One of the things students most like about our studio and atelier (the part of the studio with equipment) is that it’s student run (our technician is a third year student on another course, and has had previous supporting technicians who are also students on this course). My interviewee also noted that students feel more free to experiment and try things out when the tutors who will be grading them are not in the room.
“Yeah, I know that the students like is that it’s like student run. That’s some positive feedback that I have received, that you know, it’s a pretty easygoing environment. Judgment free. They’re not as afraid to make any kind of mistakes — they might be a little bit more intimidated to try things out in front of a lecturer, just as far as self consciousness goes.”
The first term it’s always really slow to get started, in terms of students using the space, and this applies across all three year groups.
“Like the first term is always very slow to get started. And to be fair, it’s even even it’s the same for students in their second and third year. So even a second or third year student who would have been more engaged towards their second or third term after the summer, they kind of reset”
This interviewee believes that the hardest thing to establish is a culture and community in the working space. We both reflect that it will be interesting to find out how one of our neighbouring courses has managed it so successfully year after year.
That’s the thing that I believe is the hardest thing to kind of establish, that like, working culture and community of a space. The community of the course is the hardest thing to nurture and cultivate. That’s a great question for [other course leader who I am yet to interview]. You know, because if you look across across the hall [to that course’s space], you see these students in there. Every day until they get kicked out. There’s, there’s always someone there when I’m leaving, and most of the time it’s not even staffed.
I find myself wondering whether a studio NOT being staffed is actually appealing to the students, though there’s no denying our students enjoy our technician (my interviewee)’s presence.
Part of the challenge with our space is that because of the machinery in the space, it has been mandated that we have a staff member in the space at all times when students are using it. The machinery is an amazing thing to have, but do the requirements that come with it limit how our students enjoy and use the space?
The problem is that we’ve been kind of told that there has to be a technician in that room just based on the equipment that’s in there. That’s it. But if there was a way that we could allow the students to just use the room. Even when there’s no technician in there.
Our technician’s view is that a greater degree of trust in the students using the space would go a long way towards opening it up, from less of a staff presence, through to, for example, leaving some cheap speakers out (rather than locking them away) for the students to use
I mean, there’s such a slim likelihood, I think of anyone like doing anything malicious. I mean, obviously there’s there’s the potential, but I mean if you kind of account for the potential of every person who could be, no one would get anything done ever. You know, you kind of have to just trust people.
We reflected on the role of peer influence on students use of the space, and the way that popular students can influence others to use the space more:
Yeah, I mean also to give you an idea, I’d say that there’s like certain students who are kind of influential to their peers in a way. And they aren’t here this year ’cause, they’re doing DPS (placement year). Or they’re doing other things similar to DPS. So without those kind of influencers, maybe that is kind of preventing the encouragement of the students to come in
And also on how the space is not used or personalised to its full potential (for example through things like hanging work, playing music) etc.
There’s a lot that they could do that they don’t. Maybe it takes some kind of role model showing them that, oh, I can do this, you know. We just need people in there using the space.
The idea that ‘there a lot they could do that they don’t’ really resonated with me, and we talked more about the kinds of things the students could be doing in the space, along with, potentially, the reasons why they don’t (some of it coming down to shyness, some down to unwritten rules, and some down to not seeing anyone else doing the things). I mentioned that, when it comes to, for example, playing my own choice of music, if I was a student, I’d be worried about upsetting other people…
I’m in the camp of thinking that people kind of just need to own the space, even if it means that some people might be a little bit uncomfortable. Not not not that I want anyone to be uncomfortable. But I mean, people are always gonna be uncomfortable. No matter what you do, you know. So thinking not to do something because you’re worried about, like slightly offending someone. I mean, you know how to avoid outright doing something like rude or belligerent. But when it comes to just like ‘maybe they won’t like this type of music’, as long as it’s not overtly offensive, then people are just gonna get over it. But it kind of takes someone with a little bit more guts to to do that. To kind of encourage others that they can do the same. But that’s when you start to to get to know each other a little bit more personally and I guess to to kind of just foster this sense of community.
We talked a lot more about studio culture and the key ingredients that go into building this — I asked this interviewee about their experiences in professional settings, and we reflected that there’s a big difference because companies tend to recruit people based on company culture, and it’s challenging when such a diversity of students with different personalities, needs and wants from the space come together. We talked about the kinds of activities that can build that sort of culture and community, and my interviewee recalled some previous experiences on our course a few years ago:
Where we would have some kind of like more technical hands on workshop. And we would order food, go to Sainsbury’s, grab tons of snacks and just kind of like. Have like a easy going. Not not put a party, but it’s not too far off from one either.
They suggested that having scheduled studio sessions which offer an especially social space might be beneficial
Even just like if you said like Wednesdays, guys, we have snacks in the in the space Wednesday snacks. Bring your friend some other courses if you want to. Come hang out. You are encouraged to work on your projects though, so it’s not just doing anything you want.
When talking about what students get out of the space, we wondered whether there need to be benefits above and beyond simply providing a workspace. That said, my interviewee reflected that for them:
I find tremendous value, because I have such a cramped home space, and as I learn more about myself and my ADHD, I know that like having a a big clean space is like so helpful for my mind to work. Like a big clean space and I can just like spread out, write stuff down. Allow the chaos of my mind to kind of spill out without feeling cramped and cluttered. It’s so helpful.
It’s interesting that my interviewee notes that ‘as they have learned more about themselves and their ADHD’ — many of our students still don’t know what works for them workspace wise. I know that when I was an undergrad it took me until my third year to realise that I actually did work better in the studio than at home.
I asked my interviewee for a bit more detail about how students use the space, they reflected:
Most of the time, they have headphones on, kind of just in their own world doing their own thing. Quite often, if they are here, they are here to work. So they do want that. I think when they are here, they’re here to get what they can’t get from the library. The library for me personally, which I’m sure is shared a shared sentiment of them as well, is that it’s too loud, you know, and even even when you go to a quiet space, it’s like you don’t have a lot of space to work. There’s too many distracting things going on. People walking around you know. Despite being quiet, there’s still the the noises of just people living. And I think too many visual things going on. Now obviously it’s not like this is a completely blank space. It’s not. But I think there’s still a lot less going on in the space like this. But obviously that also kind of contradicts like the whole culture behind the space. I do think more people would benefit if there was more collaborative work going on, rather than the occasional person or two working in silence. We often have 3 or 4 students, but we have 100 students on the course — ideally you want 20 students in here all the time.
It’s a dilemma, because while the small number of students who do use the space often value it for the quiet it offers, making it busier would inherently remove this. On balance my interviewee fell in favour of cultivating a more buzzy studio culture, on the basis that this would overall benefit more of our students, and foster more of the collaboration that, in their view, is what university is all about.
At the end of the day, you’re not doing an online course. You know you’ve come to university where you’re in this shared space and you are encouraged to collaborate. And I think that is really what’s special about university — the opportunity to collaborate and to get to know different perspectives and to be able to kind of like bounce ideas off of other people. I mean, I think everything that I did through the past couple of years that I’m proud of, I wouldn’t have been able to do so without some sort of collaboration, without like at least sharing my ideas, refining them based on feedback that I’ve received from peers or tutors as well. But regardless, it’s it’s just due to different perspectives on the thing that I’m working on.
To finish, we revisited my interviewee’s earlier ideas about ‘making the space their own’. We reflected on the importance of students work being on display, the sillier, more half-done and more creative the better. With empty walls, no one feels able to take the first leap and hang something. A prevailing theme in this interview was the idea of ownership. This was undoubtedly influenced by the interviewee’s own opinions and experiences of student life, but they were also able to give some solid examples of evidence that the wider student body would benefit from this as well, particularly with reference to the studio belonging to another course which has more thriving culture and community.
Insight statements from this interview
Students don’t feel or take sufficient ownership of the space, which may result in them feeling less connected to the space, and less invested in using it
Students don’t understand the full potential of ways in which they can use or adapt the space and its amenities to enhance their own comfort, enjoyment and learning
Students don’t appreciate the value that collaborative work and discussion can bring, and how working in a studio setting can foster both enjoyable and informative conversations and discussions with their peers and staff
Key ‘How might we’s’ based on this interview alone
How might we foster a greater sense of ownership within the space
How might we make students aware of the potential of what they can do within the space
How might we help students understand the benefits of working in a collaborative way