The Thoughtful Six — A Case Study–Control / Surrender

James CorazzoStockport CollegeLecturer BA(Hons) Graphic Design

Video PresentationLink

Critical Factors–1. Space/Environment

Critical Factors–1. Space/Environment–Its a placement with the safety net of the college…[participating student]

–It’s is a safety net, we don’t feel isolated and perhaps that we could contribute more because we know more about things [resources in college] we feel more at ease because we felt that we were helping…[participating student]

Critical Factors–1. Space/Environment–…it’s a theatre set of a studio, it isn’t the real deal…their head hasn’t shifted into a workplace, I guess they are still at college… geographically it is too close to other students, their friends, the normal environment.[Creative Director – Thoughtful]

–I think the students are very safe and protected and there ain’t much of a fear factor… this is a bubble to them, we’ve always liked the idea of it being a real world experience.[Creative Director – Thoughtful]

Critical Factors–1. Space/Environment–We [students] might have felt too comfortable and weren’t acting as professionally as we should have been they [Thoughtful] showed us videos, and we realised how the client saw us – as students.[participating student]

–…you can’t just sit there and act like yourself. It made me think more about everything I did and how that was going to be seen by them, and in turn the clients.[participating student]

– We had to separate the studio from college life, so it was more like we were at work not in college working with Thoughtful.[participating student]

Critical Factors–1. Space/Environment–The real world is so extreme, the law wouldn’t allow us to give them the real world experience… it’s as real as you can make it, they would have turned against us and design if we’d made it that real.

[Creative Director – Thoughtful]

Critical Factors–2. Confidence / Professor Michael Eraut–Placement learning is most likely to occur from appropriately challenging work, because this develops confidence and proactive behaviours

[Professor Michael Eraut]

Eraut, M. (2009) Improving the Quality of Work Placements. Symposium on Learning in the Workplace AERA annual conference, San Diego, April 2009

Critical Factors–2. Confidence–I’ve learnt how a studio works, how to interact, how I have to be self-initiated, go and ask for things, pushing to get more things, the more I do, the more I get out, a self-propellingness.[participating student]

 –I think I’ve got so much more confident with this project than I ever was before, when I saw a presentation I’d done I looked at that and saw the change in myself, I have got so much more confident in myself, I don’t feel I have to go up to anyone anymore and say am I doing this right? I can take my own initiative…[participating student]

Critical Factors–2. Confidence–There has been more new situations and challenges and I’ve had to deal with them, …each day we do something different, at first if you’ve never done it very frightening, now when new things happen its okay…

[participating student]

Critical Factors–2. Confidence–We’ve all been given jobs to do where we’ve found ourselves wondering what to do next. And at some point we’ve all walked back into the room, sat at our desks and said “the door’s locked.

Does that mean the problem no longer needs solving? I’ve learnt that taking ownership of a task builds trust, respect and confidence but more importantly, if I don’t solve the problem it simply becomes someone else’s problem – which in a small (but perfectly formed) design practice can become a real problem.

[participating student]

Employability–

[It] is having the skills and abilities to practice professionally. Life skills which include: emotional intelligence, self-efficacy; confidence, team working, communication; being enterprising – a way of doing that enables the students to act in the world.

[Linda Ball]

Ball, L. (2008) Bold resourcefulness. Redefining Employability and Entrepreneurial Learning A HEIF Funded Project 2007 – 2008 University of the Arts, London available at www.arts.ac.uk/cltad/BoldResourcefulness.html

National Employability Profiles–

Anticipate and accommodate change, handle ambiguity and uncertainty;

Interact effectively with others through collaboration, collective endeavour and negotiation;

Work flexibly, creatively and independently with self-discipline, self-direction and reflexivity

Manage personal workloads and meet deadlines under pressure with flexibility, imagination, self-motivation and organisation

Ball, L. (2008) Bold resourcefulness. Redefining Employability and Entrepreneurial Learning A HEIF Funded Project 2007 – 2008 University of the Arts, London available at www.arts.ac.uk/cltad/BoldResourcefulness.html

*Eno’s Wikipedia entry describes him as an English musician, composer, record producer, music theorist, artist and singer, who, as a solo artist, is best known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Eno accessed on 24 May 2010)

Brian Eno*

Surrender / Control–I set up situations that involve abandoning control and finding out what happens.

[Brian Eno]

Jeffries, Stuart. (2010) Surrender. It’s Brian Eno. Guardian Arts Interview 29.04.10 available at http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/28/brian-eno-brighton-festival accessed on 24.05.10

University of Learning–John Bowden and Ference Marton

Holland–NHL / University of Applied SciencesLeeuwarden, Holland–

Communication Media Design (CMD)–What a student needs to know and needs to do is not the teachers decision, the onus is on the student discovering what they need to know and how to do it.

[CMD Programme Handbook]

Communication Media Design (CMD)–Control / Surrender

Hans Monderman

Workshop–Control / Surrender–The trouble with traffic engineers is that when there’s a problem with a road, they always try to add something.... to my mind, it’s much better to remove things.

[Hans Monderman]

McNichol, Tom. (2004) Roads Gone Wild available at http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.12/traffic.html accessed on 25 May 2010