Student Project Presentations

The Collaborative Challenge unit ended with a presentation of each of the 6 students’ teams about the process and outputs of their projects. The team responded to questions and received feedback from the supervisors, guest speakers and a group of MA Service Design students from LCC who will work on a similar brief in the upcoming Spring term.

Team A presented their ‘Craft Your Story’ project which responded to the ‘legacy’ brief, with a focus on entrepreneurship. The project aimed at celebrating craftsmanship and cultural heritage, decolonising education by creating more inclusive spaces, and empowering refugees through access to employment opportunities. The team created a textile book which serves as an engagement tool to foster connections and cultural exchange amongst people from diverse background.

Team B presented their ‘Shifting Identities’ project, responding to the ‘artefact’ brief of this Collaborative Challenge. The aim of their project was to express the shifting identities of refugees, showcase the beauty of cultural diversity, and inspire dialogue, understanding and appreciation of human experiences. The team delivered a co-creation workshop to customise a pair of jeans through photography, cyanotyping, painting, and embroidery on fabric patches representing the participants’ diverse layers of identity and cultures. The focus of the project on multi-layered identities and their ever-evolving nature was fascinating, and it evidenced the influence of the refugee collaborator in developing this outcome. The choice of jeans as a durable item that everyone has was interesting, but this appeared as a controversial object for a project on decolonising design and the team didn’t provide enough evidence of critical reflection on the inversion of power in this collaborative project.

Team C presented ‘The Flavour Exchange Project’ responding to the ‘storytelling’ brief of this Collaborative Challenge. The project brought together textiles and food into a storytelling campaign aimed at shifting narratives, honouring diverse cultures of refugees, and fostering social integration. As an output of a co-creation workshop involving students and refugees, the team produced a large tablecloth and a recipe book which showcase stories and traditional recipes from around the world. This was a very rich outcome; however, the team could have more critically engaged with the concept of decolonising food, and made a clearer link between food and fashion in the project.

Team D presented ‘The Creative Legacy Collective’, which responded to the ‘legacy’ brief of the Collaborative Challenge, with a focus on advocacy for policy change. The team focused on the specific needs of LGBTQI refugees and asylum seekers, who feel extremely isolated, are particularly exposed to abuse and violence, especially in the contingency hotels where they live. As an output of their project, the team created a short documentary film as part of a legacy campaign, which is intended to further develop into a network of creatives wanting to share their professional skills and work. The team has fully embraced the activist ethos of this project and produced a very beautiful and powerful output. However, they didn’t come up with policy recommendations and therefore have not fully responded to the sub-brief posed by this Collaborative Challenge.

Team E presented their project response to the ‘artefact’ brief of this Collaborative Challenge. The aim of their project was to honour and celebrate the identity and cultural heritage of the students and refugee collaborator. As an output of their project, they created a textile artefact as a patchwork that represents a sense of displacement and belonging. The project focused on the feeling of home, but this had the potential to be triggering for some people who have fled their countries or don’t feel comfortable at home. Nevertheless, the refugee collaborator gave very good feedback to the students who – according to her – collaborated in a very ethical and mature way.

Team F presented their project in response to the ‘storytelling’ brief of this Collaborative Challenge. The aim of this project was to challenge stereotypes about refugees, foster a compassionate understanding of their resilience, individuality, and highlight the importance of community support. The team created a conceptual textile artefact with a poem handwritten by the refugee collaborator, aimed at dissecting the personal and political implications the hijab holds in resisting colonial legacies. They also created a powerful short film to showcase the tumultuous past of a refugee and serving as a call to shaping a more compassionate future.