Pedagogies for Flourishing in Complexity

20.10.2023
The contact improvisation workshops gave students new perspectives on how to build leadership and trust. Photo: King's College London.

At King’s College London (KCL/King’s) we wanted to develop an innovative arts-based leadership study programme “Pedagogies for Flourishing in Complexity” that links to the development of graduate professional capabilities and personal development. We aimed to identification of specific methodologies that can be applied in the programme and beyond derived from performance-based research but will also include visual arts based critical enquiry. In practice, we used visual arts, contact improvisation and movement as tools for supporting professional growth and wellbeing of the students. Two faculties at King’s were engaged in the project: Faculty of Social Sciences & Public Policy and Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences.

Here you will find materials and results of developing Pedagogies for Flourishing in Complexity.

1. Contact Improvisation Workshops

Persons moving around in a room.
The contact improvisation workshops were led by Mark Rietema. Photo: King’s College London.

As part of the ARTHEWE project, the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy at King’s College London facilitated a series of contact improvisation and movement workshops for education, dentistry and medical students. The six workshops focused on how the students can build skills such as leadership, trust, and empathy, together. The workshops were led by Mark Rietema.

Here you can find the detailed descriptions of some of the exercises implemented in the workshop series:
Contact Improvisation Exercises.

Reflections from a student who participated in the workshop series: Alumni Article: Reflections on the KCL Movement Workshops by Niamh Carey.

Digital Story about the Movement Workshops (YouTube, 1:37 minutes)

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Persons in gallery space handling clay.
In the workshop The Artistic Genius the students worked together sharing experiences and ideas about the processes of artistic creation and sculpted their our own works of “genius”. Photo: King’s College London.

2. Visual Arts workshops in collaboration with Arts Cabinet

As a part of ARTHEWE project two visual arts workshops, aimed at students from the Clinical Humanities and Wellbeing programme at KCL, were designed, produced, and delivered. The visual arts workshops were part of a broader project aim: “to equip students with skills to enable them to operate well both professionally and personally as they transitioned into the world of clinical practice”.

In addition to the movement and improvisation workshops offered at KCL, the visual arts workshops offered students with opportunities to enquire through art and to practice modes of learning/unlearning, doing/undoing as methods through which to consider different ways of representing, interpreting, reflecting on, and considering.

Workshop 1: The Artistic Genius: Practices of Making and Unmaking

The workshop The Artistic Genius: Practices of Making and Unmaking took place on 6 September 2021 at Tate Modern. The Gallery space functioned as a Laboratory and Art as a form through which to enquire.  The workshop was led by an art historian and students were invited to immerse themselves in the multiple interpretations of a works of art as well as engage with others in creative discussions about the possible meanings and understandings of the work. In addition, they were invited to produce visual materials and share their insights with the group – offering new perspectives for understanding visual work.

Read more about the workshop here: The Artistic Genius Practices of Making and Unmaking (PDF format)

People in a row posing for camera.
International Cross Disciplinary Symposium “Creative Pedagogies and Encounters at the intersection between art, ethnography, the social sciences, and clinical studies” took place in November 2022 at The Exchange, King’s College London. The Arthewe results were presented by Jayne Peake, Sudhir Selvaraj, David Thyrén, Jennifer Bates, Mark Rietema and Ieva Petkuté.

Workshop 2: The Continuous Prototype

The workshop The Continuous Prototype was held on 13 September at the Design Museum (London). The workshop was led by a curator of the museum and architect. The goal of the workshop was to invite students to design non-stable structures and imaginary structures as process for examining work through time and action. Models produced served as vocabulary to demonstrate ideas and ways of working collaboratively. The aim of this workshop was to engage in a process of thinking and doing, assembling and disassembling as a way to engage with the possibility to work towards something unknown.

Read more about the workshop here: Arts Cabinet –Continuous Prototype –Workshop brief_KCL_Arthewe (PDF format)

Read more about the evaluation of the workshops here: Evaluation Report ARTHEWE_ArtsCabinet (PDF format)

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Crayons and an open memo with text and drawings.
The KCL team used creative feedback tools such as drawings, notes, diaries and digital storytelling to capture the students’ experiences before, during and after the workshops. Photo by King’s College London.

3. Digital Journal IO7

As part of the ARTHEWE project the partners practiced and used digital storytelling methods. A short digital story video (duration 2:06 minutes) reflecting the codevelopment work at King’s, can be accessed here (YouTube).