Professing Practice
Professing Practice is a joint endeavour between GSA and the Glasgow Clyde College Associate Student Scheme which represents one of the multiple pathways that helps enable enrolment at GSA. One of the aims of this scheme widening access for Scottish-domiciled students and providing equal opportunities for college students. This project is one of the touchpoints of this relationship, which culminates in a one-day workshop between 5th year Product Design students and the design-focused associate students. The project has been around for a number of years, but 2020 had to address a new set of circumstances and respond to new learning environments and explore tools for remote engagement.
This year, four GSA students from the Masters’ of European Design co-designed and led two working sessions remotely. The first focused on a co-learning experience, arming participants with vocabulary and encouraging the process of doing, reflecting and iterating through visual language to express their own practice and skills. The second introduced a diverse overview of the design field as well as offering perspectives about what it means to work in different design environments. Both sessions encouraged the student participants to develop a level of criticality and to understand that creativity and inspiration can be generated from unusual routines.
“Each year the MEDes students approach this project in a new and innovative way. This was the first group challenged by a fully online delivery of the workshops and they coped incredibly well by making the most of the technology available to them. They put the students at ease immediately which helped them to fully engage with the tasks they were set. The workshops were well considered, touched on a range of issues specific to the student group and were delivered with empathy and enthusiasm”
Elizabeth Beidler, Progression Manager, GSA
