Cathy Gale

Profile

Since graduating from the MA (RCA) Graphic Design Cathy has balanced a broad-based creative practice with design pedagogy and research. As a tutor she has taught across disciplines at Glasgow School of Art, Central St.Martin’s, Brighton University and is currently an Associate Lecturer on BA Graphic Product Innovation at LCC and a Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design at Kingston University.

Her practice includes experimental film (Straight8 ‘Best of 2009’ DVD), experiential design as a part of the Friends of Gagarin, branding, illustration and exhibitions. She is currently a PhD research student at Brighton University exploring the letter X as a device for testing ambiguity in design. This innovative research continues to inform teaching and learning and is integrated with the more grounded rigors of practice. Since her college days she has employed collecting as a research methodology to inspire and inform all areas of creativity and communication and has delivered conference papers relating to this subject: ‘Shopping: listed’ at the Hunting and Gathering: Practices of Collecting’ World Art Postgraduate Symposium (UEA, 2007). The particular challenges of research and discovery in the digital world offer knowledge transfer beyond and between the boundaries of discipline by collecting the material object in the street and on the digital foreshore. Where individual specialism and commonalities lie between disciplines is of particular interest in teaching, practice and research and has contributed to several papers on this subject at the CTLAD conference in Berlin this year, FISCAR in Helsinki, ATypI in Dublin, and the leNS conference: Sustainability in Design: Now! In Bangalore, India, amongst others.

Project:

The ‘Museum of Me’: collecting as creative practice

Trousers by Rahul Ramanaj; this grew out of the narrative possibilities of discarded clothing found in the street

Flag by Stephanie Pritchard; this explored the celebratory properties of ribbons, from which she created a Union Jack that filled the studio: you had to cut the ribbon to get through.

Collecting is used across diverse creative disciplines as a research methodology, whether explicitly or tacitly, to inform, educate and inspire. What is often considered a childhood hobby by the general public constitutes a far more fundamental method of understanding of a subject/place/person, of the world at large and our place in it, for the creative student and professional. “At art school, information gathering, such as the collection and archiving or visual materials in sketch books or collections of ephemera, are part of the acquisition of visual skills often regarded by more academic disciplines as eccentric. These practices constitute a method of learning that carries on through the working life of most designers, juxtaposed, for many designers with more formal learning.” (Codex Project: 2002).

This proposal aims to make explicit the tacit knowledge, research and analysis methods that communication designers already use, where collecting is an integral part of their creative practice, often for its own sake. That collecting the quotidian has made its way from the background to the forefront of cultural life (Museum of Me at OXO Tower, Museum of Everything at the Tate, and Museum of Curiosity BBC Radio 4) topically places this project within a familiar field of reference for the creative student. It’s aim is not to exclude other disciplines but to enable open discourse across disciplines focussing on a practice that is not obviously skills-based. The main attribute for this project is curiosity, and a little obsession. The transferrable skills and knowledge shared between design and illustration, initially, can be used as a model beyond the Communication Design Faculty to facilitate and incorporate greater knowledge exchange between disciplines. A Blogspot will enable ongoing dissemination and evaluation which will be used to inform the structure of the online museum, approaches to taxonomy and FAQs.

Initially building on a ‘Pocket Archive’ project that has been successfully tested over the years on first year BA Graphic Design/with Photography, this proposal aims to expand debates around primary research through collecting. The project introduced ten years ago encourages each student to develop their own visual ‘language’ and research methodology, and to increase their understanding of the mechanics of communication in the contemporary cultural landscape over a six-month period. The project provides space to test innovative and experimental forms of research and interpretation, and to share the process of critical analysis through the collected subject. The subject of interest and enquiry may range from the abstract to the verbal to the sculptural and the visual but must be informed by intensive and broad-based approaches to observation and documentation. The student may want to explore only those objects discarded or lost: as described in the ‘Found/Shared’ exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery London (2009), “today’s treasures are yesterday’s junk”. The development of multiple skills in studio debate/exchange encourages students to challenge perceptions and preconceptions of design’s role in society as that of cultural producer in exclusively commercial (and digital) terms. A number of interdisciplinary studio sessions will be arranged so that the ‘Museum of Me’ content can be displayed and discussed in workshop situations, and issues of discovery and the chance encounter can be reviewed as creative tools. Comparing the virtual with the concrete in relation to each students’ independently researched yet shared approach to investigation and cognition is presented as a valuable, and truly ‘interactive’, teaching and learning tool. Issues of ‘objecthood’, material thinking and the value of studio-based knowledge transfer have been tested using innovative teaching techniques, such as Post-it note sessions in the studio. Not only is the subject of each student’s research important, but also how their peers can learn from each other’s documentation methods, analysis and a more organic approach to cognition in relation to problem-solving. It encourages active rather than passive learning, and has proved to be a valuable opportunity for self-reflective analysis and understanding. Studio feedback groups should not exceed 40 at a time, with at least 5 meeting sessions in the year, opening access to a maximum of 200 students in studio-based discussion and the whole faculty of approximately 700 students.

A website (linked to the university, and accessible to students, professionals and academics) will be established early in the project to invite contributions from students, staff and professionals. The intention is to enable online exchange of research methodologies, advice and feedback between industry and academia building stronger links for the future. ‘My Museum’ will allow students from all disciplines to share ideas and experiences, opinion and information beyond the traditional confines of the studio and subject discipline. My role will be editor, curator, designer, invigilator and contributor, initially: the diverse contributors ‘building’ the museum itself as the project progresses. I have championed a balance of e-learning in the university with more traditional studio-based practice over the years, which this project continues innovatively and expansively. MySpace and Facebook have presented an environment for open debate and exchange beyond geographical or time-based limitations. By being grounded in studio-based investigation and critical analysis, blended learning can aid a more seamless connection between the real and the virtual, the personal archive and the public museum, primary and secondary research, etc. Workshops and slideshows will be integrated into the studio-based curriculum to develop a community of collectors who will be encouraged to display their archives in the university’s glass cabinets and exhibition spaces. Evaluation and feedback from representatives of the collecting community will be podcast and disseminated online for ongoing access beyond the timescale of this project.