A Focus on Pedagogy

Abstract

This paper discusses the art and design method of collage and its efficacy as a trans-disciplinary learning and teaching technique that can be delivered remotely while living through a pandemic and the restrictions of a national lockdown. Collage is a method for making artworks by pasting together desperate elements, such as printed matter or digital images, to make a relatively unified image. Trans-disciplinary learning integrates perspectives from a range of different disciplines, going beyond a given students subject discipline, and should enable students to draw on these perspectives to gain a deeper understanding of their discipline. This was managed through a five-week collage project that was delivered remotely to second year degree students while they were isolating during the Covid19 pandemic lockdown in Wales UK during its second wave in 2020. The collage project, titled Digital Collage Universe, was designed so that students could fulfil their trans-disciplinary learning needs while staying at home. This involved students working through three ‘Collage Challenges’ that enabled them to work alone as well as a collaborative group with their peers from different discipline areas while having to maintain strict social distancing, isolation, and quarantine rules. The use of MS Teams as a platform to create a digital Collage Gallery that acted as a visual forum enabling students to share their work and learn from each other will be described, including examples of the collage art works shown in the gallery. The conclusion will draw on students’ feedback to discuss the ways in which they were able to draw on knowledge and skills acquired in their discipline areas and to apply it in a trans-disciplinary collaborative fashion to create visually striking collages that met the learning outcomes of the project.