Creative Ecologies

SALC61092 Creative Ecologies 30 Semester 2 Postgraduate Taught Level 6 Cara Berger Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 15.0 Creative, artistic and public-facing methods have a key role to play in the capacity for arts and cultural disciplines to address the interlocking environmental crises of the present. In workshops, students will be introduced to foundational creative methods for engaging with environmental issues, drawing on ideas such as curating, participation, community arts and critical-creative writing, and engage with case studies drawn from a variety of cultural and artistic disciplines. Students will critically examine existing creative practices developed by artists, academics and cultural, environmental or heritage institutions, in preparation for developing their own critical project. There will be an opportunity to survey current creative approaches to environmental programming through field trips in and around Manchester. Creative, artistic and public-facing methods have a key role to play in the capacity for arts and cultural disciplines to address the interlocking environmental crises of the present. In workshops, students will be introduced to foundational creative methods for engaging with environmental issues, drawing on ideas such as curating, participation, community arts and critical-creative writing, and engage with case studies drawn from a variety of cultural and artistic disciplines. Students will critically examine existing creative practices developed by artists, academics and cultural, environmental or heritage institutions, in preparation for developing their own project proposal or critical-creative essay. There will be an opportunity to survey current creative approaches to environmental programming through field trips in and around Manchester. The unit aims to enable students to: - Apply critical concepts from the Environmental Humanities – such as those encountered in ‘Critical Ecologies’ - to the study of creative practices and cultural institutions - Understand and critically assess creative methods for engaging with environmental topics across a variety of cultural and artistic practices - Produce a critical-creative output, informed by the methods and practices studied in the unit - Reflect on their experience of practical methods and professional practice in the Environmental Humanities to enhance employability   This unit allows students to: - Gain experience in creative project development and using their academic skills (research, analysis, argumentation)  - Encounter a range of professional practices in which their specialist knowledge is applied and which model potential career options - Exercise independent thinking and research skills - Be able to present their learning and skills professional as relevant to external employers   - Demonstrate a specialised understanding of the use of creative methods for the environmental humanities and their application in community, public or artistic/cultural contexts;- Demonstrate an ability to integrate critical concepts and creative methods in the environmental humanities;- Evaluate their own experience of creative practices in the Environmental Humanities in relation to wider arguments and ideas - Critically contextualise their creative decisions with reference to relevant theories, concepts or cultural practices;- Apply their learning of existing creative methods and critical ideas in the environmental humanities to the research, conceptualisation and writing of a self-directed project proposal or essay;- Evidence a reflective attitude to their development of skills and knowledge as relevant to external employers - Write and present a creative project proposal or creative-critical essay to a professional standard;- Demonstrate advanced critical thinking and exercise independence in self-directed research by developing a project proposal or creative-critical essay;- Be able to professionally present themselves and their learning  - Apply specialist knowledge in the environmental humanities to a professional practice task;- Demonstrate an advance ability to lay out reflective analysis and arguments In workshops students will be introduced to a range of key creative methods, case studies and artistic / cultural approaches to the environment, drawing on the expertise of staff across the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures. Session will focus on both creative methods and particular art forms. The syllabus will be enhanced with relevant field trips and/or workshops with cultural professionals working in relevant areas. Indicative topics include sessions on:1. Ecology and creativity 2. Working with communities  3. Participation 4. Curating 5. Creative-critical writing 6. Performance and ecology 7. Literature and ecology 8. Visual art and ecology Students will be supported in developing their critical project through mini-presentations, formative feedback discussions and peer feedback.   Weekly in-person workshops comprising mini lectures, group discussions, and practical tasks. Field trips and guest workshops by cultural industries professionals will be delivered within timetabled hours. The virtual learning environment will be used to support students’ weekly preparations and point towards further readings and case studies. <span style="font-family:"Microsoft Sans Serif",sans-serif;font-size:11.0pt;layout-grid-mode:line;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US;">ENHANCEMENT OF DIGITAL LITERACY:<span style="font-family:"Microsoft Sans Serif",sans-serif;font-size:11.0pt;layout-grid-mode:line;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-spacerun:yes;">  Oral video presentation and project proposal to be presented using relevant software; careers service to deliver training on video software (interview.me) Use of VLE, especially Adobe Express, in weekly teaching preparation Use of databases and digital resources for research    6 Project output (not diss/n) 70% 7 Oral assessment/presentation 30% Project/essay outline (formative): Oral and written within two weeks of submissionCritical Project: Written via Turnitin within 15 working days of submissionAsynchronous oral video presentation: Written, within 15 working days of submission N Brookes, E. et al. (2024). Learning from Arts and Humanities Approaches to Building Climate Resilience in the UK. In: Dessai, S., Lonsdale, K., Lowe, J., Harcourt, R. (eds) Quantifying Climate Risk and Building Resilience in the UK. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.Dale, A. et al. “Communicating Environmental Research: Harnessing the Power of Curation.” Journal of community engagement and scholarship 13.3 (2021): 1-19.Hilevaara, K and E. Orley, The Creative Critic: Writing As/About Practice. Routledge, 2018.Sze, j. et al. Stories from the Field: Public Engagement through the Environmental Humanities and Allied Disciplines. Resilience: A Journal of the Environmental Humanities, vol. 5, no. 2, 2018, pp. 49–73.Yusoff, K. and Gabrys, J. (2011), Climate change and the imagination. WIREs, 2: 516-534.Walter, P. (2023). Decolonizing Arts-Based Public Pedagogies in the Indigenous, Environmental and Climate Justice Movements. In: Evans, K., Lee, W.O., Markowitsch, J., Zukas, M. (eds) Third International Handbook of Lifelong Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education.Williams, I, Harriott, A. and Johnson, I. (2024) Stories in the dust: the arts as a medium to communicate climate science. In: Hinfelaar, M. and de Graaf, K. (eds.) Civic Partners in Net Zero: Innovative approaches to universities working with their places to achieve net zero targets. Key Cities Innovation Network, pp. 129-145.   Seminars 33 0 267