Practice- based learning and teaching : a real world experience ?
Abstract :
The ultimate aim of the visual arts is the building ! Their noblest function was once the decoration of buildings. Today they exist in isolation, from which they can be rescued only through the conscious, co-operative efforts of all craftsmen. Architects, painters and sculptors must recognise again the composite character of a building as an entity.
(Walter Gropius, The Bauhaus Manifesto, 1919)
The aim of this paper is to investigate the current use of space within art and design institutions and to pose the questions: How is practice-based learning, with its relationship to space, best offered to the art and design student of the future? What are the implications for accommodation and resource needs to support the continuing development of this practice?
This paper is divided into four discussion-based sections. It begins with an overview of the distinctiveness of practice-based learning and teaching with a focus on the skills agenda for the UK as a whole. The next section identifies current uses of space within the art and design school through case studies of current practice from the authors’ own institutions. These scenarios attempt to identify individual institutional contexts and demonstrate some of the range and diversity of practices across the sector. Next, the paper highlights and lists the main drivers for change and how these may influence the art and design school of the future. Finally, possibilities for the future are discussed. This issue was the theme of the Council for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD) Conference: Spaces for Art / Spaces for Art Education (Bugg, 2006), and as many institutions are currently undergoing a general reallocation of their use of space this paper is timely and will generate further debate across the sector.
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How is practice based learning, with its relationship to space, best offered to the art and design students of the future?
It was unanimously agreed that practice based learning is fundamental to the art and design curriculum, and that spaces which support that form of pedagogy need to be made available in our universities, in order to maintain the quality of UK art and design education.
There was also broad agreement that the Bauhaus vision of the art school as a cathedral of the visual arts, though still relevant, needs to be reviewed in the light of current technological and educational developments. In some ways, the requirements of the Creative Industries suggest that the art school curriculum needs to return to the Bauhaus focus on inter-disciplinary study, based on the development of practice-based learning. But the skills now needed are different, with more focus on conceptual skills and team-working, and an ever more complex technological emphasis. The greater numbers being educated in the present day art school also make implementation of the Bauhaus vision a more complex operation.
What are the implications for accommodation and resource needs to support the continuing development of this practice?
There was some concern expressed that the term ‘flexible space’ needs to be defined more carefully. There are still very different approaches to flexibility, and to space needs, between subject disciplines. There is also a danger that flexible spaces booked through central timetabling units (which are often focused on regular lecture series) can fail to provide the resources required for short blocks of time-intensive activity.
In order to utilise resources more efficiently, it was recognised that more careful programme management is becoming necessary, with booking systems replacing the more informal drop-in use of resources. The use of facilities throughout the year and 24/7 is also now becoming more important, and this can create its own complex set of problems, eg.:
- classes timetabled in anti-social hours, for both staff and students
- working agreements on lecturers’ hours
- provision of technician support into the evenings
- reduction in ‘down-time’ for maintenance of equipment
How can your perception (narrative or case study) of the use of space in practice based art and design in your own institution serve to inform the sector of best practice?
There was a general recognition that the expansion of art and design in universities is leading to exciting new developments in facilities. Many new buildings are being designed, offering new challenges for the provision of space suitable for practice based learning and teaching. The use of case studies in the chapter demonstrates how lessons can be learned from all these new build projects which are taking place.
It was noted from delegates’ experience that the design of these new spaces is leading to various tensions, which need to be resolved, eg. :
- pressure for reduced space allocation v. increased student numbers
- local control of space v. centralised timetabling
- individual work stations v. shared studio spaces
- local ownership of studios v. common timetabled rooms
- dedicated studio / workshop spaces v. public / communal spaces
- clean new spaces v. dirty old spaces
- studio practice v. flexible modes of delivery
There were few clear answers to these tensions presented in the workshops, but together they provide an agenda for further research and discussion.
There was agreement that students need to be involved in the design and the review of new facilities, and that because art and design practice based-learning and teaching is different from other areas of the HE curriculum, it is vital that academic staff are fully consulted in the design of the new buildings.