Visual Pedagogy
A visual investigation of the physical, intellectual and emotional space in which students learn fashion menswear
Project leader: Ike Rust. Senior Menswear Tutor, Royal College of Art. London, UK Research Fellow CETLD 2008 -2009
My research is motivated by a desire to create the best possible opportunity for my students. This has led to four written research projects, which explore perceptions of student learning, employer engagement and the relationship between academia and industry, and a film that attempts to add positively to the ways that scholarly research or pedagogy is defined through recognising, valuing and expressing the fullest range of the language that designers use.
This CETLD project was a visual investigation of the physical, intellectual and emotional space in which my students learn fashion menswear. It defines the interaction between student and tutor in relation to how we share creation, meaning and purpose and integrate the emotional experiences of desire, excitement, anxiety and doubt into a physical mastery of skill and technique.
The film Halcyon Daze establishes, through showing, the language of designing that encompasses the unspeakable, intangible and difficult to express that culminate in a fuller understanding of who designers are and what we do. This is evidenced in the spoken word, repetitive comforting gestures, hands that draw an inner vision in open space, as frustration expressed at reviews, silent appreciation, excitement, joy, tiredness and sometimes desperation.
