Context
As both a Specialist Costume Technician, and a Costume Designer and Maker, the studio space is central to my practice (Orr and Shreeve, 2017). The safe management and maintenance of this space is a key part of my role at UAL, including carrying out risk assessments.
Last term, I was discussing a recently finished project with a student, who is black, and neurodiverse. He explained that he finds the studio space too overwhelming to work in, and generally prefers to work from home, despite a keen interest in developing his costume skills. This interaction felt disappointing, in that we (myself, my colleagues and the institution) had presented this individual with barriers that had completely prevented him from accessing the space, equipment, and support. Recognising my positionality as a white, neurotypical woman, I had not previously considered what inhabiting a space like this would feel like for a student with this compounding intersectional identity (Crenshaw,1991), and I wanted to address this through my intervention design.
Through the lens of critical race theory (CRT) and the social model of disability (SMD) I understand that my experience of higher education is and always has been one of access privilege (Garrett, 2024). To discontinue perpetuating intersectional, epistemically unjust, colonial systems which benefit (white, cis-gendered, culturally Christian, able-bodied, neurotypical) people like me at the disadvantage of others, I must actively engage with these theories and enact critical pedagogies (Rekis, 2023).
Intervention Aim
I wanted to re-imagine risk assessment from a social justice perspective (Freire, 1970), designing a tool to aid the identification of intersectional barriers within physical pedagogic spaces (such as our costume studio), and work towards the development of more inclusive learning environments. As the project progressed, informed by feedback, further research, and reflection, this aim shifted towards the development of a critical access approach (Freund, 2001), in designing an Inclusive Assessment Activity for collective critically reflective practice (Thompson and Thompson, 2008).
Key Decisions, Challenges, and Learning
Designing a Visually Accessible, Embodied Process
In discussions with dyslexic colleagues, they expressed finding the written, visually uninspiring, spreadsheet presentation of a risk assessment difficult to use (Appendix A). Considering 40% of the 15.3% staff who have a declared a disability at UAL are neurodiverse (Appendix B, Figure 1), this inaccessible design presents barriers for many of those who work with this type of document. More than this, the static process of filling out a typed form doesn’t reflect the physical reality it relates to. To align more closely with ways of knowing within technical practice (Cleary, 2024), movement and process based creative pedagogies (Barbieri, 2007), and understandings of space through the embodied experience of inhabiting (Rieger, Kessler, and Strickfaden, 2022), I decided to reimagine risk assessment as an activity, to be carried out within the space it relates to.
Figure 1: UAL Equality Diversity and Inclusion (2024) Staff by Type of Disability
I initially designed a simple, step-by-step guide to facilitate this process (Appendix C), inspired by familiar pedagogic tools and colour-based safety systems including traffic lights (Appendix D, Figure 2), UAL’s Safe Systems of Work (Figure 3), and risk assessments themselves (Appendix A). This included walking and talking through a practical process within the space, using post it notes and stickers to note and label any access issues (Figure 2, Figure 4). The accumulation of colours across the post it notes would highlight areas that need attention without being as numerically prescriptive as the original design of a risk assessment (Appendix A).
Figure 2: Image of printed Inclusivity Assessment Traffic Lights, coloured stickers, and post -it notes
Figure 3: Image of UAL Safe Systems of Work signage in the costume studio
Figure 4: Post-it note on drawers in costume studio
In feedback, my colleagues and peers encouraged me to take the experiential element of my initial design further and ask participants to physically make something. This would draw on the strength of the ‘critical thinking disposition’ of technical staff– the critical thinking and embodied knowledge that occurs throughout the sensorial experience of working with physical materials to make something (Cleary, 2024). Going forwards, perhaps this could incorporate (for my specific context) safety pinning the post-it notes to a machine induction sampler (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Costume machine induction sampler with post-it notes safety pinned to it
Expanding the Meaning of ‘Hazard’ and ‘Risk’
To understand what ‘risk’ and ‘hazard’ means within the institution, I looked at UAL’s Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy, which includes promoting a culture that is “kind, compassionate and inclusive” (UAL Health and Safety, 2023). However, of the key risks listed the only category explicitly relating to wellbeing, is stress. In taking a human-centred approach towards a “critically reflective reinterpretation of risk” (Morely et al., 2001). I wanted to encompass an evaluation of access to space, equipment, information and support, as well as opportunities for voice, autonomy, psychological safety, and representation.
In recognising that this deviates from the familiar elements of risk assessment, I wrote an accompanying sheet of prompts (Appendix E). I also re-named the process to better reflect its aims of inclusivity, action, and social justice. In doing these things, the focus was flipped from highlighting barriers (and thus problematising those who are discriminated against) to improving access (and thus questioning the actions of those with power), aligning more closely with the philosophies of SMD and CRT.
Initially, I thought of this reimagining as a separate tool, to be used in addition to the original risk assessment model. However, in the feedback process, Michael suggested that this embodied method could be used to address all forms of risk and hazard. This expanded, conceptualisation speaks to the ideas within holistic interpretations of safety (Morely et al., 2001), which better align with critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970).
I found it almost impossible to boil this down to a prompt sheet, let alone one which is accessible and user friendly, the possible intersectional impacts on individuals being so complex and varied (Crenshaw, 1991). Going forwards, I would like to spend more time considering how this might best manifested.
Towards Critically Reflective Communities of Practice
I initially designed a tool to be used by a small group, rather than one singular person (questionably defined as ‘competent’ by the Health and Safety Executive). As this would not provide much capacity for a broad range of personal experiences to be fed into the process, and poses the potential for identity threat (Thomas, 2022), I discussed utilising additional tools, such as persona pedagogy (Thomas, 2022), or an identity rubix cube (Figure 6, Figure 7) with my colleagues and peers during feedback. We debated the ethics of presuming to ‘competently’ understand the lived experiences of another person, who’s intersectional identity is unique to them, and the risk of one’s own biases perpetuating existing structures (Garret, 2024).
Figure 6: Image of empty, open ‘Identity Rubix’ designed by Michael Ste-Croix, Technical Manager: Performance Programmes. Rubix is filled will facets of identity, and manipulated to explore different intersectional identities.
Figure 7: Image of empty, closed ‘Identity Rubix’ designed by Michael Ste-Croix, Technical Manager: Performance Programmes.
They suggested expanding the design to become a much larger participation activity, possibly involving the students themselves, and therefore empowering their voices (Morely et al., 2001). Although expanding the design to become a larger type of participation activity initially seemed like a natural and exciting development, this suggestion raised further questions around emotional labour, psychological safety, the need to forefront otherwise marginalised experiences, and the physical practicalities of this intervention. Going forwards, this could be balanced by limiting participation to staff who have put themselves forwards as willing, but expanding it to become a cross departmental activity, therefore still benefiting from the accumulation of a broader diversity of lived experiences.
Alternatively, as Rieger, Kessler, and Strickfaden (2022) describe, access consultants could be employed by the institution. Although this could be very effective in safely fore fronting the experiences of those who are usually deprioritised, these consultants would not have the same embodied knowledge of the activities and processes within the space as technical staff (Cleary, 2024). Furthermore, this would require investment from the institution. As I am not a budget holder, this may not be possible to achieve.
The tension between the value of lived experience and the vulnerability of identity threat emerged as a key challenge in the design of this process. The perspectives of UAL health and safety staff in relation to this would have been insightful, but unfortunately those I reached out to were not forthcoming. This perhaps speaks to the culture and values of such a large institution in its prioritisation of financial efficiency and data (Curry, 2017).
In moving away from the technical-rational approach of the numerical risk assessment matrix (Appendix A), towards an open ended, discursive process which allows for nuances and critical reflection (Rieger, Kessler, and Strickfaden, 2022), perhaps the same approach can be applied to participation. As previously addresses, expansive, holistic perceptions of safety are too vast and complex to define within the confines of a categorised system. It is impossible to completely ‘solve’ the accessibility of spaces within the constraints of time, budget, and institutional practice. Instead, developing regular opportunities for meaningful, collective, critical reflective practice to occur would be a more productive and realistic aim in developing more inclusive spaces (Rieger, Kessler, and Strickfaden, 2022).
Next Steps
Before the new academic year begins, I will carry out an inclusive assessment activity in the studio space with my departmental colleagues. This will not only enable us to critically reflect and enact immediate changes ahead of the arrival of our students, but will provide me with experience to draw on in the further development of this tool.
Within the next unit, I would like to carry out further research into the meaning of wellbeing and safety within the institution, and approaches to collective critical reflexive practice. I would like to continue to focus on technical staff and the physical spaces they are responsible for, as a means of working towards the development more inclusive environments, and communities of practice among technicians. I would like to do this through qualitative data collection, interviews and discussions, and experimentation of processes with willing participants.
My interest in developing communities of practice among technicians stems from my experience during this unit, and the pg cert as a whole. Having time and space to share, observe, and discuss challenges, similarities and differences of positionality and pedagogic practice have given me a much broader perspective on my values and identity as an educator, and ways this might develop in the future.
(w/c 1645)
References
Barbieri, D. (2007) ‘Proposing an Interdisciplinary, Movement Based Approach to Teaching and Learning as Applied to Design for Performance related Areas’, Working Paper. Prague Quadrennial 2007, London.
Cleary, V. (2024) ‘Thinking through making: What kinds of learning take place when HE students engage with creative arts technicians?’, Art Design & Communication in Higher Education. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1386/adch_00087_1 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Crenshaw, K. (1991) ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’, Stanford Law Review, 43(6), pp. 1241-1299
Curry, P. (2017) ‘The Enchantment of Learning and ‘The Fate of our Times’. In Voss, A. and Wilson, S. (eds.) Re-Enchanting the Academy, pp. 33-5, Seattle: Rubedo Press. Available at: http://www.patrickcurry.co.uk/papers/The%20Enchantment%20of%20Learning%20(print%20version).pdf (Accessed: 5th July 2023).
Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury Academic
Freund, P. (2001) ‘Bodies, Disability and Spaces: The social model and disabling spatial organisations’, Disability & Society, 16(5), pp.689-706. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687590120070079 (Accessed: 2 July 2024)
Garrett, R. (2024) ‘Racism shapes careers: career trajectories and imagined futures of racialised minority PhDs in UK higher education’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2024.2307886 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Morley, C., Clarke, J., Leggatt-Cook, C. and Shkalla, D. (2022) ‘Can a Paradigm Shift from Risk Management to Critical Reflection Improve Child-Inclusive Practice?’, Societies, 12(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/soc12010001 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Noel, L. A. and Paiva, M. (2021) ‘Learning to Recognize Exclusion’, Journal of Disability Studies, 16(2), pp. 63–72. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349642679_Learning_to_Recognize_Exclusion (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Orr, S. and Shreeve, A. (2017) Art and Design Pedagogy in Higher Education: Knowledge, Values and Ambiguity in the Creative Curriculum. London: Routledge
Rekis, J. (2023), ‘Religious Identity and Epistemic Injustice: An Intersectional Account’, Hypatia, 38(4), pp. 779–800. Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/hypatia/article/religious-identity-and-epistemic-injustice-an-intersectional-account/58E22487A151EC6C547B681189AF9BB4 (Accessed: 2 July 2024)
Rieger, J., Kessler, C. and Strickfaden, M. (2022) ‘Doing Dis/ordered Mappings: Shapes of Inclusive Spaces in Museums’, Space and Culture, 25(1), pp. 4-19. Available at: https://doi-org.arts.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1206331219850442 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Thomas, C. (2022) ‘Overcoming Identity Threat: Using Persona Pedagogy in Intersectionality and Inclusion Training’, Social Sciences, 11(6), pp. 249. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11060249 (Accessed: 5 July 2024)
Thompson, N. and Thompson, S. (2008) The Critically Reflective Practitioner. Great Britain: Bloomsbury
UAL Health and Safety (2023) ‘Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy Part 1: Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy Statement’. Availableat: https://artslondon.sharepoint.com/sites/CanvasContent/Documents/Health%20&%20Safety/University%20Safety,%20Health%20and%20Wellbeing%20Policy/SHWMS_POL_001_SHW%20Policy%20Statement%20v2_2%20June%202023%20with%20signatures.pdf (Accessed: 2 July 2023)
UAL Health and Safety (2023) ‘Safety, Health and Wellbeing Policy Part 2:
Responsibilities and Arrangements for Safety, Health and Wellbeing Management’. Availableat: https://artslondon.sharepoint.com/sites/CanvasContent/Documents/Health%20&%20Safety/University%20Safety,%20Health%20and%20Wellbeing%20Policy/SHWMS_POL_002_UAL%20Responsibilities%20and%20arrangements%20interim%20update%20December%202019.pdf (Accessed: 2 July 2023)
Appendix
Appendix A, First and last pages of Costume Spaces Risk Assessment 2023
Appendix B, Screengrab of email from Equality Diversity and Inclusion Team at UAL, received on 8 July 2024, and larger image of chart
Appendix C, Image of step-by-step guide, and post-it note in studio space
Appendix D, Inclusivity Assessment Traffic Lights
Appendix E, Image of prompts sheet