Obliquiscope in partnership with Smithery and Craig BurstonObliquiscope in partnership with Smithery and Craig Burston
I developed this activity in partnership with Craig Burston and would like to credit him and the Smithery for much of the intellectual framework surround this tool, the obliquiscope. However, I was able to lend my insights in thinking about this activity as a tool for building community.
“An Obliquiscope is a tool which sets different apertures for reality. It works to bring your focus to bear at different layers of a scenario or situation.
Depending on what you need to do, it helps you see the surroundings more clearly, or blurs them for convenience.It helps a novice understand the basic principles of zooming in and out. For an experienced practitioner, it is a reminder to explore methodically in their inquiries. Point an obliquiscope at something, and see the world differently.“
– John V Willshire – (Willshere, 2023)
What:
An intervention exploring object based learning towards feelings of belonging and community.
We are currently running a brief in BA GMD Year 1 called Two States, where students are asked to design two symbols that represent the changing states of a near future scenario. They are asked to work with a theme and find a graphically consistent visual system that can be used to represent these scenarios (Burston et al., 2024).
Students are asked to find their own themes through a series of peer learning activities. I thought it could be interesting if we use object based learning as a window into these conversations.
How:
We asked the students to bring an object, a personal object to the first session as a generator for themes.
We paired the students in two and gave them an obliquiscope per pair to start to work through their objects and break down some of the key considerations of those objects. The ideas was that perhaps the conversation with another body creates a sense of dialogue and perhaps: flattens some of the power dynamic in the room (Bunting & Hill, 2021). We also made a Padlet where students were asked to upload their objects and further; ideas for themes and scenarios that came out of the conversations with their peers.
Where:
In the classroom In person (physical object) At LCC In the Design Block An familiar space
When:
October, 2024
Why:
We can look at an object and immediately being to distil its function (objective) from its personal interpretation (subjective). A further layer of investigation around its provenance, material nature, social and cultural frameworks begins to reveal interesting intersectional qualities (Willcocks & Mahon, 2023) through the dialogue mentioned above. This dialogue could help generate interesting themes for the students. Here I would like to link back to some of my reflections around object based learning from the TPP Unit – click here.
Data Collected
Observational/Conversational: Students were engaged with the activity as we walked around and observed their conversations. A number of them mentioned that the presence of another enabled different perspectives – which ties in well with the purpose of the obliquiscope.
BA GMD Y1 Students discussing their objects.BA GMD Y1 Students discussing their objects.
A number of the students mentioned that they didn’t find the obliquiscope itself to be that useful, other than it’s pleasing aesthetic qualities and tangibility as an object. They were confused why we needed it and perhaps didn’t see the connection between the obliquiscope and their conversations. Craig and I had a chance to debrief after the session and collectively pondered on whether we needed to rethink that aspect of the activity in some way or perhaps give their conversations more of a collective framework in the Padlet. Much of what the students uploaded to the Padlet were their own reflections and perhaps didn’t capture the comments and conversations with their peer – something we were hoping we could see more of. That’s what we had hoped for with the obliquiscopes.
What comes next?
I shall continue to think of objects and their place is this project around community and belonging in HE. Luckily we run this project in two rotations so I do have a second chance to come back to this activity – and refine it (to a certain extent). We can’t change it too much because we need to keep things consistent as well. More to come!
References
Bunting, L., & Hill, V. (2021). Relational Reflections: How do we nurture belonging in creative Higher Education?. Innovative Practice in Higher Education.
Willcocks, J. and Mahon, K. (2023). The potential of online object-based learning activities to support the teaching of intersectional environmentalism in art and design higher education. art, design & communication in higher education, 22(2), pp.187-207.
Willshire, J. (2023). Obliquiscopes: Setting aperture for reality. Smithery. https://smithery.com/2023/09/22/obliquiscopes-setting-aperture-for-reality/ (Accessed: 04 Nov 2024).
Burston C., Tickler O., Harrison K., Baden-Powell U., Raori R. (2024). Two State-Creative Brief. BA Graphic and Media Design Year 1 Process and Methods. GMD2425 PM Unit Two States brief.pdf
