Thoughts in response to Dr Kirsten Hardie (2015) Wow: The power of object based learning:
Gone are the days of ‘learning things by heart’ or ‘learning by wrote’ in order to obtain knowledge. All-immersive object based learning – active learning – gives a chance for tactile and visual learners opportunity to engage with a subject by using carefully curated objects to colour the theoretical learning and make it more coherent.
Learning with objects is exciting, energising, and – if you’re used to objects and artefacts being revered behind museum cabinet glass – freeing. Why were objects made? For functional reasons, aesthetic reasons or both? Having objects to play with means you can explore the intentions and emotional responses to an object in a context of your choosing. The questions that arise from object based learning sessions are indicative as to the depths of their thinking about the objects and their context. Prompts are often provided, but it’s heartening to hear questions and comments being student-led.
I am keen to explore the idea of an object museum for my area of teaching. A collection of objects – theatrical props? – that students can access in order to assess their material properties under show lighting conditions, as well as looking at the objects sound properties, for example, in order to create sound effects or foley.
Being online is perhaps one of the trickier aspects of object based learning; unless we all have the same object under the same conditions to study, is there the same shared experience? Teamwork is also harder to encourage online, unless the tutor is adept at creating breakout rooms, but then again, in online breakout rooms we miss out on collective noises that the tutor can pick up on and quickly share thoughts and responses with the whole class.
I have chosen theatrical lighting for my object based learning. I’m not asking for specific objects to be used, rather, they have specific properties e.g. ‘lumps and bumps’ – something that will allow specific lighting angles and brightness to work with/against to provoke an emotional response. This forms the basis of learning about theatrical lighting design. Lighting design is there to aid the narrative of the story, helping to communicate to the audience (alongside other creative design areas such as sound and projection) the emotional response.
(Paule Constable, Lighting designer, talks about lighting War Horse (2013))
Teaching using domestic objects in this format has been incredibly valuable for complimenting theoretical teaching. Normally in the theatre, I would teach using theatrical lighting instruments, controlled by a lighting control board. Taking the practical teaching back to familiar domestic items might seem unusual at first, but it is intended to see objects as performative, and puts them under artificial but intentional lighting conditions, in exactly the same way we would do in the theatre.
A (very basic) introduction to theatrical lighting design
Aims of session:
To interpret a brief
To explore the differences between room and theatrical lighting
To communicate research
To gain experience in providing feedback
Outcome of session:
Students will create digital photographs evidencing their use of creative theatrical lighting. The images will be uploaded to this Padlet: https://artslondon.padlet.org/jhowcroft/3bhziycan2ly8ud3
Materials required:
Light source (torch, Anglepoise/table lamp)
Object of your choosing:
Something that isn’t ‘flat’ – something with lumps and bumps.
Something that isn’t too big and would sit comfortably on your work desk.
e.g. childrens’ soft toy, pair of headphones, vase with flowers
Smartphone/tablet for taking photographs
Session breakdown
Introduction to lighting design [3 minutes]
Why is lighting important? How does it help to tell a story?
Basic theatre lighting design theory plus image examples
Task explanation [2 minutes]
Students will pick on object to work with, preferably something that isn’t flat on all planes. They will be asked to:
1. Investigate the object in natural and/or usual room lighting conditions.
2. Take a base reference photograph.
3. Place the object in a space that can be darkened.
4. Gather your artificial light sources – table lamp, torches, candles even. Just make sure the light sources can stand up on their own for you to be able to take a photo.
(Darkening the room – This may mean drawing the curtains, shutting the blinds, closing doors. The aim is to have complete control of artificial lighting)
5. Imagine the object is in the centre of a sphere. Place your light sources at different angles around the imaginary sphere. A position chart, if required, is provided.
A brighter light may need to be further away from the object, and a dimmer light source may want to be closer to the object.
6. Before each change of position, note one or two emotional responses to the particular angle and intensity of light, and take a photograph for evidence of your research and investigation.
7. Transfer your images to your computer
8. Decide on one or two images to upload to Padlet.
(to upload to Padlet, click on the plus button in the lighting – objects column, add your name into the title area, then click on the upload button (arrow up symbol) to upload from your smartphone, tablet or computer)
Task and upload – can upload directly from smartphone [8 minutes]
Feedback [5 minutes]
We will explore the submitted photographs and submit one or two feedback comments – this is time dependant!
Time will be kept via stopwatch and verbal announcements/countdowns given.
For this object-based learning session, I intend to develop the following:
Observational skills
“When you angle the light in this particular way, what do I observe my emotional response to be?”
Design awareness and knowledge
There will be a very short introduction to theatrical lighting design at the start of the session
Communication
The outcomes the students create will be evidenced in digital photo form and uploaded to a Padlet board. Students (and tutors) will be encouraged to leave positive and/or constructive comments on each others work.
Aesthetic judgement
“What is my individual aim, and how can I find an image that reflects this?”
Analytical skills
Time management is an important factor in this short session. Although students are encouraged to play and experiment, they must also be decisive in their work and upload their images in a timely manner. They must also be prepared to provide group feedback, more for fellow student encouragement sake that a crit-style feedback session.
Understanding of key concepts
A very simple aim of this session is to understand that flat front lighting is unattractive and unappealing. Using theatre lighting techniques will aid storytelling in picture form. Although I will be using analogue skills in this session, the skills can be translated into digital formats, for example, using lighting functions in Photoshop, SketchUp and Blender.
Research skills
The session is all about students looking at their objects, or themselves, in a different light/a new perspective. Student may want to use existing lighting images for inspiration, but the exploration should happen quite organically.
What happens when we put our objects or ourselves on a theatre stage? What narrative do we want to tell, and how do we use lighting to do this?
The session will hopefully inspire further thought and experimentation (including the use of colour and textures) and I will reference further research in the ‘show and tell’ section, along with useful online resources for lighting design.
Examples of images and quick descriptions expected to see from this micro-teach:
Base image, under room lighting conditions Top lighting, harsh, missing features Side lighting, soft, gentle, visible
featuresLighting from underneath, spooky, specific
Previous examples of an online lighting session I have carried out with BA Theatre Design (year 1 students) in a longer session, using a system of short, achievable tasks and using Padlet to upload their work to:
The ability to comment on work is extremely valuable. Here, both tutors and students are able to comment positively – even something simple ‘I like this’ surface comments through to in-depth thoughts / ways of relating. This opens up more avenues of conversation for tutor/student and student/student, and assess as to whether instructions are understood or not. I have found it takes a surprising amount of time to make each comment – particularly when assessing 3 minute sound work submissions – but feedback is always vital, even if it’s just for the student to look back on and see what they/a tutor picked up on or even their own personal journey.
Outcome of microteach session
Materials
Link to session padlet: https://artslondon.padlet.org/jhowcroft/3bhziycan2ly8ud3
Link to microteach video: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/539190873
Reflections
On the day, I felt this whole block of microteaching (involving all students) was exciting, and I was very prepared to learn something valuable not only about art in its many applicable forms, but about the myriad of ways art is effectively communicated and taught.
Perhaps I was too ambitious in aiming to teaching basic lighting design in 20 minutes, and perhaps this is still the case, but I was interested in getting students to potentially experience something very new. There are few courses at UAL that teach lighting, let alone lighting for the stage, so I felt comfortable that this would likely be a new experience.
I tried to plan this session out with military precision, and during the session, I did keep to time (that’s the stage manager in me!). Any practical sessions I teach are precisely timed, otherwise it’s entirely possible to ‘make the job fit the time’. This also encourages students to remain engaged and commit to the task.
With carefully chosen words, I felt I taught basic theory well with some thoughtfully chosen real-world examples and a thorough explanation of the task. The aim was for students up and about (getting the blood flowing after a lengthy seated time), learning through making and investigation – synchronous yet with agency. What was exciting about the task was the variation in responses and the individual emotional attachment the students would feel to a particular combination of object and lighting.
When we came back together as a group to look at the task results (see photos above), students were very positive about each others work, highlighting the sense of positive community these types of sessions can produce. Hopefully my own enthusiasm for each student came across. If a student puts as much energy as possible into a task, it’s only fair that I return the energy. If the work has been mis-interpreted, I think it’s important to constructively suggest ways of being able to next time carry out the task in the defined way but also be positive about what has been created (as this may help to work out whether the task instructions or resources need amending.
The feedback I received was overwhelming positive:
“I appreciated the PowerPoint to give us a bit of background into theatre lighting design.”
“Good active session – good to come away with something concrete at the end of things.”
“Great to give a sense of agency to students working online.”
“Great info on padlet – thanks for sharing.”
“Creating possibilities to do this at home – teaching the principles.”
…and some constructive feedback:
“You managed to fit in a lot of interesting ideas and activity into the time we had, could maybe of needed a shorter introduction give more time into the practical activity.”
“Enjoyable activity . Too much time at the beginning introducing the task and ran out of time at the end.”
I was very grateful for the feedback received. I appreciate there was a lot of information to absorb in the teaching section of this microteach, so in future I will aim to streamline the information and make sure only information that needs to be there is there. Perhaps some of the information can be obtained through research instead.
I was very appreciative of the students that put their trust into this exercise and engaged fully, creating a very active response section in this microteach.
I am particularly inspired by Olivia Hegarty’s microteach, where she asked students to pick two verbs for another student in the session, which had to be applied physically to a piece of recycling (in the context of wearable items). I enjoyed the quick-fire but deep reaching thought processes, and how seemingly abstract verbs could be applied in a productive way, as well as giving thought to sustainability in making. Olivia’s microteach has definitely informed some of my sessions, encouraging me to look a little more beyond functionality and into abstract concepts, and always to consider sustainability in processes.
I also really enjoyed Frankie Gouliard’s microteach. The pace of the session was excellent, and she really gained my trust. I felt the words she spoke unfolded like a story. She was very personal and very open in this session. I felt I wanted to be a better student for her because of it.