MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
A global prospective: Life as a student on MA Global Collaborative Design Practice with Nanthini Sampathkumar
- Written byGeorgina Lampen
- Published date 28 July 2023
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MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice at Camberwell College of Arts is a unique course that is co-hosted and co-designed by UAL and Kyoto Institute of Technology (KIT) in Japan. We caught up one of its students, Nanthini Sampathkumar, who is among the first cohort of this course to graduate.
Nanthini took us behind the scenes, sharing her course experiences and insights, from applying, her time spent in Kyoto to the networking opportunities and industry links she has made.
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
Hi Nanthini! Tell us a bit about yourself and your background.
My name is Nanthini Sampathkumar and I am from a small city called Coimbatore in Tamilnadu located in the southern part of India.
For my undergraduate degree, I attended the University of Petroleum and Energy in Dehradum and studied a four-year course in product design. Towards the end of my third year, I moved to Istanbul in Turkey and completed my final year at Bilgi University as an exchange student. Whilst there, I was given an amazing opportunity to work on a sustainable design project with the municipality and olive oil factories on an island called Erdek. The island is known for its production of olive oil and the project involved using seaweed to replace the thermoform packaging used for bottling the oil. It was during this project that I realised I wanted to work within the field of sustainability, and I found my interests really shifting towards the climate crisis, and ethical design.
Why did you choose to study MA Global Collaborative Design Practice?
Firstly, I wanted to study on a course that allowed me to work on issues such as climate change and environmental problems using different kinds of design approaches. I was extremely excited when I came across MA Global Collaborative Design Practice as it was the only course I had found that had both these elements and allowed you to explore different ways of designing and intervening.
Secondly, I loved the collaborative partnership the course has with KIT, I enjoy working with people and collaborating and I found it very interesting that a totally different culture, in a different country, with a very different teaching style will be part of this course. I felt that this is going to help me understand issues such as climate change from a much more global perspective.
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
What do you enjoy most about studying this course?
I really enjoy that everyone on the course is from a different background and different culture. Not everyone has an art or design practice, and we have students on the course from industries such as finance or international languages. Having these different experiences within the group means there is a sharing of completely different approaches and perspectives. There are naturally differences in opinions, but you learn to work as a team by adapting and navigating through these differences, which ultimately prepares you for the world of work.
An element that really stands out is that the course teaches you that it may not always be possible to solve the world’s ‘wicked problems’ (problems that you feel may never have a solution) which can often be very overwhelming; instead, you learn to break the issues down and intervene implementing small step by step changes.
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
One of the projects that I enjoyed working on explored the current energy crisis and the idea of decentralising energy. We felt energy and heat should be available to everyone and so focused on working with landlords and Lewisham Council to examine the best ways to retain heat in a house. It required us to liaise and build trust between the homeowners and council by providing a space to open up discussions and understand the needs of the homeowner and the difficulties faced by the council when executing possible solutions, like shared energy spaces.
Projects like these really push you to deal with real-world situations, and it has really helped me to venture out of my comfort zone. As an international student I came to this course not knowing many people in London, and the course pushed me to make connections. In addition to Lewisham Council, I have now had the opportunity collaborate with various institutions like Climate Ed, Eco Action Games and the Carbon Literacy Team at UAL
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
This course is co-hosted and co-designed with the Kyoto Institute of Technology in Japan. What was it like spending time there?
Life in Kyoto is very different to London - from the food, culture, language, teaching methodologies so we had various culture shocks. We felt very welcomed by our peers, who helped us settle in, and showed us around to help us experience the culture. Through the middle of the city there is a beautiful river, and we would all go to the riverbanks and let off firecrackers and sit together and eat watermelon or traditional Japanese snacks. This helped us bond with our peers in Japan and, despite the language barrier, it allowed for us to enjoy and appreciate their culture.
Back in London, the course touches on more policy, theory, and service design, whereas when you are at KIT you gain technical experience for example, they have an amazing materials lab where I learnt sustainable material making, such as making kombucha and mushroom leather.
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
One of my favourite workshops I took part in while I was in Kyoto was with the School of Food Futures. It involved 3D printing food using leftover food waste. With mass production, some countries have high wastage of food, while other countries may not be able to afford vegetables or fruit. This workshop allowed the use of 3D printing technology to print affordable food using leftover food waste. For example, we 3D printed a tiny pumpkin using leftover pumpkin seeds and an avocado made with potato mash with a red bean filling. We collaborated with The Fab Café where our food was exhibited and sampled. This workshop really stood out to me, and it is something I would really like to take further.
Overall, this incredible experience has given me a profound understanding of the cultural differences in Japan. As I return to London to work on my graduation project, I now have the ability to relate and adapt it for a global audience.
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice
How has MA Global Collaborative Design Practice set you up for graduating, and what are your future plans?
MA Global Collaborative Design Practice involves real life projects, which help you gain an understanding in how the actual world works. The aim of my graduation project is to bridge the gap between individuals and their carbon footprints, and to do this me and my project partner Ozge Sahin produced a board game called Carboned OUT. This project led us to collaborate with partners externally such as Climate Ed and Eco Action Games who offered valuable insights into potential future career paths within the industry. Together, we have successfully been able to collaborate with the Carbon Literacy training of UAL to use Carboned OUT as an educational tool in their workshops and have had the opportunity to become carbon literacy trainers which has helped me understand the job opportunities in the real world even while studying on the course.
Through all my projects on this course, I feel I have been testing out where my interests really lie and identifying where the opportunities are. I have also taken part in student-led sessions, so we lead sessions with the new cohort coming through on MA Global Collaborative Design Practice, and this gives you that insight into teaching. I am still exploring this area, but I really enjoy teaching and it is something of interest to me.
But for now, taking this all into consideration my future plans are to stay in the UK and continue to gain amazing connections. As someone who has come from a developing country, the UK has a lot of different projects and an understanding of different technologies which can help with my future projects. I would then like to go back to India and maybe open my own company in the area of sustainable consultancy and climate education while still establishing connections and collaborations within the UK. I feel I will be able to use my learnings and expertise from the projects I focused on here and take them back to India.