Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts

Sunday, 21 January 2024

breathingoutandinandout


The 1-minute films are slowly getting edited. Meanwhile - working at Kings - Synthetic Anatomy Day 1 - I think there is some interesting research to be undertaken about iteration around teaching. I think this year’s 1st day was possibility one of our best - clarity of intention was key, we are getting very good at working with students to develop learning criteria. The session was excellent, building a shared understand whilst simultaneously surprising ourselves. There were some interesting conversations which I brought back into my world, both as anecdotes and also into my own practice as a maker. I particularly liked the idea of the wildcard criteria that could be a driver of one’s own iterative process. Interested that what we value is what we decide to measure or is it what we measure is what we decide to value. I loved the idea of a 'good version' of a 'bad' bridge being 'better' than a 'bad version' of a 'good bridge' and the structures themselves were fascinating – on the way home I continued to read 12 bytes - Jeanette Winterson. It's a collection of thoughts whose focus is ai - it was fascinating finding out the way quantum computers (the next generation) work - that quantum bits exist in many places but when observed (measured) they take on a defined form and can be observed only in one! Unsure how that relates but in some way it seems relevant to the conversations that came out of the crits. Onto Screens - The Painter – just...odd. Role Play – I think we’ve been here before.

Monday, 30 January 2023

sessiononemetaphore


The session I ran for synthetic anatomy this week was well received, with an added twist that took into account references to anatomy meant that the bag/body workshop was swimming with metaphor – a good workshop. Here is the ‘paperwork’ for the session.

Aims: The session sets out to -

· expose the students to lateral thinking and creative problem-solving activities.

· encourage the students to consider exploring the space between knowing and not knowing.

· enable the students to work independently, collaboratively and in groups.

· develop the student’s critical reflection skills

· support presentation of ideas through the role of the 'crit'.

· introduce note taking, mapping and documentation of activity to support the e-portfolio.

Structure:

· The session will be experimental, oblique and may fail, this could be something to aim for and will be celebrated.

· Some of the session will entertain but actually be irrelevant.

· Some of the session will seem irrelevant but may become the key to developing the students’ problem-solving skills.

· Participants may experience confusion but hopefully this will lead to revelation during or after the session.

· There will be no finished work, participants will emerge with many starting points to support the exploration of the creative process, to enable them to address the idea of synthetic anatomy imaginatively.

· Students will engage in several lateral thinking and creative, non-specific, multi-solution problem solving activities.

· Activities to possibly include - folding - mark making - text and image generation - listening - feeling - rules - cutting - sticking - modelling - translation - stitching - storytelling - maths - thinking - looking.

Onto screens – Till – a dauntingly powerful film that will haunt you and two films seemingly made by film students – The Price we pay and Detective Knight: Rogue then there was Tall girl which was what it was and finally not as funny as it should be – Fletch confess

Wednesday, 31 October 2018

critcritcalcriticism


excited to be invited to give the keynote at Turn the Page Book Art Conference in Norwich in May 2019. I'm thinking about talking about taxonomy and definitions of book and how this has informed my practice and the work I have made over the past 30ish years. This will/might also touch on the educational work, residencies within the world of science and the wider place of book thinking as a tool in making sense of the world.
The morning at NUA was Pecha Kucha's -  some excellent communication skills were evidenced and the improved confidence was there to be seen and commented on. Next up a wonderful crit. The first of the year and some of the work was really exciting - lots of innovative outcomes around material manipulation and design solutions, all supported by great research and contextual understanding. The lateral thinking and problem solving workshops seem to be paying off.
Year 3 OCA were set the task of presenting the work of other students. Having lived with another person's work for a week the participants job was to present that work. This saw a wide range of approaches and readings leading to delivering many revelations and entry points to thinking about the work of others
At Camberwell on the Book Art Course it was also the first crit of the new students - set the task of going to a place in London and responding to it structurally after exposure to the previous weeks workshop around the fold and experimental bookmaking. The diverse approaches led to a number of truly glorious conversations which has had my head spinning all the way home.
Meanwhile quite possibly my all-time favourite response by a student after being introduced to the concept of the gantt chart - the action/questioning is a challenge to the very root of what we do and why we do it - its why I teach.

Saturday, 29 April 2017

whatisittolearn?

What is it to learn? 
In the nano project I had this idea that the articulated structures I have been creating in response to the choreography in the laboratory if miniaturised to a nano scale could in some way inform an understanding of the movement of electrons around atoms, thus bringing knowledge to ideas around dark matter and the gaps between things. The wonderful thing about the job is that I don't mind not knowing in fact I think I revel in it and when realising that things I have conceived of aren't even possible ideas or that my language is not just wrong but the hypothesis underpinning my idea/revelation isn't even a thing in the first place. The conversations that ensue are a joy. This was the experience on Friday.

I often expect a rigour of thought with the students I encounter and I have had that experience myself....I have had work and proposals I put forward shaped with a rigour I hope that I bring to my own students practice. Meaning has been brought into the thinking and a clarity of intention that was not there previously is now embedded within the work and the proposed exhibition. A busy week at NUA where I delivered and was part of a great peer review session with year 2 exploring what it is to assess and make sense of the work around us https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/ba2-peer-assessment-learning and with year 3 a workshop on recognising and developing a USP a Unique Selling Point. https://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/pdp-what-makes-you-interesting-1-usp

Wednesday, 15 February 2017

whenisitfinished?

Tuesday saw me involved in a wonderful afternoon of teaching on the MA Book Art Course at Camberwell - the session set out to explore our relationship to the idea of finish and what makes something finished - see the PowerPoint for the range of individual and collaborative responses to the concept. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/finishedness-2017-all-equations-72186645 Starting as one then in pairs, fours and eventually as eight finishedness was negotiated and deliberated, ending with a reflective moment on the whole day's journey, interspersed with moments for comment and thought.....a truly enlightening education experience. onto some recent films Jackie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1619029/ don't expect a standard biopic it's a film that presents a physical emotional state - it's a film about shock - using filmic devices and metaphor we experience a woman cope. 20th century women http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4385888/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 is actually a film about men, how we bring them up and nurture them from boys - some great lines and set pieces make one reflect on past and present and future conversations. Passengers http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 is about guilt but maybe not enough - the film sets up a premise that if explored enables us to reflect on the choices we make. Some podcasts that I'm becoming obsessed with at the moment. Invisibilia http://www.npr.org/podcasts/510307/invisibilia looks at the issues and systems behind human behaviour Song Exploder http://songexploder.net/ this deconstructs songs and tracks from movies, check out Ghost face Killer and Bjork oh and Iggy Pop  The Allusionist http://www.theallusionist.org/ is all about words and their meaning

Monday, 9 June 2014

thinkinglookingtalkingandbeingaparent

METIS http://metisarts.co.uk/ are developing a new piece and as part of their development they have been looking at how clothes are made within a global context – I went to a sort of sharing of our research so far session at the Wolsey Theatre on Saturday – not bad – some interesting ideas were thrown up about labelling in clothes in relationship to food, the lack of direct health issues around purchasing cheap clothes (within the manufacturer of clothes it is other people’s health that is at risk). http://www.wolseytheatre.co.uk/shows/pulse14-world-factory-the-shirt/ Later New Art Club http://newartclub.org/ were as excellent as expected and a bit more – I think that I was crying with laughter within minutes and the last monologue was so beautiful - making us all evaluate the whole show – thank you. Meanwhile back to assessment today with a quick break for year 2 textile design student’s introduction to year 3 at NUA. http://www.slideshare.net/l.bicknell/introduction-to-year-3-35664784  Then off to see the Foundation show at Wensum Lodge in Norwich 
http://www.norfolk.gov.uk/Leisure_and_culture/Adult_education/Types_of_courses/Courses_for_learners_16-18/NCC086964 vested interest - my child is graduating so I will be in proud parent mode.