Participation in International Winter School arranged by the Glasgow School of Art, The Innovation School. For the third time KADK students and faculty took part in the Winter School, January 2018. GSA writes: “The Winter School is one of the highlights of the GSA’s academic calendar. The two-week School brings together around 100 leading international design experts, researchers and students to the GSA’s Highlands and Islands Creative Campus in Moray, north of Scotland. Students and academics work with local businesses and communities to explore themes rooted in the local context but with global resonances”.
The GSA Highland Campus in Altyre, in the highlands and islands of Scotland.
Around 80 postgraduate students from the GSA’s Masters were joint by 10 students from KADK. Our students came from the Codesign Program and the Graphic Communication Design Program. 10 students participated from Köln International School of Design (KISD), and 10 students from Audencia Business School in France. The students worked in 17 mixed and trans-disciplinary groups.
From the brief – local narratives for creative economies
Winter School foregrounds collaborative design activities, which allow for the exploration of social, cultural, political and technological relationships across the Highlands & Islands. Participants will investigate innovation as a collaborative mode of enquiry, and compare different methodological approaches within the context of an international community of scholars. Here students, researchers and members of the public will interact through a design project involving talks, seminars, social events and field visits. Over two weeks, students will work together to develop a shared understanding of and response to everyday life in the Highlands & Islands.
This year Winter School will examine the potential contribution of social and cultural assets to the development of social and civic economies, to what is known as “inclusive growth.” Conventionally, economic theory focuses on financial modes of interaction and exchange, with an emphasis being placed on gross domestic product and rates of capital growth. While it is understood that these aspects will continue to frame economic activity, there is an opportunity to expand beyond such definitions. Accordingly, in seeking to establish a wider understanding of economics, it can be claimed that culture, too, can inform and generate new economies, which draw on narrative, play, social interaction, history and possibility. We suggest that engagements or interventions by designers, in collaboration with communities, social groups and cultural producers, offer the opportunity to construct creative dialogues leading to new modes of interaction and exchange, extending beyond the purely financial.
Apart from supervising the students Eva Brandt contributed with the talk: Between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ – when design (games) and ethnography meet’. Head of institute of Visual Design, Tine Kjølsen talked about: Message – type – image: or how to convey the message precisely.
See the final deliverables in the form of short 3-minutes video ‘pitches’
GSA Winter School 2018, final deliverables; 3 minute video “pitches”
To get a sense of the visions and ambitions with the Winter School and the new GSA campus in the highlands and islands of Scotland, some of the key people behind the initiative and students participating, the atmosphere and activities of the Winter School see video from Winter School, January 2017 (ca. 7 minutes)
The Brodie Castle and view from the Findhorn bay
Thank you to all for this wonderful experience!
