Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education - Volume 6, Issue 3, 2008

This study explores how stress is experienced by international students in the creative arts at the University of the Arts, London. 141 students from six geographical areas were interviewed in their own language by social science postgraduates from various institutions within the University of London. The findings are in line with those of much current work on international students generally, though some are specific to the creative arts. While problems connected with language are the most widespread cause of stress, other less obvious issues are also important. Alongside the well-known phenomenon of culture shock is what has been called academic shock or study shock the difficulties of transition to a different system of teaching and learning, and of integration with peers and communication with tutors (which might also be described as social shock). The problems experienced by international students are not all peculiar or specific to them, but such students, a long way from their own cultural, social and linguistic environment, are more likely to feel the cumulative nature of the potential difficulties to which they are exposing themselves by studying abroad.

Among the academic genres that architecture students must learn to produce, the architecture critique or crit is a significant moment in student enculturation to disciplinary norms. Students must simultaneously re-present the visuals representing the conceptual design of a built environment space and negotiate the social and affective dimensions of peer critique. Academic skills textbooks emphasize the informational structuring and staging of presentations while paying little attention to the social and affective dimension of the group social interaction. Building on recent linguistic critique of the separation of cognition and affect (including emotion), this study focuses on the affective and factual nature of the discourse of architecture critique and its constitutive role in student and faculty identities. I examine extracts from four architecture critique presentations recorded during a two hour session (123 minutes) at the University of Michigan for the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). This discourse analysis demonstrates how fact and affect (including emotion) and identity is produced in the turns of student presenters. The paper concludes with how a discursive focus may contribute to more transparent student and faculty approaches to managing emotion.

This paper explores notions of space in learning, specifically that of the creative learning space. It maintains that space, far from being neutral, is both socially and psychologically constructed, and reproductive of inequality.

The paper draws directly on the psychoanalytic, Winnicottian concept of transitional space, and supports its use and value as a tool via which to explore and deepen our understanding of the learning and creative space. The paper looks too at how the very language through which we discuss learning and its spaces is riddled with hierarchical beliefs. Finally it argues that moves towards greater democratization of learning through widening participation must include a more nuanced understanding of the structural inequalities which are embedded in our thinking about learning and its spaces.

The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space.

(Foucault 1986)

I wonder where you're reading this now. Did you choose to read it in a particular place? How do you feel about that space, and how is that space impacting on your reading of this paper, your enjoyment or not, empathizing or not, boredom or not? Is space really that important, that it can affect the way we read, understand, learn, express ourselves? Maybe not. But this paper discusses the possibility that for some, spaces are that important, that alive, that dynamic because they are filled with emotion, or residual emotion.

As more educators venture into virtual worlds there is a need to consider the impact that these worlds have on the interactions between learners and teachers. The paper explores what is known about the impact of computer mediated communication and relates it to rich interactive 3d virtual environments. It recommends areas for consideration when using these spaces for art and design related activities The review of the literature reveals that many of the emotions and norms found in social interaction in the real world also transfer to the virtual world. Virtual worlds offer opportunities for engaging student centred activities but these require careful planning if they are to be successful.

Human beings constitute an embodied consciousness. Our sensory capacities function in a highly integrated manner; our experience of a visual image may in fact be tactile, auditory, or some other combination of the five senses. Our most memorable and meaningful experiences are those that impress multiple sensory modes: touch, sound, smell, taste, as well as vision. The process of transforming these essentially private sensory experiences into forms that can be shared with others is the essence of communication. Therefore truly effective communication requires careful attention to the felt qualities of an experience; both the physically and emotionally perceived.

This paper seeks to explore why designers need to become experts in shared experience rather than simply producers of visual commodities or visual problem-solvers. Does a client need a new logo to sell more product, or in fact does the user need a more emotionally satisfying experience to share with others?

This paper introduces work in progress on the presence of the emotions in reflective Personal and Professional Development (PPD) statements at the London College of Fashion. From a basis combining elements of emotional and personal construct theories, it offers an emerging method of reading PPD reflective statements which differs from current preoccupations with employability in its focus on narratives of personal improvement and individual emotional journeys. The authors outline a perspective which may be adopted by staff and students alike to identify moments of revelation in learning experiences and the actions that have accompanied these. Furthermore, they invite consideration as to the way PPD and critical reflection in a fashion context may differ from other subjects, in the intensity of personal creative investment and subjectivity.

Review of the Unspoken Interactions: exploring the role of emotions, interactions and embodied knowledge in practice-based subjects' symposium December 2007 University of the Arts, London

Teaching with Emotional Intelligence: A Step-by-Step Guide for Higher and Further Education Professionals, Alan Mortiboys (2005)

1^st edition, London: Rutledge (146 p.), First ISBN: 978-0415350-88-4, Price: 19.99 GBP (Paperback)