Note* I’ve not made this into two separate posts because I didn’t change much across the two rotations of the project for which I ran this intervention.
What:
An intervention to study group work, furniture layout and rearranging the studio environment. The idea here was to embrace play and working together.
How:
Students were asked to work in groups of 3 to create a photogrammetry scan of a chosen object. We moved the furniture around to free up space for students work on the floor and re-claim space within the studio.
Note* Photogrammetry is a form of 3d scanning where an object can be re-created digitally as a 3d model by stitching individual images together. There are apps on Andriod/IOS that enable this.
Where:
LCC Design Block Studios
When:
16.10.2024 (Rotation 1)
20.11.2024 (Rotation 2)
Why:
Sometimes it feels as though the studio environment, by this I mean how the furniture is set up is not the most friendly. We have these clusters of tables that encourage students to congregate in their established groups as opposed to make new friends or mingle and engage with other people. This was an attempt to address some of those concerns.
Data Collected:
I collected lots of images and videos. Again relying heavily on Naturalistic Inquiry in this context. See below some of the images and videos collected.
Reflection
-It was clear that re-defining and further allowing students to re-claim the studio space is an important aspect of togetherness as Hollingsworth (2018) would put it. There were lots of lovely moments of laughter and play as can be seen in the image and video samples I have processed. Again, I think it’s important to acknowledge here that there is a degree of selection conscious/sub-conscious in what I’m choosing to document and further what I’m choosing to show. With that selection comes natural bias too. There will always be moments of tension or disengagement with the class group too, which I think is equally important to acknowledge.
-One of the highlights from this intervention was my colleague Kelly Harrison coming up to me and mentioning that students had organically started collaborating across groups. One of our mature students who we later realised was struggling with the technology involved as part of this task and perhaps, did not have the courage to come and speak with us was being supported by students of another group. This was really great to see as a sort of marker of the community dynamics within the studio space (see bel0w).
References:
- Hollingsworth, D. (2018) Places and Spaces and the Behavior They Create, TEDxMinneapolis. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/damaris_hollingsworth_places_and_spaces_and_the_behavior_they_create?subtitle=en&trigger=0s (Accessed: 10 July 2024).