Pedagogy 2025
Abstract
“Without basic needs being met, students have little chance of succeeding academically” (Gbajobi 2025). We have observed our universities to be a site of dynamic relations, hemmed into rigid interfaces of compliance. In meeting the aims of modularised deliverables we strive to meet future goals, often without attunement to the present. We observe staff and students struggling to integrate their expectations of learning, professional requirements, and sustained wellbeing. It is from this understanding that our communication, collaboration and shared leadership practices depart. In order to embed a structure of wellbeing in teaching and learning activities, we draw on methods informed by Nonviolent Communication (NVC) techniques (Rosenberg 2015), (meenadchi 2021)*. Working with NVC has supported us to name and navigate disabling factors of the university (Oliver 1990). From here we explore ways to amplify and nurture marginalised positions, and provide a setting for community building, curiosity, and dynamic reflection. We will talk about how we’ve adapted NVC methods for an art and design context and integrated them into the curriculum, and how these are ongoing processes. By acting on the interconnection between needs for wellbeing, connection, and expression (as defined in NVC), and reflecting on decolonising analyses of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Harraway, Leguin 2019; Maslow 1946; Blood & Heavy Head 2007), NVC activities contextualise, inform and mobilise our understanding of the studio space and its participants.
Tara Langford is an artist, filmmaker and lecturer, and is currently Course Director at Leeds Beckett University. Langford has been Senior Lecturer at University of the Arts London and University of the Creative Arts, and holds an MA in fine Art from the Royal College of Art. She is founder of SHXCCS, and part of the collaborative art project Jadran Resort, which has recently been exhibited at the 32nd Nadežda Petrovič Memorial Beinnale, Croatia, Glej Theatre, Ljubljana, and MetaTheatre, Munich. She is also part of the filmmaking duo T&M Films, recipients of the BFI Network Funding in 2023.
Adam Gibons is an artist, writer and editor. Gibbons is the co-commissioning editor, with Eva Wilson, of the publication “ ”, an ongoing series of books about art, publishing and dissemination, and a founding member of the artist group Am Nuden Da. Gibbons teaches at London College of Communication on BA (Hons) Design for Art Direction. He completed an MFA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2017. Recent projects and exhibitions include the publication of “ ” #2 James Hoff / Marian Kaiser; #4 GCC; and #5 Badlands Unlimited (all NERO, Rome, 2018), accompanied by readings and discussions at Pro qm, Berlin; the NY Art Book Fair, MOMA PS1 New York; Tenderbooks, London; geh8 Kunstraum, Dresden; and the PrintRoom, Rotterdam. Exhibitions with Am Nuden Da include: RETROSPECTIVE w/ Tyler Coburn, Viola Yesiltaç, xxxxxxxxx at Chelsea Space, London (2017); and Micro Composition, curated by Cally Spooner, Reykjavík International Film Festival, Iceland (2017).
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Wednesday 19th November, 2025