Teaching Matters

Tinker Gym

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Teaching Matters | Presentation Details |

Title

Tinker Gym


Author(s)

Ms Lucy Bleach, Dr William Hart, Dr Jan Hogan


Presentation Goals

Through attending the session audience members will be introduced to the experimental and speculative approaches of the pilot learning and teaching experience. Session participants will be asked to consider the benefits of non-assessed learning experiences as part of programs of study, and the significance of collaboration, play and process-oriented activity towards generating ideas, new knowledge and understanding.


Subtheme

Course Blends


Presentation Type

Spotlight on Practice


Keywords

experimental learning, cross discipline collaboration, thinking through making


Room

Social Sciences 211


Time

14.05-15.05


Abstract

Tinker Gym (TG) is a pilot program at the Tasmanian College of the Arts that provides a new platform for 3rd Year Fine Arts students dedicated to open experimentation and innovative collaboration across studio disciplines. The TG pilot has been funded through a Teaching Development Grant, and offers an opportunity for students to value-add to their individual studio experience. The program fosters speculative play and problem solving activities to inform the development of students' graduating artworks.

At a time when contemporary creative practice thrives on cross-disciplinary and collaborative approaches, the student experience at the Tasmanian College of the Arts (TCotA) is structured around traditional studio modes of delivery, limiting students' potential to engage across studios with materials, process and approaches. 

This project has been developed to address several areas of need in the undergraduate teaching of creative arts in a changing pedagogical environment.

  • Understanding the role and importance of non-goal directed activity (tinkering) in creativity and its application to problem solving through synthesis
  • Also understanding that this type of 'play' or tinkering is not frivolous, but is an essential aspect of developing a sustainable career.
  • Efficient and effective use of resources by sharing workshop activities amongst different disciplines
  • Working creatively and constructively with others
  • Enriching undergraduate teaching by offering a diversity of experiences

Tinker Gym draws on the phenomena of the successful collaborative and experimental making spaces known as makerspaces and tinkering studios, established as community educational hubs around the world from internationally renowned art/science institutions such as the Exploratorium in San Francisco(The Tinkering Studio) and the ARS fablab in Linz (Ars Electronica Center), through to grass roots local communities. These hubs are universally recognised for their synchronous learning opportunities that engender playfulness, risk-taking, resourcefulness and responsiveness.   A key idea they share with traditional visual arts education is that of "thinking through making", that the process of making is an act of learning where the significance of the end result is not the artefact, or the development of skills or even just engaging in a mildly pleasurable activity, but engenders new understandings about the self and the world.

Due to its interdisciplinary focus and structure, Tinker Gym contributes to the learning and teaching for students and staff across the 3rd year cohort. The shared experience and learning feeds back into students' individual projects being developed within their elected studio major, whilst staff take the experience back into their teaching practices across undergraduate programs in their designated studio.

References

The Tinkering Studio, Experiments with science, art, technology, and delightful ideas. Exploratorium, San Francisco: http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/ 

Ars Electronica Center, Fab Lab, Linz: http://www.aec.at/u19/en/2012/07/13/happylab-%E2%80%93-vienna-fab-lab-goes-linz/

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