VIRTUAL: Learning. Life. Work.

Abstract

Boundaries between disciplines have become fluid, and creative thinking is considered multimodal, transdisciplinary, and independent of domains. Therefore, we need a new kind of university that encourages hybrid, transdisciplinary exploration to break down barriers between disciplines and compartmentalised knowledge. Key to this is the physical learning environment. Hybrid learning requires hybrid learning environments. Having space to occupy, where students can make a mess and collaborate, is essential, and something currently diminishing within undergraduate education in the UK due to priority being placed on new corporate-looking buildings and hot-desking. To support hybrid learning, Higher Education needs to provide the mental and physical space to support imagination and creativity, where students can be comfortable to collaborate, experiment and fail. This paper discusses the new hybrid BA (Hons) Art and Design with Creative Technologies course at Birmingham City University. Located within a laboratory studio environment, the curriculum and space are specifically designed in tandem to support hybrid learning. The physical space visually represents the philosophy of the course, providing one environment that brings together the exploration of art, design, and creative digital technologies to allow for the necessary collisions and serendipity that innovative ideas creation now requires. Informed by PhD research situated within leading creative studios, and taking inspiration from innovative pedagogical models, the space is an incubator, a place of doing, that enables agility and iteration. Flexible and open, with making at its heart, the studio aims to support the next generation of creatives to think and work in more fluid ways.