Endless different teaching & learning styles experienced today:

• Individual presentations by the students
• Immediate positive feedback by the teachers to the students after presentations
• Student-led and teacher-led discussions
• Continuous encouraged student input in the discussion verbally or through writing in the chat
• A lot of listening by the teachers to the students demonstrating interest, undivided attention, curiosity, empathy, patience
• Active learning remotely – students were encouraged to draw.
• Perhaps a ‘creative, disruptive method’ by encouraging students to access their senses – What are your feet touching? What’s touching your feet?
• A form of brainstorming on Padlet
• Utilising different digital platforms: BBCollaborate, Padlet, moodle, blogs
• Another student-led learning example: a kind of ‘subject voting’ system where students voted their favourite 3 topics and then chose one they wanted to discuss with their peers
• Thinking/reflecting or reacting or communicating through drawing.
• Learning to find words through drawing – writing through drawing
• Sharing and discussing work
• Teachers being honest, showing their vulnerability and put themselves into the perspective of the students therefore, gaining students’ trust
• Teachers allowing students to view some of their home environment: pets plus mentioning children in background – being open, giving some insight into their personal life – being human – not just ‘the superior teacher’
• Q&As
• Facilitating students’ participation or involvement on many different levels such as the mentioned above examples: student-led group discussions, chat, padlet, shared brainstorming, students’ presentations etc.

Today’s key words that resonated with me personally:

• Meaningful
• Discipline of noticing
• Trust
• Resistance
• Sociomateriality
• Facilitator
• Silence

What I am taking away from today:

What I am taking away from today seems very personal and it most likely won’t be anything new to my new tutors, in fact everyone around me had mentioned it however, I had to experience it myself to understand it.

Today, as students we were facilitated and encouraged on every level and more importantly, we also were reassured and encouraged that we were the centre of the whole learning and teaching experience of this course. As I have taught for more than 19 years in many different institutions such as Mary Ward Centre, London College of Fashion, University of Westminster and Central Saint Martins plus one-off international teaching situations – I haven’t been in this position for a long time and therefore, it felt almost overwhelming.

As a tutor I do exactly what our new tutors do, too, I give and listen all the time and the only people next to my closest family and the few friends left, who seem to matter in my life are my students and ex-students, especially in the role as a pathway leader because there is a lot of pastoral care involved. This is also the reason why I cannot appear vulnerable unless I use it as a learning and teaching tool in a measured manner.

Usually, I explain that I don’t teach instead I ‘guide’ the students which, as I learned today, is a recognised teaching and learning method called ‘facilitator’. In addition, I tend to not respect my teaching qualities very much because I lost the ‘discipline of noticing’ or do not know the terms or references for my teaching methods.

The final and most vital realisation for me today was that I am as a student the centre and it is about me which also means that it is about my creative practice not only about my teaching practice. Today there was a keen general interest in what we as students do next to our teaching practice.

Even though I am very aware of the fact that my creative practice should and does inform my teaching practice I was not used to such genuine interest in who I am as an artist. Hence, I kept my practice as a visual artist quite brief in my verbal presentation today. Having realised that I am the centre, I decided to boast on my blog and included a rather long biography – mainly as a reminder and reassurance for myself.

As my own creative practice seems an important part of this course, I further understood that there is the possibility to focus in the first instance on my creative practice rather than on my teaching practice for the active research project with the intention of eventually linking the two.

My Research:

Beautiful quote from today: “What itch do you want to scratch in your research”

The research “Part of the Furniture: Encountering People and Things in the Design Studio” of James Corazzo, Associate Professor of Art & Design, Sheffield Hallam University, reminded me of one of my projects called ‘Before A Fashion’ which I did in 2014.

Even though I knew vaguely what project I wanted to do I didn’t quite know where to start so I decided to utilise drawing as a thinking and stimulating process. Similar as Catherine Smith I went to the library to draw however, I decided to draw paintings by Mannerism artist Bronzino because I was always drawn to his paintings’ stylised aesthetic, fresh colours and layers of symbolism and narratives.

‘Before A Fashion’ 2014

‘Before A Fashion’ is a short artists’ film exploring the uniquely performed relations between bodies, materials and state of creation only to be found among young people studying fashion design. It describes how ideas around ‘manner and style’, key terms defining fashion and embracing specific qualities such as the way that we stand, sit or move, are tightly intertwined with the entire design and making process.

The film originates from 5 years’ extensive observations of fashion design students, staff and learning methods at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, in form of endless photographs and drawings. It creates a different kind of storytelling through translating real experiences and gestures – a mix of clear procedures seemingly stemming from a former world and more intimate, instinctive gesticulation – into refined scenarios. Underlining this notion, the presented clothes have been designed to mimic distinct acts of performance by a recent Saint Martins fashion graduate and key-performer in the film.

Usually, the focus in the field of fashion and performance lies on the performance of the wearer and the specifically designed and worn garments. This new project includes the performance of the fashion makers and examines the interrelated performances of body, material and physical and psychological state of creation within the fashion design process as a whole.

Finally, regarding the title ‘Before A Fashion’ – ‘before’ relates to fashion students whom I want to portray within the film, which means their working and development before they ‘go into fashion’ and perhaps before they ‘become a fashion’. Also, it refers to my thought that perhaps before something is called ‘a fashion’ it is not ‘a fashion yet’ such as a dress which just has been completed and not been ‘outside’ the studio yet. 

Due to limited time, funding resources and lack of appropriate academic or intellectual support the project did not have the outcome I had originally intended. Having listened to James’ and Catherine’s presentation I am beginning to see the potential of this project and therefore, perhaps this is a project I could revisit.

Before A Fashion – story board