By adapting to challenges posed by the current landscape, teams and tutors were able to rethink ways of engaging with post-16 students to grow their creative aspirations.
The Insights Spring Schools are the first in a calendar of wider seasonal activities run by the UAL Outreach team in conjunction with each of the University's Colleges. These free programmes are designed to help post-16 students develop their skills and experience as young creatives so they can progress to their chosen subjects at University.
Usually, students attend four days of rotational workshops during the Easter holidays, where they can explore College facilities and find out more about individual subject areas before creating a final showcase of work. In the midst of the 2020 Global Pandemic, however, the Insights Team were faced with the need to translate this approach to the virtual space.
"Flexible and achievable"
Crucially, this year's programme of activities needed to be accessible to students from their homes, and presented in both a flexible and achievable format. Most importantly, the Team wanted to develop something that was able to fuel students’ creative energy, confidence and potential in what continues to be a challenging time.
One of the keys to the 2020 digital approach to Spring Schools was the use of Padlet, an online project planner and bulletin board. Students and tutors were able to collaborate, share ‘how-tos’ and engage with feedback through the secure, password-protected platform. Additionally, they were also able to harness its functionality as a virtual exhibition space to display their final work.
Student Gallery
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Image credit: Sophia, Spring Schools participant.
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Image credit: Sophia, Spring Schools participant.
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Image credit: Oliver, Spring Schools participant.
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Image credit: Farone, Spring Schools participant.
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Image credit: Farone, Spring Schools participant.
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Image credit: Lucia, Spring Schools participant.
“Very nicely detailed and quite useful”
Over the course of the programme, students worked on a range of project briefs including:
- Stop Motion, where they created animated sequences using smartphones and household objects.
- Book of Me, where they developed visual guides to themselves.
- Augmented Reality, where they developed face filters using Spark AR.
- Visual Narrative, where they developed an A3 comic strip.
- Home Studio Portrait, where they were challenged to create a styled photograph of their household.
Students were also given the opportunity to create flip books and pixelated animations; develop social media campaigns, logos and effective storyboards for film and TV; use found objects to consider art direction; venture out on ‘Type Safari’; and write articles, create advertising posters and capture still life.
Hinna created two stop-motion animation films using everyday items from around her home. She appreciated the opportunity to receive feedback from tutors at LCC.
“It was very nicely detailed and quite useful,” she said.
“I shall take on board everything Mat [Denney] suggested. I also wanted to say thank you very much to UAL for hosting such insight courses. I feel they really help people like me decide which course is right for them.”
"The huge amount that's possible to achieve with limited resources"
Dhruv and Emilia used an augmented reality app to develop their own face filters.
“It was a wonderful opportunity,” said Emilia, an opinion which was echoed by Dhruv:
“I got invested and learnt a bit, created some photoshop animations and made my project in one day," he said,
"Thanks for showing me this!”
Nicola Francis, LCC graduate and Associate Lecturer in Animation, was a member of the teaching team who offered their support and guidance to students on the Spring Schools.
“It was inspiring to see what the students made and how creative they could be in a potentially stressful time,” she said.
“I think the way the Spring Schools have adapted showcases the huge amount that's possible to achieve with limited resources. I hope this course encourages the students to continue experimenting at home.”
Jacqueline Chambers, College Outreach Manager at LCC, explained that the current circumstances presented an opportunity to redesign the Spring Programme and reach students by embracing the power of virtual platforms.
“Thanks to our LCC tutors, students were able to experiment at home with do-able creative tasks that took them anything from 30 minutes to half a day to produce using only minimal resources found around the home,” she said.
“Over four days, we released 19 PDF tasks via email across a range of LCC subjects, all with links to artist references and our Insights website, providing articles, guides and How Tos. In doing this, we actively encouraged students to explore subjects and processes new to them which ranged across both analogue and digital. They could build home studios for illustration and photography tasks, as well as animate, make videos or create augmented reality outcomes by accessing free app technology on their smartphones.
"The results of the Spring Schools have generated surprising, humorous, detailed and often moving responses unique to lockdown and the world our students are having to navigate now. We’re showcasing their work through an online Padlet designed and edited by GMD undergraduate and experienced Outreach Ambassador, Eliza Gromova-Gulbe, who is currently undertaking her year-long Diploma in Professional Studies (DPS). Using a digital platform like Padlet has allowed us to publish peer outcomes across the Insights group and offer feedback from tutors.”
Related links:
- Explore the Insights website.
- Find out more about partnerships across Outreach and UAL Insights.
- Follow UAL Insights on Instagram.
