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University of the Arts London

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2016)

Case Studies

'Everybody Phones Out': Teaching experiments with Instagram

Published 2016-07-28

  • Elliott Burns
    • ,
  • Jen MacLachlan
    • ,
  • Jake Charles Rees

Elliott Burns
Central Saint Martins

Jen MacLachlan
Central St Martins

Jake Charles Rees
Central Saint Martins

Abstract

This paper considers the pedagogical prototype, Everybody Phones Out (EPO), that took place between February - April 2016 on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation course at Central Saint Martins. EPO utilised a dedicated Instagram account, as a means to support the delivery of a series of traditional lectures to first year undergraduate students. Taking EPO as a case study this paper assesses the potential for IBMSNs (image-based-mobile-social-network) to be employed in, and beyond, the classroom for the delivery of content and engagement with students. This paper makes specific reference to EPO's co-option of the iconography of memes, the combination of textual and visual information and the image parlance of memeology to humorous, and virulent, affect. Evaluating our own successes and failures, we detail a code of conduct for others considering Instagram usage in education.

Keywords

Social Media, Instagram, Digital, Memes, Post-Internet, Mobile Phones

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Author Biography

Elliott Burns

Elliott Burns is a graduate from the 2015 class of MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins. He has been employed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation course at CSM. Elliott is currently employed by UAL's Teaching and Learning Exchange to curate an exhibition of enquiry-based teaching at the Cookhouse Gallery, Chelsea in November 2016.

Jen MacLachlan

Jen MacLachlan is a graduate from the 2015 class of MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins. She has been employed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation course at CSM. Jen has recently curated several exhibitions, notably at the David Roberts Art Foundation and Chalton Gallery. Her current practice and research interests include photography and semiotics.

Jake Charles Rees

Jake Charles Rees is a graduate from the 2015 class of MA Culture, Criticism and Curation at Central Saint Martins. He has been employed as a Graduate Teaching Assistant on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation course at CSM. He is currently interning for Superflux, a design and foresight studio that investigates emerging technologies and their relationship to society, culture, and politics.

References

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