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University of the Arts London

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2023)
'PhD Supervision' special issue

Provocations

Unlearning, learning, learner: a provocation for super vision

Published 2023-04-25

  • Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman

Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Central Saint Martins, UAL

Illustration of PhD student writing at his desk, surrounded by surveillance cameras. Illustration by Paul Jackson, LCC.

Abstract

Considered and effective supervision of practice-based PhDs requires an expansion of and challenge to established modes of hierarchical academic and peer relationships. The production of knowledge, especially in this form-breaking field, cannot be separated from the means by which that output is assessed and circulated. This paper explores these tensions through case-studies based directly on the writer’s experience. It proposes embodied learning - a revisioning of earlier parameters of scholarship – and an informed overhaul of the perspectives, positions and priorities of institutional expectation. It proposes instead a spectrum-wide inclusivity whose radical generosity and creative openness benefits all involved.

Keywords

Embodied, (non) inclusive, pedagogy, unlearning, embodied learning, reframing knowledge production, practice as research, research as practice

PDF

Author Biography

Professor Andrea Luka Zimmerman

Dr Andrea Luka Zimmerman is Professor of Possible Film at Central Saint Martins. Andrea is a Jarman Award winning artist, filmmaker and cultural activist whose multi layered practice calls for a profound re-imagining of the relationship between people, place and ecology. Films include the Artangel-produced 'Here for Life' (2019), which received its world premiere in the Cineasti Del Presente international competition of the Locarno Film Festival (winning a Special Mention), 'Erase and Forget' (2017), premiering at the Berlin Film Festival (nominated for the Original Documentary Award), 'Estate, a Reverie' (2015) (nominated for Best Newcomer at the Grierson awards) and 'Taskafa, Stories of the Street' (2013), written and voiced by the late John Berger. Andrea's films have screened at international film festivals including Berlinale, Locarno, BAFICI, Art of the Reel, Anthology Film Archives, Tate Modern, ICA, Whitechapel Gallery, CCA, Oberhausen, IKSV.  

References

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  17. French and Swain (2000), Inclusive teaching and learning in higher education as a route to excellence. Ref: DFE-00044-2017 PDF, 762KB, 39 pages [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-teaching-and-learning-in-higher-education]
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  24. Image:
  25. Film still of Estate, a Reverie (AUTHOR, 2015), by Briony Campbell
  26. Online:
  27. Against Racist Ableism in Arts Education by Dr Khairani Barokka, Centre for Feminist Research, Goldsmiths [https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=295026105216058], June 12th, 2020
  28. Prisons Memory Archive [https://www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com/] Nov 6th, 2020
  29. Shades of Noir: The Three ‘ism’s: Negotiating Race, Sex & Class [https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/isms], Feb 5th, 2020