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This week, I started conducting an in-person activity which came along with the idea from the ‘Ask the Community’ part of my communication chain intervention. I wanted to add a direct way of helping them to solve their problems with an interactive Q&A activity. I felt like I could also do an in-person version to gain a wider range of feedback from more people easily by creating a way of doing a Q&A activity using some cardboards inspired by the incising and lifting technique for surface design. I hope it would be a way of gaining more industry feedback from the experts by showcasing those questions in an interactive way for acquiring engagement with the question in the festival that will be held to display our work officially. Furthermore, it would be a chance for industry people to ask questions about creative international students or graduates as well, becoming a bridge for them to know each other. For the first board, I asked students inside of the campus in the library, or the other common spaces. Most of the participants are international students except for one home student. From what I’ve collected shows besides the networking, financial concern is also worried a lot by either international students or home students. In this situation, also proved that international students or graduates have double fear financially because of the rising visa fee.

Inspiration-Incising and lifting technique

Reflection on making process

At first, I was not sure about what kind of design I should apply in this activity. Before the incising and lifting idea came out, I wanted to create a paper chain based on the idea for my previous intervention. So I tested the idea of making a paper chain that allows people to write down their question and answer on it, one hoop for question connecting another hoop for answer. people can join their hoop to any question hoop by disconnecting the hoop that is attached by hook &loop velour tape and joining them to that question. (figure 1) However, I found might be not the most attractive way of presenting this idea with just characters on it. I decided to use this idea for presenting the collaborative necklace to display at the festival. The audiences can see their individual work directly because they can be unrolled by just disconnecting it. Instead of just printing out the result from the mural, it could be a more interesting way to engage and see it.

On Wednesday’s drop-in tutorial with Zuleika, I shared my latest intervention which was participated by the diverse backgrounds of stakeholders. I introduced how they could learn together and communicate by sharing practices and knowledge using the form of a community of practice. With the idea that people with different backgrounds could learn and inspire each other, like people with fashion backgrounds could inspire people do Fine Art, Zuleika advised me to find examples of forming collective practice from diverse backgrounds, which I think I still lack resources for studying it in order to gain more in-depth background knowledge. Below are some sentences I use as an reference of the ideas and purposes for collective practice. It show the influence and effect that collective practice made. I think it leads me to think about an interesting sides of collective activity which also about contradiction and nonhuman entities. It helps me to open a different side that the behaviors in a communication could also have a different effects outside of the context we were planning to communicate and the networking will be enlarge when they have each other’s networks which mentioned by Seema.

There are two articles refer to the concept of collective practice:

-Collective practices create ways of sharing experiences, co-producing knowledge, and relating to one another, centering connection, understanding, and solidarity—but they can also generate friction and contradiction.-By futuress, 2023

-They are qualified by terms like participation, group, collectivity, ensemble, collaboration, community, cooperation, sharing, assembly, commons, networks. Collective practices exist in all societies and they have a rich yet complex heritage in arts, politics and sciences. Often considered as a strictly human activity, collective practices can also be performed with or by nonhuman entities, such as animals, plants or Artificial Intelligence. -By Council. art

Reference

Council. art, collective practice, available at: http://www.council.art/inquiries/1383/collective-practices

Futuress (2023), swiss art council, available at: https://futuress.org/learning/lets-talk-collective-practices-2/

Until today, I have nine participants who have joined my intervention-communication tool including jewellery designer, painter, textile designer, curator, graphic designer, and 3D designer. The group interactions help build a special form of creative chemistry with co-creation by showing their creative artwork that introduces their individual practice or personal identity. Questioning and giving feedback on each other and for themselves could help solve practical problems and reflect on reality with the concerns and needs of participants.

Mural is the platform I used to create this intervention and it can allow the participants to interact on it at the same time as it is a collaborative tool. At first, I was concerned about whether it would not be convenient for participants to access because they need to sign up as a member and it could lead to a problem of limiting the willingness of the participation. I talked about this concern on the drop-in tutorial this week but Richard said the function of signing up could also prevent the problem of letting everyone access it even though I don’t want to. I started using this platform by sending invitations through emails.

Collect the questions in different categories

These are the questions I collected so far from the third part of my intervention. I classified the questions into three categories- motivation, co-creation, and culture & empowerment. From the questions, we can see the participants have a specific interest in staying motivated as creative individuals such as advertising themselves, jobs, and industry resources according to the first category of questions shown in the form. The second category shows that some of the participants are looking for collaboration, which reflects that collaboration is a way to empower their passion for learning in the industries and networking. Finally, there is still some evidence concerning about language barrier and cultural differences that were also mentioned in the interviews I did with most of the interviewees.

Last week, I decided to meet someone who has expertise in supporting creative graduates for their further journey and transition after graduation. I want to know more about perspectives of how the UK’s organizations such as universities would know about the challenges international creative graduates face except for the local graduates and how they provide help and support to them, I contacted the graduate support team and got a chance to talk to the Graduate Employability Support Manager of UAL Seema Shoor.

I started with a question about her understanding of the challenges that international creative graduates may face when they are adapting to the UK creative industries.

Here are three points she talked about about her understanding of challenges

-Lack of Experience

She made a comparison of international graduates and home graduates that reflects the fact that international graduates have less experience than UK home graduates because many home graduates already had part-time job experience when they were 16 or 17, they got an understanding of how to apply for the job and they know more about the what they want to go forward. It is important for them to help international graduates know about what clues they are looking for.

-Three big aspects

The first one is understanding of where to look forward, the second is understanding of how to look forward, and the third one is understanding of how to sale yourself.

-Visa challenges

To know when should they apply for the Graduate Route Visa and make the decision.

My reflection on this conversation

I realized that from the perspective of Seema, the challenges international graduates probably face are between time limitations, Decision-making, and hands-on experience. She talked about the general problems that international graduates might face during their transition from being a student to being a graduate. She knows that without guidance for the understanding of how to take those actions, there would be challenges among these actions. After the discussion with Seema, I think I should test more about the challenges of decision-making with my stakeholders because when I was talking to some of the graduates, they always had concerns about their future decisions. These concerns might be also related to the lack of experience and the time limitation. I think it would be helpful for their adaptation journey with a better understanding of making their decision.

We have also discussed building a professional network which is considered as one of the most important abilities for international graduates. Accordingly, it is critically valuable for graduate students who are not only advancing their professions but also looking for opportunities to expand their knowledge and competence. (Angela, 2013) She gave me some inspiration which I think could become my references for developing the ideas for my intervention based on the realistic cases happening now for example the alumni searching tool on LinkedIn, the Graduate Employability Support site of UAL, and the Alumni Association.

Mutual engagement suggests that members jointly engage in discussion, dialogue, and exchange by means of their physical co-presence and goal orientation. This engagement could include problem-solving, requests for information, discussion of developments, information seeking and coordination, planning, or negotiation of meaning. (Nicole Mills, 2023)

As my third intervention became a community of practice with the role of communication tool for a group of multidisciplinary creative graduates to get together with the purpose of solving problems and learning with each other, mutual engagement could become a way of supporting their communication with each other, everyone could build up a mentorship and creating collaboration with co-location.

Case of online communication

Online discussions and interactions may promote such language socialization in addition
to the co-construction of knowledge and contextualized L2 interaction (Murphy & Loveless, 2005).

Online discussions and interactions may promote such language socialization in addition
to the co-construction of knowledge and contextualized L2 interaction (Murphy & Loveless,
2005). Studies suggest that computer-mediated communication increases language production, encourages target language use, increases students’ willingness to communicate, and
decreases teacher dominance and language learner anxiety (Gilbert, Fiske, & Lindzey, 1998; Beauvois, 1998).

I found this case interesting because it reminded me of the lesson I had before which talked about the insider and outsider of the project. The students here are the insiders of learning language, however, I feel like I as a creator of the communication could become the “outsider” in the community of practice, however, the tool I create would still be beneficial to the “insiders” without me getting involved in the activities. When international graduates start their new journey in creative industries, it will become a more independent learning process with the responsibilities of themselves. It is important for them to get involved with the mutual engagement as an individual and benefit from learning and communicating from the engagement.

Reference

Nicole Mills (2013), Situated Learning through Social Networking Communities: The Development of Joint Enterprise, Mutual Engagement, and a Shared Repertoire available at https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/calicojournal.28.2.345.pdf?casa_token=C7VpcKOu_34AAAAA:gjPHVNqggMW9maA2y6wfs7t8n9JNC7usoruietuhF9eUGfLBUiHyveGnN0JW7NjAuPsRUDRwjIx5pLv5JNATeV2vGupAH71rQImzMgq2s9CSHtSJNY9H

This week, I have the second Dragon Den presentation with Dominic Stone and Emily Zak. In this presentation, I presented my project without PowerPoint slides or any other visualization to support my presentation. I felt worried about how I could explain my project clearly without any visual support within 3 minutes, but it turned out quite clear to deliver my message and ideas to two experts and Zuleika as well so it was a great pitching experience for me.

Dominic was the first one who talked about his opinion of my project. He mentioned that creative industries are using the talent and resources of international creative individuals reminded me of when I thought about the responsibilities for the adaptation of creative graduates in unit three. We both have common sense about this. Therefore, I decided to talk about this situation with another expert Seema, the graduate employability support manager for opinions about this. Another dragon Emily advised that the range of my stakeholders could be more specific, for example, she thinks different creative graduates should have different problems and challenges for getting into the industries. I felt the same when I was doing my project in unit three and I was really tangled about whether should I only choose people expertise in the same creative industry, however, I blurred the boundaries between different creative individuals because I wanted to create the function of making creativity become diversity and learning without boundaries. However, I will research more about art and design creative graduates to learn about the differences and specific problems they have because I only focus on this group of stakeholders.

When I heard they feedbacked to other students, Emily talked about the word “mentorship”. She talked about how this could be meaningful to the project like mine and some others in my group, although people seem to ignore who is the mentor because they think anyone could be a mentor once they have experience. I feel like this is an interesting thing to me because mentorship is helpful for my project, and there are different ways of mentorship could be like in my project, both for creative graduates themselves who presented the mentorship with each other and mentorship for me.

Today I listened to a podcast from Gradcast: Real Stories from UAL. The speaker is a graduate of UAL and has started her career journey in the UK creative industries. She found that it is hard to go straight to the creative industry without many experiences as a fresh graduate, which takes her to a long journal to hunt for a job throughout the summer. The speaker of the podcast above comes from a background in fashion design, who is graduated from the London College of Fashion and majoring in Fashion design technology: womenswear. She shared her opinion about how important she thinks of building up her LinkedIn, especially for connecting the big house(big fashion company). In the podcast, she gave advice for the new graduates with her personal experience: “As a black woman, I have something relevant to say, have a perspective I can bring on, just believe in yourself. Keep an eye out for what is inspiring you because you are new to this industry, be a broker and show your identity.”

I noticed the courage from what she said in this podcast, courage is a universally admired virtue and we always need courage to fight with our fear and challenge the uncertainties. And I realize that courage is intimately related to mental and behavioral states when international creative graduates are taking uncertain actions. How can international creative graduates use courage to manage their mindset and challenge the uncertainties?

Aristotle believed that an individual develops courage by doing courageous acts (Aristotle, trans. 1962), and there is current support for the suggestion that courage is a moral habit to be developed by practice (Cavanagh & Moberg, 1999). The view is compatible with Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy in which successful performances (even vicarious ones) strengthen an expectation of further success (Bandura, 1977). Individuals are more likely to face a situation and attempt to cope with it if their previous experience gives them reason to believe they can meet the challenge. -(Ben Dean Ph.D. 2023)

Ben Dean (2023), Courage, https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/newsletters/authentichappinesscoaching/courage

Today, we had the tutorial started with the theme of Writing your Unit Four Evaluative Report. We have discussed the outline for the report shown in the Unit Four assessment brief- YOUR QUESTION, WHAT, WHY, HOW, CONCLUSION. We talked about the data analysis from primary research including qualitative and quantitative data analysis as part of the background research to demonstrate the reason and value of the project. In my project, I mainly used quantitative data analysis by conducting a series of interviews with stakeholders and experts in Unit Three. I realize how the data analysis would help me not only gain evidence but also look for a better understanding of my stakeholders for my next action research engaging with them.

Next plan:

-To conduct more action/primary research, interview with experts/stakeholders, or release an intervention to gain more quantitative and qualitative data.

-Release a new intervention, “The Necklace” Co-Collaborative project.
–Contact Gradsupport@arts.ac.uk. Talk to the grad Support team for feedback.

During the tutorial, I shared my next plan for intervention which I have talked about in the call with Cynthia. I tried to bring my jewellery design perspective in my project which Cynthia thought was a good idea to also conclude my own practice as well. I explained my ideas for “The Necklace” to the group and received a question from Richard: what does success mean to you and what will the stakeholders gain after the intervention? I think it is a good question for me because my main goal for this intervention is to help creative graduates connect with the UK creative industries. At this moment, I can think of two main purpose which is networking and showcasing the message they want to express to the UK creative industries. However, it makes me think about what is the definition of success in this project? After releasing my intervention, I hope to open more possibilities of the routes to achieve their goals, with the relationship built within different areas and the power of creative communication.

Furthermore, Richard mentioned Community of Practice after he heard my idea of this intervention, which is the concept that was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger. Members are brought together by joining in common activities and by ‘what they have learned through their mutual engagement in these activities’ (Wenger 1998). Its concept can fairly relate to my intervention in that I provide a space for them to share practice, not just a space for doing the same activity together like a community of interest or a geographical community.

Community of Practice

-According to Etienne Wenger (1998), a community of practice defines itself along three dimensions:

What it is about- its joint enterprise as understood and continually renegotiated by its members.

How it functions- mutual engagement that bind members together into a social entity.

What capability it has produced- the shared repertoire of communal resources (routines, sensibilities, artifacts, vocabulary, styles, etc.) that members have developed over time. (see, also Wenger 1999: 73-84)

The domain– A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. (You could belong to the same network as someone and never know it.)

The community– In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other; they care about their standing with each other.

The practice– A community of practice is not merely a community of interest–people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. 

Reference

Etienne and Beverly Wenger-Trayner, 2015, Introduction to communities of practice https://www.wenger-trayner.com/introduction-to-communities-of-practice/

Developing theory and practice: Creation of a Community of Practice through Action Research produced excellence in stroke care Cherry k. Lin p. etc https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-three-essential-elements-of-a-community-of-practice-shown-in-the-middle-column_fig1_346701269

Concept of Interculturality

After investigating the individual experiences in terms of the adaptation challenges through the interviews, I realise that most of them are aware of the differences of cultural is part of the challenges for adaptation they are facing especially when they need to communicate with someone or a group of people. International creative individuals in the UK creative industries mean that they will bring the diverse backgrounds and knowledges in creativity to communicate with the UK creative industries, which also bring a challenge of cross-cultural adaptation that I mentioned in the unit three. For investigating more about how to communicate better with a diverse cultural group, I tried to explore the concept of interculturality to see how it could apply in the cultural communication in this project. To give a interpretation- The term “interculturality” understood as the relations that exist between culturally diverse human groups in a given society, is a complex one currently used to refer to the relations that exist within society between diverse majority and minority constellations defined in terms not only of culture but also of ethnicity, language, religious denomination, and/or nationality. (Dietz, 2018)

Intercultural communication competence(ICC)

The adaptation abilities require the ability of networking and being able to communicate with people having a different cultural background than you. The intercultural communication competence is a ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in various cultural contexts.

Below’s image is five dimensions of Intercultural Communicative Competence

Cross culture communicating in Art case study

The designer Guarnaccia of the Cross cultural Chair project collaborate with designers from some countries in the world to produce ‘local chair’. This could be one of my case study for intervention because it is about a co-creation project that brings creativity together from different areas around the world. With the purpose of using chair to analyze the concept of sitting with different perspectives based on different cultural background. In my point of view, it also provided a platform for cultural communication that within the same context of “chair”, people would get to know each other’s culture and learn about the differences. It also reminds me that co-creation could not just to be a collaboration of creating art, but it could like people to understand that it is interesting and valuable to communicate with different cultures which will give you a open-minded mind when you are trying to engage with a new environment which is mentioned by the attitude that intercultural communication competence needs.

Dietz, G. (2018) Interculturality, Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327455124_Interculturality

https://open.lib.umn.edu/communication/chapter/8-4-intercultural-communication-competence/#:~:text=Intercultural%20communication%20competence%20(ICC)%20is,appropriately%20in%20various%20cultural%20contexts.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/tger.12211