.
Further considerations: Consider my role as a cis white female teaching majority cis white females. Draw attention to the risks of gendered dynamics – the risk/challenge of how a gendered majority/minority/gatekeeping can impact research. Consider the de-personalising effect of anonymity or generalising groups, for instance the shift from BAME to being specific.
Planning in Knowledge Translation is vital early on. Q: What is it I am trying to change? A: Diversify West Dean student references. Enrich their practices by broadening the scope of their references / thinking beyond their white middle class sphere. Q: How can I translate the knowledge discovered from the research into meaningful change? A: Develop a resource for students and tutors to use. Compliment their research within the lecture series by introducing key concepts on learning as ontological (lived experience). Q: What are the wishes of the West Dean students? A: To develop studio experimentation towards a professional artistic practice.
Indigenous PR Feminist PR (or Action Research)?
Identifying the needs of knowledge. Target – West Dean Students Need – West Dean College environment needs diversity as this lack is impoverishing knowledge, research, methodologies and community. Non-white voices are missing from student references despite their inclusion in my lectures and presentations (perhaps not enough are included?). Goal – Foster racial inclusivity and equality to amplify the presence of black/brown artists and theorists that are missing from the college. Increase the racial diversity of research references. Increase students’ non-white references in essays and art projects. Literature – Look at articles that demonstrate how other institutions that are dominated by white students have actioned diversity in student work. What ways have they worked? What methods can be included?
Group Theory groups across Levels 4,5,6. Using Level 6 as my focus group. Use the written assessments as the activity and scheduled tutorials as meetings Define and share with the group in the early sessions that it is a shared responsibility (as a student/ teacher exchange / support / learning) Build a common understanding of the value and implications.
Realisation Plan together with the group how observations, reflections will be gathered and discussed individually (in studio) and together (in class). Plan the inclusion of Padlet sections encouraging diverse research and reflections Implement the activities Celebrate by sharing them (exhibitions etc)
Evaluation Observe and feedback as a group on the results Analyse the research material and select inclusions for future lectures Share suggestions for any improvements to the activity to make it better Write a developmental narrative as a report.
Secondary Research:Unique Methodological Indigenous Approach Reading Re-imagining student success: Integrating strategy and action through an Indigenous lens was of interest to my project as it comes from New Zealand and focuses on the inclusivity of Maori students. I wanted to research what may be the opposite scenario to mine to understand how teachers in New Zealand approach the inclusivity of Indigenous students within a colonised context. I was also keen to understand what the authors considered a “unique methodological indigenous approach” (p.210), as this seemed unclear. I found the article challenging to understand what “Maori” knowledge meant, which the authors separated as a knowledge system different from Western knowledge. While I agree that it is different knowledge, what distinguished it was unclear. The authors distinguished it by ‘Mahitahi’, meaning “working collaboratively”, which differs from Western collaboration owing to Matauranga (knowledge basket). Matauranga unpacks Mahitahi in the sense that a Matauranga consists of a Maori view, Purakau (stories/philosophical thought, cultural codes), and Whakatauki (proverbs). A teacher could engage Maori students by using Matauranga so that Maori students can connect key concepts with their symbolisms. While I understand Maori Knowledge differs from Western, the idea of collaboration seemed the same, and perhaps an example of a unique philosophical approach or cultural code concerning collaboration could have made the difference more visible so a unique methodological indigenous approach could be determined (and valued).
The article’s main takeaway was the Maori learning process through Titiro, Whakarongo, and Korero: observe, listen, act (speak). This seems similar to learning through watching, done through demonstrations and workshops. Another aspect of interest was peer mentoring to foster togetherness and collaboration. It made me think about how to use the research project to mentor and support other students (and tutors – including myself). This sense of building confidence and belonging through a supportive community that shares experiences aspires towards professional development that uses deep learning between the students and the educator. This could be done by sharing the padlets across groups and with fellow tutors who also need a resource of diverse artists. The article had further relevancy in that the authors suggest that for this level of peer-educator collaboration, a dedicated context involving several days or overnight stays, which West Dean mimics in that it is block delivered and the students and teachers stay on-site together. I appreciate the value of this in-depth learning as “family” and “community” orientated, yet the reality of it is also problematically exhausting in that there are no boundaries, and the teacher-student dynamic does not dissolve out of class time. The focus on a “whole-of-experience” curriculum seems to fall short of considering the educator’s life beyond the student, who may have other community demands outside the learning community. While I appreciate the holistic learning approach that the article encourages, on a practical level, I’m less inclined to find it helpful for my project beyond the concept of peer/tutor development by sharing the padlets.
Secondary Research: Embodied Knowledge Methodologies Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article, An ontological turn for higher education, explains an approach to learning from the “lived body”, embodied knowledge, rather than approaching knowledge acquisition as an unproblematic transfer. The relevancy of this article to my research project relates to how I might enable mature white learners to understand their knowledge is limited by their “lived body”, and that knowledge exists beyond their own experiences that are conditioned as “universal”. This notion of the lived body originates in philosophy, which Dall’Alba and Barnacle refer to Heidegger’s concept of being as “dwelling” from Being, Dwelling, Thinking 1978. In the context of the visual arts and my project, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s concept of a global body from The Phenomenology of Perception as a philosophical development of lived knowledge may be more helpful in extending learners beyond their “dwelling”. I found myself thinking of Merleu-Ponty often while reading Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article and wondered why specifically they referenced Heidegger as the concept is grounded in phenomenology and originates with Husserl, and thinking of my previous post on citations they could also have referenced Simone de Beauvoir, who writes more specifically on bodily knowledge through the female experience. I have become increasingly aware of how citations and references perpetuate canonical white Western hetero-patriarchal thinking and this is something I aim to challenge through my teaching and project. Where Heidegger relates lived knowledge to dwelling in the world, Merleau-Ponty relates it to a texture that opens onto the world, which is synesthetic and interconnected. The “openness” that Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s article refers to relates to Heidegger’s notion of “gelassenheit”, which translates as “releasement” and basically means how we bend or give way to knowledge. I recently used this in the second session with the Level 4 (1st Year BA) following the introduction to my Find 30 research padlet. Key to Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s argument that is most significant for my research is their perspective of learning as ontological development, which is dependent on this kind of releasement as an openness. I can use references to this in my lecture series across the different year Grades to encourage the openness of a global body. I tested it on Level 5 (2nd Year BA) in the context of a lecture on ethical relations and Donna Haraway’s notion of “lived knowledge” by asking students to consider a previous life experience that shaped who they have become, then consider everyone’s unique experienced knowledge in the room, then beyond the room. During a Level 6 (3rd year BA) lecture on Deleuze’s Habit and Repetition and Plasticity, I asked students to consider their sense of being in Level 4 (1st Year BA) and the one they have now to gauge how learning is ontological. Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s encouragement to consider learning as a way of thinking, making and acting as a way of being, opens the possibility of students understanding de-centred knowledge inclusive of cultures beyond the stereotypical Western European white male model taught in traditional art programmes.
To shift a student or teacher from a position of “knowing” towards a position of “being in the world” opens the possibility of shared being-ness that makes for collective learning and knowledge sharing. This is the aim of my research project. I particularly appreciated Dall’Alba and Barnacle’s statement that considering knowledge as created, embodied and enacted allows learning to be understood as a development of embodied ways of knowing and, thus, ways of being. Most importantly, this situates knowledge as being in flux rather than fixed and acquired. On a practical level, Dall’Alba and Barnacle argue for learning and its enhancement rather than on knowledge itself, which de-centres “knowledge” as known and unknown but in a state of perpetual becoming. This is aligned with my approach of allowing students to make research mistakes without shame, which seems to be the most potent fear and obstacle for white students – in getting it wrong. Using openness to expand being as a form of learning can hopefully capture students and fellow colleagues at different levels of openness to diversity. Dall’Alba and Barnacle emphasise this does not imply simply learning by doing – which is still of vital importance – but in the diversities of genders, ethnicities, kinships, and classes that are revealed through doing and being able to raise awareness of the interrelationships between these amongst the students. A way of doing this is highlighting the rich knowledge across a student cohort with diverse lived experiences and helping them recognise how difference can be a resource for making.
Secondary research: Why Citation matters: Ideas on a feminist approach to research. Christina Templin (SoSe 2021) The succinct description of citation purpose was helpful to focus on what citation makes possible. Beyond my ARP I intend to use this in teaching sessions on essay writing with my Level 4,5,6 Fine Art and Craft students.
‘to thoroughly reflect on the work that has already been done on a specific question, to be able to draw new conclusions from enquiring, criticizing or highlighting new aspects of a problem. . . to distinguish the authors ideas from someone else’s while acknowledging the impact of previously published work’ (1:2021)
A key topic was the emphasis on the non-neutrality of citation dominated by what bell Hooks describes as “white heteromasculine hegemony” (1:2021 cited Mott/Cokayne 2017, p. 955). Using Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life (2007) as an example made clear the sexism and racism within academia, which regards the gathering, documenting, analysing, evidencing of information within personal spaces as outside the academic field. My tutor group and I discussed this in relation to Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s book Decolonizing Methodologies, which the 3rd version comprises of an introduction using multiple forms of correspondence between readers and the author. We agreed how the effect of Tuhiwai Smith’s introduction decentres the voice of the author and in pluralising voices allows for communicating the rich diverse ontological experiences resulting from reading the book – something no one author can ever offer. This seemed to expand the notion of citation towards a community of voices and challenge traditional citation purposes. Ahmed’s reference to feminist theory as ‘world building’ (2:2021) echoed this form of introduction, which genuinely felt like building a new world of how knowledge can be communicated and the form of citation itself. My tutor group and I also discussed the obstacle of ‘Research’, which is a colonial term and white heteromasculine discipline. Collectively we began sharing podcasts as forms of research resources such as Stuff the British Stole and Empire in relation to the policing of what isn’t considered research that becomes what Templin describes as ‘subjugated knowledge that often stands in contrast to traditional epistemologies’ (2:2021). We were struck that the podcast sites were blocked using UAL wifi but accessible using phone data, which raised the question whether UAL blocks podcast sites in general or these sites specifically. I particularly enjoyed thinking of citations in the mode of Judith Butler’s performativity, especially as I try to teach my own students to use quotations and citations actively and to speak back / with them. I appreciated being made to consider how using citations can be a radical form of ‘dismantling and deconstructing dominant power structures’ (3:2021) by giving voice to those less visible and marginalised. Tuhiwai Smith’s introduction does this and is the equivalent to a social gathering like a protest in presence. It was disappointing however that Templin concludes with a vague citation to an ‘Australian teacher’ who offers a citation checklist, which derives from a checklist found in Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble that isn’t cited. In Templin’s bibliography a link to a blog by the ‘Australian teacher’ clearly identifies the author as Dr Deborah M Netolicky.
Reference: Why Citation matters: Ideas on a feminist approach to research. Christina Templin (SoSe 2021)
Secondary Research:Bell hook’s Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us Bell hook’s Talking art as the Spirit Moves Us describes three significant things relevant to my current thinking. The first communicates how seeing is an act of thinking. This relates to how white critics (or generally the white art scene + market) only seem to see black or brown aesthetics when it serves to reinforce a purpose for whiteness. hook’s example is the blanket conceptualisation of black art as “Revolt” and the 1993 Whitney Biennial Exhibition. This narrow notion of identity politics against mainstream culture reinforces whiteness at the centre of culture while other cultures are outside through being against, a minority, or marginalised. Whiteness as the point of departure means the aesthetics of black and brown artists are recognised but not “seen”, which hooks explains is only evidenced by critique that engages with the cultural hybridity, border crossings and constructive cultural appropriations represented within the artworks. This inclusion does not disrupt the status quo – whiteness remains dominant and central and is the voice of what constitutes meaning and beauty in art. This leads me to the second significant issue hooks highlights essential to my thinking. When hooks states, ‘white supremacist bias continues to inform critical reception of work by artists from marginalised groups’, she emphasises how the concerns of these works ‘do not directly reflect the interests and concerns of the conservative white majority’. (p.105). The key here is the difference of concerns and interests, specifically how black/brown aesthetics are overdetermined by white aesthetics and remain unseen. Recently, in a tutorial supporting a student writing an exhibition review, the student remarked how “beautiful” the paintings were in their chosen exhibition, which was contemporary but resonated with the colours and vibrancy of post-impressionist artists like Monet, Vuillard and Bonnard. I probed why the student thought a contemporary artist would want to represent the aesthetics associated with white European men from the 19th Century in our current climate of decolonisation. The student responded with “escape, “prompting my question, “From what exactly?” We spoke about the loss of power that comes with decentring whiteness, which led to a further analysis of the power of “beauty” and what constitutes the concept of “beauty” the student was overwhelmed by. The student agreed this beauty was a white and dominant notion that was powerfully seductive and blinding to other cultural forms of beauty. The third significant issue hook’s article raised is about engaging in critical dialectic, which does not undermine the value of a reference. hook’s exemplifies by critiquing Lucy Lippard and further reiterates her point through critiquing Sylvia Ardyn Boone’s text Radiance from the Waters, which she uses to open the article focused on the cultural inability to recognise the complexity of African-American Art that cuts across boundaries of race.
Reference: Bell hook (1995) Talking Art as the Spirit Moves Us
Secondary Research:Tjora. H Arsel (2006) Writing small discoveries: an exploration of fresh observers’ observations
The relevancy of this article for my project was to reassure myself of my observation method used for analysing the students Padlets to gather data. I was curious about breaking observations down into 10 approaches. I found the deliberate naive approach odd. It seemed counter-intuitive to my project but I guess it can reveal suggestions and assumptions. Reading about Observation as a method reminded me of when I am teaching students how to write analytic reflections on their work, which is a form of observation analysis. What seems to contradict Tjora’s report is an approach we use at CSM that is not to diarise but to look at what is working – as in what is doing the work – to understand what is active and passive in a work. I seemed to naturally use this approach while observing the Padlets, rather than writing a timed entry list of activity as suggested as one of the methods used in Tjora’s report. What I did find useful was considering the “stages”, when students engaged with the Padlets, found research, which occurred only when prompted at the start, before a tutorial or when emailed. 1/5 students in Level was very active and independent and it seemed to result from previous fine art training in understanding the use value – how the research impacts the quality of their work. I was also interested in the way Tjora suggests an intervention, to garner a response from participants which can be observed. This is something I would like to use in the future, and may take the form of “looking” at individuals to pair them up to exchange research, as is done in regards to Tjora’s example of 2 workers responding to a job.
Secondary Research:Savage. P (2023) ‘The New Life’: Mozambican Art Students in the USSR, and the Aesthetic Epistemologies of Anti-Colonial Solidarity.
This was a particularly interesting article owing to it addressing how aesthetics are influenced and shaped. I have been thinking a lot about the conditioning of white Western aesthetics, what is considered good, valuable and skilled, compared to what individuals don’t register because they don’t recognise the aesthetic value outside Western conditioning. On a simple level I can relate to this coming from Australia, which has a different art / style aesthetic to the UK. I remember being at Frieze for the first time in 2008 and looking at works peers remarked were fantastic that I struggled to see as worthy. It took some time to gain an understanding and knowledge of this new UK aesthetic, and it is difficult to explain but I am very aware of the difference of value. I recognise when it happens with fellow UK tutors who look at immigrant students from Nigeria, Columbia etc and they struggle to value the different aesthetic references and what might make these works good – when they appear so differently to UK aesthetics. Savage’s article articulates this process of colonising aesthetics through value very clearly, in the way the home country admires or respects another countries aesthetics above and beyond their own. The result is a mimicking of the other aesthetic, yet with a taste of the home country – as individuals often never fully erase their own home sensibilities they’ve acquired over childhood/youth. This article has impacted my way approach to student engagements when they respond positively or negatively to certain images. I am able to probe them on their aesthetic choices and encourage them to question why they consider something “good” or what it is the aesthetic they are aiming for. This article chimed well with the Level 4 Aesthetic Colonisation lecture I introduced the Find 30 activity alongside.
Secondary Research:Allport, G. Contact Hypothesis. Facing History & Ourselves
This was very interesting owing to how it proposes good outcomes, and contact being necessary to resolve conflict. It made me think of mediation to resolve student conflicts and how it is necessary for both to have a shared positive goal insight as opposed to a competitive destructive one. The key point of significance was the area that mentioned equality, that the individuals must come from an equally shared background either of education / class etc. This seemed to lack addressing the racial inequalities that effect income and education, which makes the contact hypothesis problematic. Regardless, it seemed to offer insight for my project on why / how students identify with aesthetics akin to themselves, and selected exhibitions that relate to their own backgrounds. Ultimately this seems to suggest a bridge can only be built when the focus is indirectly related to the individual themselves, rather than an openness to others. The point being a bridge between the white middle-class mature West Dean students must be found for diverse references to make a meaningful connection for change. This bridge could come in different forms of stories about the artists or artworks, or some kind of aesthetic similarity for them to make a connection.
up-to-date plan or task list here. This could be in a simple list, or as a link to a Gantt chart or other timeline.
Ethics form – Done
Draft activity plan/brief – Done
Run pilot with student – Done
Capture outputs – Screengrabs/Done
Get feedback – Done (Tim, Mel, George, David)
Refine activity – Done (Minimise to Level 5)
Draft in sharing across students / student groups – Future
Draft in sharing across tutors – Done during Feedback / Awaiting response
Capture outputs
Reflect on session
Collate feedback
Plan next steps
Presentation slides
Action Plan Aim The initial aim of my PgC Intervention was to effect in a small way the diversity of references our students use for their written projects. This led to my adaptation of the CSM Find 40 (materials and methods) activity used during the Summer School to effect research very quickly, into the West Dean Find 30 activity, which focused on diversity of reference material (artists and articles) and raising awareness of the viewpoint of student perspectives – having them see and recognise what their perspectives are missing.
Secondary aim: Initially the project was purely for the West Dean students, then I realised as it developed that the collected material has potential to be a research library for tutors as well as students, which can grow exponentially with each year. This idea evolved from a PgC session when a white Irish/English female colleague remarked on not being able to find diverse references for their own teaching and I suggested not being afraid to write basic searches in Google like Māori Textile Artist. The colleague remarked on the discomfort of appearing racist doing this, which reflected the concerns raised in Di Angelo’s White Fragility around white discomfort perpetuating the dominance of white references.
Reflection After introducing the Activity and watching the references grow I am reflecting on the methods I used, with 3 questions in mind. 1. What can be done to refine it in the future? 2. Is transforming it into a teaching resource to support tutor presentations and student research positively worthwhile and actionable? 3. How ?- what platform/method/form can the resource library take?
Draft Action Plan Considerations: What am I researching through the research activity? Have the students share with each other to make comments or contributions Encourage other tutors to comment and add resources Notice the noise gathered by the information rather than isolating which noise to listen to, then notice which noise you’re deciding is relevant. Making visible the human element.Include on the timeline – Schedule within the intervention for the students to engage with each others padlets and make comments or add resources. – Schedule for other tutors to engage with each students padlets and make comments and add resources Draft Methods for exploring – Focus groups (6-10 people) across different year levels on Fine Art and Craft disciplines. – Activity Brief – Padlet – Categories as a form of attention gathering ranging from Western / Non-Western / Everyday / Political – Gathering – Note taking / reflective writing DraftMethods for evaluating What are methodologies to evaluate qualitative data? – Observing – Quantitative potential – Impact / use in their work – Use in my future teaching
Following the race workshop on whiteness during Inclusive Practices I was reminded of my Australian childhood context as a white person growing up in a remote indigenous town learning local indigenous historical ways alongside the curriculum designed through the English colonialist lens. When I moved to major global cities, the lack of others exposure to Indigenous people and learning surprised me. Early in my artistic career I felt compelled to make work about the systemic racism of Australia’s historical cultural propaganda imagery, which included the representation of Indigenous people. When my work was censored owing to my being white, I was confronted with my own ‘white progressive’ racism [DiAngelo in Amanpour & Co. 2020]. A behavioural example DiAngelo offers that echoed my racism was the separation of collective systematic racism from individual overt racism, framed as “goodness”, which DiAngelo extrapolates on in Nice Racism as causing ‘the most daily harm across race’ [DiAngelo, 2021]. The gesture of racial goodness as progressive racism palpably effected me as the complexity of my experience attempting to draw attention to systemic racism as racial “goodness” consequentially led to my relocation to the UK and my continued interest in the frameworks perpetuating the unconscious bias of white progressives. This context and experience informs the development of my intervention aimed at BA-level students who are white mature-aged middle-class females studying in the rural environment of West Sussex (West Dean College).
Initially for my intervention, I wanted to develop a collaborative practical research session within the Art & Society project to mobilise individuals’ intersectionality by inviting them to paint/draw a symbolic representation of a hidden aspect of their identity. This would be timed so the object/image remains in a state of ongoing metamorphosis to mirror how each artwork is shaped via each interaction with a different individual. Through visually sharing authenticity I hoped to invoke a discussion related to persona pedagogy and Haraway’s notion of “oddkin”. Owing to the lack of racial diversity within the West Dean student cohort, the workshop initially had “Faith” as a focus as there is a mix of Christian, Buddhist and Atheists amongst the students. Following a tutorial with Shani, she encouraged me to focus on the dominance which is oppressive within the group (and what was missing within the group) and the intervention went in a direction towards addressing the whiteness in the student cohorts. The workshop included three activity phases that were punctuated by critical reflection discussions to allow for “double-loop learning” [Thomas 2022 p.12] and respond to the power distribution across the group. Rather than use personas to create empathy towards others, the session aimed to mobilise mark-making and symbols to act out unconscious behavioural gestures that could be “seen”, critically reflected on, discussed and possibly changed. To instil equality across tools and materials, the same size brushes were to be distributed, and pre-mixed colours would restrict a tonal range of one colour and white (to open a discussion of dominance and white colonisation of aesthetics). The final feedback from my tutor about my proposed intervention was not overtly positive or encouraging to continue with it so I reconsidered and looked at practical methods of student growth development that I recognise as effective and work already with students. During the Summer School I used a Find 40 activity for students to quickly research methods and materials efficiently towards their final projects. The Activity structure seemed suitable for adaptation and I decided to adjust it towards a diversity focus for theory based research with the idea it would shape their written assessments.
My ARP idea continued to evolve from my racially white dominant situation at West Dean College that is depleting the value of plural perspectives on offer in the world. Collectively the department and student work is suffering from a lack of culturally diverse richness and the students are unable to see themselves and what they represent, along with genuinely appreciating the complexity of black and brown aesthetics. I wanted to shift this even if in a small way, along with the awareness of the students as a racially white dominant collective who are contributing to progressive racism or simply not recognising their own racial dominance (reinforced by their use of the term “Universal”, as if their perspective was the same as others owing to “everyone being human”). The goal of my project is to ‘generate the development of perspectives’ for the students to be initiators of change, even on a micro-level. (DiAngelo, 2011). The idea was based around believing the students might start acknowledging other perspectives if they came into contact with them, on their own terms. I had been exposing them to diverse artists through lectures but they seemed to not connect with them so I figured if they felt like they discovered them for themselves, this might start shaping their outcomes. Hence using the research stage as a means for tackling the problem.
