Cathy Gale

Bio: Cathy Gale is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Art school & Design education. The author has an hindex of 2, co-authored 3 publications receiving 8 citations.

Art school as a transformative locus for risk in an age of uncertainty

Abstract: Risk is not a neutral term even in (western) contexts of art and design pedagogic practice, where risk-taking is entwined into the matrices of the academy from the macro to the micro: from institution to studio to tutor to student. Neither design education nor practice exist in a vacuum, so the conditions and contingencies of risk in contemporary design pedagogy are unpicked, in relation to place, process and people, as inter-connected (though often fragmented) components of study. Art school is examined as a transformative locus for risk: a conceptual-architectural site for knowledge but also a temporal space of subversion, within which the studio provides students with a relatively safe setting for risk in individual and collective formulations. Neo-liberal policies of standardization and competition are as embedded in educational institutions as they are across all levels of society: the resultant loss of agency is felt individually and collectively. This article reframes risk as fundamentally located and dialogic, an autonomous cooperative and collective action, underpinned by critical thinking and disobedient pedagogies. This is a transformative educational process anticipating change in an expanded mode of design in which the student members of the Alternative Art School are considered as critical agents, employing creative reflexivity as an antidote to the neo-liberal stifling of risk.

#AlternativeArtschool // an interstitial space for creative dissent

Abstract: The Alternative Art School (AAS) is conceived as an open-ended pedagogic tool through which to interrogate the conditions and consequences of contemporary education. It is interdisciplinary in scope, but focuses on the values of design education, while challenging assumptions of the academic status quo. As a ‘school’ within a school the AAS exploits the opportunities of art school to envisage alternatives in a staff−student collaboration. Extra-curricular and unmarked, the AAS is framed as a case study here employing a dialogic process that aims to disrupt reductive government policy and challenge the fusion of commerce and culture. In this way students are encouraged to reframe their experiences and ambitions from a more critical position and to inspire change through creative dissent.

Problem-finding as a research strategy connecting undergraduate learning with staff research in contemporary education institutions

Abstract: While problem-solving is defined as a research method based on a number of givens in a linear process, problem-finding is an open-ended mode of design, actively engaging participants in a reciprocal discourse. This method of learning by doing is implicit in design education. To examine problem-solving in the context of undergraduate study a collaborative staff–student research project is presented in the form of a case study. By continuing to find ‘problems’, design educators and students alike are challenged to push the boundaries of the discipline and frame it more centrally as an agent of change in society and culture. In a development of my Ph.D. and HEA Teaching Fellowship the design process is framed as a bridge between academic research and student employability. In this context I suggest that research strategies developed through doctoral study extend and substantiate teaching and learning in design.

Digital Design in Artistic Education: An Overview of Research in the University Setting.

Abstract: Digital design processes in artistic education promote the development of autonomy and self-critical capacities among students. Digital technology has transformed university education and the development of transversal skills. The objective of this study is to analyze research on digital design in art education in the context of higher education during the period 2000–2020. Bibliometric techniques were applied to 1027 articles selected from the Scopus database. The findings yielded data on the scientific productivity of journals, authors, research institutions and countries/territories that promote this topic. The data show an exponential trend, with more insistence in the last three years. Six current schools of knowledge related to art, level, formation, faculty, perception and relationship were detected. This research establishes the link between education, art and technology in the university context, and it is a tool for decision making by promoters of this field of research.

Art school as a transformative locus for risk in an age of uncertainty

Abstract: Risk is not a neutral term even in (western) contexts of art and design pedagogic practice, where risk-taking is entwined into the matrices of the academy from the macro to the micro: from institution to studio to tutor to student. Neither design education nor practice exist in a vacuum, so the conditions and contingencies of risk in contemporary design pedagogy are unpicked, in relation to place, process and people, as inter-connected (though often fragmented) components of study. Art school is examined as a transformative locus for risk: a conceptual-architectural site for knowledge but also a temporal space of subversion, within which the studio provides students with a relatively safe setting for risk in individual and collective formulations. Neo-liberal policies of standardization and competition are as embedded in educational institutions as they are across all levels of society: the resultant loss of agency is felt individually and collectively. This article reframes risk as fundamentally located and dialogic, an autonomous cooperative and collective action, underpinned by critical thinking and disobedient pedagogies. This is a transformative educational process anticipating change in an expanded mode of design in which the student members of the Alternative Art School are considered as critical agents, employing creative reflexivity as an antidote to the neo-liberal stifling of risk.

Co-creating the Curriculum

Abstract: This article takes the form of the letter entering into dialogue with students about their experience of co-creating the curriculum and undertaking a creative assessment. It draws on a case study from an art history module, Researching the Contemporary, studied as part of a joint honours Fine Art and Art History undergraduate course. It examines the ways in which theory and practice could be connected through an understanding of research as a creative practice. In framing co-creation as a creative process which produces different ways of being as learners, the article assesses various reconfigurations of relationships: to learning, to each other, to research, to the institution and to our emotions. The main part is structured in response to issues and ideas raised by a student collaborator, reflecting on the contexts of co-creation, the intersections between how and what we were learning, the links between history, theory and practice and our positionality as learners, researchers, producers and creators. It argues for the productive nature of vulnerability, uncertainty and risk and the potentiality of not-knowing for engendering forms of creative thinking and doing essential for the learning process.