Disclaimer: this is not a confluence but it is some of my thinking-findings.
What has interested me as part of this research project, is how slippery the whole process and especially the ‘data’ has felt. The largest recorded engagement metrics (via mentimeter) actually represented some fairly difficult interactions which felt quite destructive to belonging.
Quantifying something abstract always loses something – a grasping at air. In this sense arts-based methods are much better at conveying and capturing complexity. I found this in my own River of Experience drawing, a much richer tool of understanding and analysis rather than data visualisations in the form of bar charts. (Maybe this is also because I am not a graphic designer and I am not good at data visualisations.)
Credit: River of Experience drawing of my ARP project (K.Beales Jan 2026), coloured pencil and pen on A3 fabriano paper
The research provided evidence of support for continuing to integrate experimental participatory non-methods into Year meetings, and the majority of students recognised these as positive contributions to developing an inclusive community. Many of these were rated as very effective on the likert scale.
Table above: Questionnaire 2 Q3 Likert scale
In addition, positively, the number of students who answered ‘no’ to Q1 (which was the same in both questionnaires) dropped from 9% to 0%, and this related to a corresponding increase in ‘yes’ responses from 52 to 59%[1].
Image: Outcome Questionnaire 1 Q1
Image: Outcome Questionnaire 2 Q1
The participatory methods, in particular the game elements I tested out e.g. the rock, paper scissors championship, did result in some limited mixing up of the existing social strata in the lecture theatre. One Focus Group participant named the set group of people they already know as their “safety circle” and we discussed how this can form an exclusionary safety bubble. Their proposed solution was to do a seat lottery which I hope to trial this coming term[2].
I am interested in the ongoing work of increasing student interactions in meetings and my research shows Mentimeter can enable the greatest number of interactions but as I have discussed this needs to be framed and moderated carefully.
Table above: Interactions observed in Year Meeting Recordings
Moving forward, I am committed to continue to use Live Captioning. The Focus Group identified its importance for inclusivity not just as access requirement for the Deaf student but also for international students with English as a second language[3].
It is also clear that is important for students to be active contributors and that there is more work for me to do to provide opportunities for this. Students are for each other to share work, but generally they lack confidence to engage with this opportunity themselves. The student videos as a mediated presence, do offer a way forward for increasing student voice, despite the ethical complexity. Reflecting on the video the student reps made to introduce themselves, J said
“we put ourselves out there, you know, and… like that kind of made this space. It felt different… I just I felt less embarrassed just being there.”[4]
Overall, I care about this research and am committed to continuing to co-create with students, spaces of solidarity, care and community in Year meetings.
[1] Note: Some of these findings should be treated with caution due to the relatively small amount of responses proportionately to both Questionnaires (under 30 / 172).
[2]I: But yeah, yeah, because people always feel like, um, very safe when they’re sitting with someone they already know. And, um, I know it’s very hard to jump that circle outside. Oh, yeah. Like a safety circle. Yeah.
KB: The safety circle is a lovely phrase. Yeah. And it’s like, how do we keep the safety circle so people feel safe, but they still aren’t, like, it’s not like a safety bubble, you know, like where they don’t. It’s exclusive.
[3] J: “…because I’m not a English like a native English speaker. Sometimes I even when I’m like talking to like people who are British and like have a dialect. I wish there is a subtitle when I’m talking to them, like casually and like having the whenever having a lecture or Year meeting, like having a subtitle really helped me a lot.”
[4] O: I mean, I liked, um, Lucy doing the introduction video for all of us because I feel like because we put ourselves out there, you know, and… like that kind of made this space. It felt different… Um, because, yeah, I just I felt less embarrassed just being there, you know?
KB: Yeah. That’s interesting to reflect a bit more on… would you generally feel embarrassed about being there?
J: …Um, I, I literally would not enter a lecture theatre if I was like five minutes late. I would literally just, like, stand out there and be like “pants” And then I’d leave. But, um, now I don’t care. I’m just like, I can just walk in. It’s fine, you know?
Humour is a productive tool in teaching that I often utilise.
In Teaching Critical Thinking, bell hooks includes a chapter on humour, identifying “the sense of openness shared laughter can bring. Concurrently, when we shift our minds into laughter, we move from the left brain to the right brain creating a whole new place for thinking and dreaming, for creating great ideas” [hooks (2010) p.74]. Laughter also has a direct relationship with mental health and well-being, which artists like Barry Sykes explore through his practice of laughter-yoga [Sykes (2017)] .
Credit: Barry Sykes ‘An Introduction to Laughter Yoga’ in the Olympic Cauldron gallery, part of The Festival of Radical Play, The Museum of London 2017. https://barrysykes.com/laughteryoga.html
Within art practice we can also use humour as an effective tool in institutional critique and in critiquing power. However, it can tip into something more cutting or even harmful. Graciously, hooks notes, “Attempts at humour can be misunderstood, sometimes what we hope will amuse will instead create tension” [hooks (2010) p.72].
I experienced both ends of the humour spectrum during this research into Year meetings.
Year meeting 1 was a happy one – we started by playing a year-wide rock, paper, scissors championship and one lucky winner won half a multi-pack of monster munch crisps. There was lots of laughter which spilled into the rest of the meeting.
Year meeting 3 was the opposite experience. There was a specific context, I had been off sick the week before and still wasn’t feeling well. Students were feeling stressed and under pressure. It was one week before their first assessment, and approaching the first onsite collective exhibition that there were mixed feelings about. I had planned my first trial of mentimeter as a way of agreeing the name for the collective exhibition but the engagement spiralled into something quite negative after the first contribution was “I want a refund” *laughs*. One student’s suggestion was “the blind leading the blind” and I found this hurtful. I was able to use humour in this moment to redirect some of this energy by saying “thank you fans” *laughs*.
Credit: Slide 5 from my ARP Presentation – Mentimeter results Year meeting 17 and 24 Nov
The experience made me aware of the vulnerability of my position, and the difficulty of anonymity and the dangers of it too – enabling freedom without accountability. One contributor used the anonymity of the platform to suggest “Epstein island” as an appropriate name for the Collective exhibition, which I found particularly difficult given the epidemic in the UK of violence against women and girls. It made me reflect on:
Elaine Hatfield’s work around Emotional Contagion and the way affective states can travel across groups.
the way engagement can be productive or destructive, and is not necessarily de-facto positive. This shows in the data (Year meeting 3 had a high level of engagement).
digital tools can offer the space for more engagement but this must be carefully framed and come with accountability.
In Year meeting 4 I learnt from this, gathering post-it notes contributions first before entering selected suggestions into Mentimeter for voting. Future uses of Mentimeter will be set up so that students’ names whilst not visible to the audience are traceable.
Braidotti, R An Ethics of Joy p221-224 in Braidotti, R.and Hlavajova, M. eds (2019). Posthuman glossary. London ; New York ; Oxford ; New Delhi ; Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic.
Hatfield, E., Hatfield, C., Cacioppo, J.T. and Rapson, R.L. (1994). Emotional Contagion. Cambridge University Press.
hooks, b. (2010). Teaching critical thinking : practical wisdom. New York: Routledge.
Sykes, B (2017). An Introduction To Laughter Yoga | barrysykes.com. [online] Available at: https://barrysykes.com/laughteryoga.html [Accessed 15 Jan. 2026].
Building on Barthes’ ideas (see ARP Blog 2), I tested out various participatory, experimental non-methods within the Year meetings that drew on over 20 years of practice as an artist educator. Alongside this I used convergent (and at times divergent) mixed methods including quantitative, qualitative and arts-based, gathered in parallel, to try to gain an integrated understanding of the impact of these experiments.
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods
Questionnaires
I decided to conduct 2 anonymous questionnaires, one at the beginning and one at end of the process, sent over email to the whole cohort. The initial questionnaire was designed as a benchmark, to create some baseline understanding to compare with the outcomes from the questionnaire at the end. In line with this, the first question was the same in both questionnaires. Each questionnaire was designed with a mix of open, ended questions with those seeking more quantitative data.
Hess (1968) noted that the focus groups offer researchers distinct advantages over the individual interview, identifying 5 elements: synergism, snowballing, stimulation, security and spontaneity[1] that are more present in the focus group context. Focus Groups also offered a time-efficient way of listening to students, which due to the pressures of my workload was an important consideration. I conducted 2 Focus Groups, one at the beginning which generated some co-design outcomes and one at the end of the process which was more evaluative. The 5 participants volunteered from the Student Course reps so there was a pre-existing representative function.
I decided to drawing a River of Experience [after Iantaffi (2011) Denicolo (2016) and Howard (2024)] as a way of analysing and understanding my own experience of the Action Research Project. This was important for me as it gave space for my own art practice which often involves thinking-through-drawing and the affective dimension of both teaching and researching; as well as capturing some of the complexity at play.
I rewatched the recordings of the Year meetings. Inspired by Rosi Briadotti’s ethics of joy I decided to use clapping, laughing and whooping as metrics of engagement, alongside more ‘solid’ data like the number of students who spoke from the front or contributed via mentimeter etc.
Participatory, experimental non-methods tested in Year meetings
Over 4 Year meetings in the Lecture Theatre (3, 10, 17, 25 Nov) I experimented with the following in mixed-combinations. Some of these were initiatives I was already interested in trialling out such (e.g. Live Transcription) and others (e.g. Student Videos) came out of the initial Questionnaire and subsequent Focus Group discussions.
Live Captioning
Starting the meeting with movement / games
Regular slot for sharing student work including student videos
Developing a strong visual identity
Inviting guests representing different facets of Chelsea e.g. library staff
Making time for questions
Option to do plasticene modelling for those of us who think with our hands
Using digital interactive tools e.g. Mentimeter so lots of students can input
Karaoke
Using movement or games to increasing student interactions
Live Captioning responded to a Deaf student’s access requirements but I was interested to see whether this made meetings more accessible for students with English as a second language.
526 words
References:
Braidotti, R An Ethics of Joy p221-224 in Braidotti, R.and Hlavajova, M. eds (2019). Posthuman glossary. London ; New York ; Oxford ; New Delhi ; Sydney: Bloomsbury Academic.
Denicolo, P., Long, T., & Bradley-Cole, K. (2016). Cases using different designs. In Constructivist Approaches and Research Methods: A Practical Guide to Exploring Personal Meanings (pp. 157-186). SAGE Publications Ltd, https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526402660.n11
Iantaffi, A. (2011) Travelling along ‘rivers of experience’: Personal construct psychology and visual metaphors in research. In P. Reavey (ed.), Visual Methods in Psychology. Hove: Psychology Press.
Howard, J. (2024) ‘Rivers of Life’, Participatory Methods website [Accessed 10 Jan. 2026].
Reed, S ‘Method’ in ‘Principles — Practising Ethics’ (2020) [online] Available at: https://www.practisingethics.org/principles#method [Accessed 10 Jan. 2026].
Vaughn, S., Schumm, J., & Sinagub, J. (1996). In Why use focus group interviews in educational and psychological research? (pp. 12-21). Sage Research Methods, SAGE Publications, Inc., https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243641.n2
My ARP Question: How can a weekly Year meeting with a large cohort develop a culture of inclusion, belonging and community on Year 2 of the BA Fine Art at Chelsea?
I[1] have a large cohort of 172 students on the 2nd Year of BA FA at Chelsea. Whilst most teaching takes place in tutor groups[2], the Year meeting is a 1 hour slot once a week, where we gather the whole cohort in the Lecture Theatre. I am specifically focusing on Year meetings as they pose complex challenges due the size of the cohort and the constraints of the architecture of the lecture theatre.
BA Fine Art students are a diverse cohort (see Fig. 1).
94% are under the age of 25
25% have a Declared Disability
32% are Overseas students
26% of our Home Students are from the Global Majority[3]
26% of our Home Students are the first generation studying at university
According to the UAL Dashboard 2025, only 4.6% of our students on the BA Fine Art declared a Mental Health condition. This is at odds with a national survey [see Baker and Kirk-Wade (2024)], which found that among those aged 17 to 19, the incidence was 23% post-pandemic. From experience, my students’ mental health is more in line with these national statistics.
Why doesdeveloping a culture of inclusion, belonging and community matter?
Allen et al’s 20 year literature review evidences the strong research base connecting belonging and positive mental health, and academic achievement in HE. “The sense of belonging in higher education is an important determinant of both psychological wellbeing and academic success. It influences key psychological constructs such as self-esteem, resilience, and the intrinsic enjoyment of learning.” [Allen, K. et al (2024) p.3 ].
I believe, despite or perhaps because of, the large size of the cohort, the Year meeting provides a key opportunity for building community. The scale of student numbers is not necessarily antithetical to belonging, as there are other contexts in which belonging can play out in a mass of people, for example, participating in a carnival procession.
The potential of the Year meeting as a space of belonging is, however, problematized by the context of neo-liberalism. “The ideal type neoliberal subject is… orientated toward survivalist competition… This produces a space of hierarchy, competition and individualism through the eradication of spaces of solidarity, care and community.” [Motta (2013) ibid p.27]
Instead, I want to co-create with students, spaces of solidarity, care and community within 2nd Year on the BA Fine Art.
A student response to the Questionnaire 1 summarises why this is so important:
“In all honesty if I wasn’t on the course, I may avoid some of the community activities. Not because I’m mean spirited or undervalue others contributions but I have shy tendencies with low self esteem and worry about being a burden. The ability to develop a community is important to me because as I do it, things become less intimidating, less stressful and to take this with me after my schooling is important…”
503 words
Figure 1: UAL Dashboard BA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts, CCW (Accessed 13 Jan 2026)
References:
Allen, K., Slaten, C., Hong, S., Lan, M., Craig, H., May, F., Counted, V. (2024). Belonging in Higher Education: A Twenty-Year Systematic Review. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(5).
Baker, C. and Kirk-Wade, E. (2024) Mental health statistics: Prevalence, services and funding in England – House of Commons Library, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06988/ (Accessed: 13 Jan 2026).
Elizabeth, O.P., Jacobsen, M., Nowell, L., Freeman, G., Lorenzetti, L., Clancy, T., Paolucci, A., Pethrick, H. and Lorenzetti, D.l. (2021) An exploration of graduate student peer mentorship, social connectedness and well-being across four disciplines of study. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 12(1), pp. 73-88.
Motta, S (2013) ‘Pedagogies of Possibility: In, against and beyond the Imperial Patriarchal Subjectivities of Higher Education’ in Cowden, S, & Singh, G 2013, Acts of Knowing : Critical Pedagogy in, Against and Beyond the University, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. [16 March 2025].
Morris C (2021), ““Peering through the window looking in”: postgraduate experiences of non-belonging and belonging in relation to mental health and wellbeing”. Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, Vol. 12 No. 1 pp. 131–144, doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/SGPE-07-2020-0055
UAL Dashboard (Accessed 13 Jan 2026)
[1] I am a teacher-researcher-artist, operating from an intersectional feminist position. As an employee of UAL, I am an academic and insider, and as a Year Leader for the 2nd Year of the BA in Fine Art, I am in a position of authority and line manager. As an artist, I am often an outsider. As a student on the PGCert, I am a learner. Outside these various roles I am also: a mother; a trade unionist; a community organizer and someone who is Neuro-diverse (dyslexic). These different roles and perspectives that I hold within myself, affect the question I have chosen to research, and also the power dynamics at play.
[2] Seminars, workshops and tutorials take place within context of tutor groups which are around 30 students.
[3] UAL uses the term BAME (Black and Minority Ethnic) in line with wider HE sector. I prefer to use Global Majority.
[4] All from the UAL Dashboard 2025 – see figure 1.
Traditional research teaching “…tend(s) to encourage commitments to particular methodologies prior to the start of research projects. But the order is important, because methods always presuppose ontology, that is, they assume a particular philosophy about how ‘the furniture of the world’ is arranged.” [p.2 in Murris (2021)]
My research question poses some fundamental challenges in terms of understanding something as complex as belonging, yet alone measuring it. I find quantification increasing difficult; everything is reduced to code, to data and measurable outputs. Seb Franklin[1] identifies these mechanisms as driven by digitality, and identifies control as the underlying logic.
I am instinctively at odds with both quantitative and qualitative methods (such as thematic analysis) as every attempt at encoding something is that Karen Barad would term a ‘Cartesian cut’ that excludes something else, rather than an agential cut that draws a boundary within. As such I feel more at home in what I am starting to understand about postqualitative research, which is built on Karen Barad’s agential realism, whilst drawing heavily on Harraway, Deleuze, Foucault and others. Last year, I worked with colleagues to frame the newly revalidated 2Y BA Fine Art curriculum around some of Barad’s key ideas, for example, Unit 5 is called Intra-Action (the unit I was teaching whilst undertaking this research).
Karen Murris articulates post-qualitative “knowledge-making as an open, affirmative, joyful and political practice… reframing scholar-activism as a matter of response-ability to the world’s aliveness in ways which contest the deadening grip of quantification, measurement, competition and individualism that marks the audit cultures of academia” [p.39 in Murris (2021)]. Post-qualitative research embraces and creates space for uncertainty, complexity, messiness, embracing the in-becoming, emergent and unpredictable, understanding everything through shifting sets of relations. This is in line with an intersectional feminist approach. As Barthes used to state before every lecture:
“Method = phallic mindset of attack and defense (“will,” “decision,” “premeditation,” “going straight ahead,” etc.) vs. Non-method: mindset of the journey, of extreme mutability (flitting, gleaning). We’re not following a path; we’re presenting our findings as we go along.” [in Reed (2020)]
In her analysis of Barthes’ quote, Reed identifies the role that practice-based research plays. “This correlates strongly with discussions around practice-based, practice-informed, practice-led, and practice-related forms of research, where methods are often emergent, discovered through the practice of the research, developed in specific response to working with particular materials, evidence, data or people, over time.” [Reed (2020)]
As an artist this makes so much sense to me and feels very distinct to the more linear design methodologies (such as the Action Research cycle) that come out of the social sciences.
Here’s to not following a path but pursuing a tentacular and complex enquiry.
447 words
See ARP Blog 3: Methods & Non-Methods Blog post.
References:
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press.
Franklin, S. (2015). Control : digitality as cultural logic. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mit Press.
Kleinman A. (2012) Intra-Action – Interview with Karen Barad pp.77-81 in Mousse Magazine 34. Mousse magazine. Milano: Mousse.
Murris, K. (2021). Navigating the postqualitative, new materialist and critical posthumanist terrain across disciplines : an introductory guide. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Reed, S (2020) Method in Principles — Practising Ethics (2020) [online] Available at: https://www.practisingethics.org/principles#method [Accessed 10 Jan. 2026].
My intervention aims to create positive studio cultures through having dedicated mobile-phone free studios, agreed in a co-design process with students[1]. Underpinning the intervention is a desire to support students’ positive wellbeing and mental health. This is informed by the teaching context of my role as Year 2 (Y2) Leader for the BA Fine Art (BAFA) at Chelsea; my own positionality and lived experience; and my professional expertise in my art practice.
The BAFA course has a large cohort of students, and in 25-26 cohort will be approximately 180 students in 2Y alone. We will have 14 different studio rooms across 3 different floors of B-Block at Chelsea. In my role as 2Y Leader I have undertaken Mental Health First Aider training (completed Autumn 2024).
Mental health is not just a field of interest for me but grounded in my own lived experiences. I disclosure this with some hesitation, as Gupta et al (2023 p.1646) points out that for lived experience researchers, “…their credibility… and the knowledge they produce may be doubted, for example by epistemic injustice where they are perceived through the stigmatised lens of a service user and their place in a hierarchy”. However, as hooks (1994 p.76) states, “I know that experience can be a way to know and can inform how we know what we know. Though opposed to any essentialist practice that constructs identity in a monolithic, exclusionary way, I do not want to relinquish the power of experience…” I am encouraged by feminists like bell hooks to view the personal as political. I have had a varied journey through periods of my own mental ill-health, and have had counselling, specialist trauma therapy and CBT. I have also experienced the loss of both a wider family member and a close friend to suicide. The most challenging dynamics I face in my role are where students’ mental ill health triggers these experiences.
In my art practice I have produced extensive work and research around the interplay between mental health and digital cultures [Beales (2017)]. In my body of work ‘Are We All Addicts Now’[2] I focused on how behavioral psychology was employed within mobile apps to keep ‘users’ on device. I have also worked extensively as an artist in mental health contexts, for example, undertaking a residency in the NHS’ only clinic treating online behavioural addictions (2021)[3].
Context – Macro and Micro
The Office for Students’ Equality of Opportunity Risk register (2024) lists ‘Mental Health’ as one of 12 risks negatively affecting students’ progression and completion. UAL’s Access and Participation Plan found that 3 groups of students are exposed to equality of opportunity risks. They are:
students from areas with the most deprivation (ie Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) Q1-2 areas).
students from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds in general and Black students in particular.
disabled students, especially those with mental health conditions and multiple disabilities.
There appears to be limited intersectional analysis of how these categories overlap, but it is clear from my teaching experience that this is often the case.
The 2Y BAFA Course Student Survey (CSS) results have recently been released and whilst there is some very positive and encouraging data, the lowest performing area (69.4%) is the question about the Mental Wellbeing Services (Fig 1).
Fig 1. 2Y BAFA Chelsea CSS 24-25 results
A national survey [Baker and Kirk-Wade (2024)] found that among those aged 17 to 19, 10% had a probable mental disorder in 2017, rising to 23% in 2023 (emphasis mine), a sharp increase. In 2025-26, these are the 19–21-year-olds on the 2Y. However, in Chelsea’s specific context, student disclosures of mental health conditions are only 3.4% according to the UAL Dashboard. Our experience on the BAFA is more in line with the national picture, with the team regularly dealing with high levels of mental distress amongst our students. There is evidently, a culture of non-disclosure[4], which is a larger research topic which deserves some sustained enquiry.
What we do know, is that only 69% of our 2Y students agreed that the mental support services provision at Chelsea was well communicated.
Fig 2. BAFA Y2 CSS 24-25 Mental Wellbeing results
In 24-25 the onsite mental health support was only available for a couple of hours a week over lunchtime, in a room tucked away. It seems clear that with over 5,000 students based at Chelsea, there is a case for a dedicated mental health worker to be onsite at least 3 days a week in an accessible location. I am currently engaged in ongoing conversations to lobby for increased provision.
My intervention has been designed using a positive psychology approach[5] with a goal of developing positive studio communities. Whilst digital tools can enable positive collaborations (and I regularly use digital mediums in both my teaching and art practice) the mechanics of smart phone usage have a largely negative correlation to both mental health and concentration. There is a significant body of research evidencing that the dynamics around social media apps (reliant on smartphones) are the most problematic for mental health [e.g. Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) p.1646]. The detrimental effects of media-multi-tasking and inability of students’ to self-regulate smartphone media usage, is increasingly evidenced [Dontre (2021) p.387]. In these extractive environments, users attention is the currency sold to advertisers, with the user rewarded in a process Moore [(2017)] terms ‘dopamining’. Instagram and other such platforms privilege the ‘glance’ at the expense of the ‘gaze’ [Zulli (2017) p.147]. In art practice, a deep and sustained, active ‘looking’ is an important part of visual literacy.
It is not just a question of teaching but of ‘being’ together. Given that face-to-face interactions have a strong correlation to quality of life[6], how can we encourage these dynamics in our studio cultures?
Inclusive learning
Intersectionality is very important in any discussion around mental health as I have already intimated. Specifically in relation to mobile usage, Disabled students might need more access to their phones as an access requirement for multiple reasons e.g. as a reasonable adjustment to record a seminar or to arrange taxis, to access support networks or to correspond with medical professionals. There are other groups who may need to access their mobile more. International students can use translation software and this needs to be normalized rather than stigmatized. Simply, any intervention would need to be sensitively co-designed with students who need to be given space to articulate valid reasons why they might need access to their phone in a studio environment.
Reflection
I found both tutor feedback and peer feedback very helpful. I was concerned in advance that this may be perceived as a ‘Luddite’ position by both tutors and peers, as in the past I have found debates about technology usage binary rather than nuanced. However, peers Andrea and Umi both reflected that they ask students to turn off mobile phones in taught sessions. Whilst I am seeking to extend the scope to cover the context of self-directed studios, I was encouraged to find some of my concerns about mobile phone usage shared.
Interactions with tutors have encouraged me to value my embodied expertise as someone with lived experience with mental ill-health. Their input has caused me to reflect more deeply on what researcher self-care and well-being mean in this project, and in my teaching role more generally. As Audre Lorde (1998:131) says, “Caring for [oneself] is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” I need to find on-going ways to safeguard and recharge myself.
I also reflected on the role of studios in the context of fine art pedagogy and how this differs to a design or architectural approach although these are often conflated [cf. Corazzo (2019)]. The studio within artists’ practice has a distinct contribution [Salazar (2013)], one that is under pressure from various factors such as pressures on space, increasing student numbers and financial pressures on students’ limiting their time in studio spaces.
Action
Through the reflective process initiated by this report, I have rethought the scale and design of my intervention. Rather than my instinctive response to be over-ambitious and roll it out across my year group (7 tutor groups in total) I will start with a simple intervention in my own tutor group first. Only when and if, I can evidence efficacy, will I try and scale it up across the other tutor groups. This will help minimise the management I will have to do of my 2Y team, in terms of getting them to deliver something that is at such an experimental stage.
Evaluation of your process
As a neurodiverse person I can be very expansive in my thinking [7]. This can be challenging to manage and can tip into overwhelm. Trying to design an intervention that makes a positive contribution can feel paralyzing as there are so many systemic issues at play within mental health[8], many of which are out of my control. The territory demands multiple interventions but there are always limitations on resources.
The input I have received from tutors and peers has made me question the sustainability of the interventions I already make in my role. I need to consider how I regulate my own workload so I avoid burnout. We teach because we care, but if we don’t place limits on caring, particularly whilst doing affective labour that chimes with our own lived experience, we can run out of energy to care at all.
It is also clear I need to involve students not just in the design but also the evaluation of any intervention and need to embed this as part of the Action Research design process.
Conclusion
This Reflective Report has made me open to redesigning my intervention as part of the Autumn’s Action Research unit. I want to consider in my depth the ethical considerations for myself and others. As part of this, I want to start with more research to understand ethnographic research methodologies and investigate relevant co-design models.
1650 words (not including footnotes)
Bibliography:
Baker, C. and Kirk-Wade, E. (2024) Mental health statistics: Prevalence, services and funding in England – House of Commons Library, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06988/ (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Beales, K. et al. (2017) Are we all addicts now? Digital Dependence edited by Bartlett, V and Bowden-Jones, H. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.
Carr, A., Cullen, K., Keeney, C., Canning, C., Mooney, O., Chinseallaigh, E. and O’Dowd, A. (2020). Effectiveness of positive psychology interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 16(6), pp.749–769. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2020.1818807.
James Corazzo (2019) Materialising the Studio. A systematic review of the role of the material space of the studio in Art, Design and Architecture Education, The Design Journal, 22:sup1, 1249-1265, DOI: 10.1080/14606925.2019.1594953
Dontre AJ. ‘The influence of technology on academic distraction: A review.’ Hum Behav & Emerg Tech. 2021; 3: 379–390. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.229
Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) ‘Impact of mobile phones and wireless devices use on children and adolescents’ mental health: A systematic review’, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(6), pp. 1621–1651. doi:10.1007/s00787-022-02012-8.
Gupta, V., Eames, C., Golding, L., Greenhill, B., Qi, R., Allan, S., Bryant, A. and Fisher, P. (2023). ‘Understanding the Identity of Lived Experience Researchers and providers: a Conceptual Framework and Systematic Narrative Review.’ Research Involvement and Engagement, [online] 9(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40900-023-00439-0.
Hill , A. (2024) ‘Group of 17 London Secondary Schools join up to go smartphone-free’, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/06/group-of-17-london-secondary-schools-join-up-to-go-smartphone-free (Accessed: 23 May 2025).
Hooks, Bell. ‘Teaching to Transgress : Education As the Practice of Freedom’, Taylor & Francis Group, 1994. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=1656118. Created from ual on 2025-07-14 09:14:21.
Hudson, D., 2024. ‘Specific Learning Differences, What Teachers Need to Know: Embracing Neurodiversity in the Classroom’. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Jones, C.H. and Whittle, R. (2021). ‘Researcher self‐care and caring in the research community’. Area. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12703.
Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’, The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(9), pp. 726–738. doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00172-3.
Lee, P.S.N., Leung, L., Lo, V., Xiong, C. and Wu, T. (2010). Internet Communication Versus Face-to-face Interaction in Quality of Life. Social Indicators Research, [online] 100(3), pp.375–389. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9618-3.
Lopez-Fernandez, O. et al. (2017) ‘Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey’, Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(2), pp. 168–177. doi:10.1556/2006.6.2017.020.
Lorde, A. (1988). A burst of light: Essays. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books.
Moore, G. (in press). Dopamining and Disadjustment: Addiction and Digital Capitalism. In V. Bartlett, & H. Bowden-Jones (Eds.), Are We All Addicts Now? Digital Dependence (68-75). Liverpool University Press
Moriña, A. (2024) When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education, Disability & Society, 39:4, 914-932, DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2022.2113038
Salazar, S.M. (2013). Studio Interior: Investigating Undergraduate Studio Art Teaching and Learning. Studies in Art Education, 55(1), pp.64–78. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00393541.2013.11518917.
Zulli, D. (2018). Capitalizing on the look: Insights into the glance, attention economy, and instagram. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 35(2), pp.137–150. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2017.1394582.
[4] See Moriña (2024) When what is unseen does not exist
[5] Positive psychology is “for example, setting valued goals, imaging one’s best possible self, using signature strengths, savoring past or present pleasures, finding flow, being grateful for positive experiences, developing optimism, strengthening relationships, practicing kindness, developing grit, being courageous, engaging in post-traumatic growth, and practicing forgiveness (Parks &Layous, 2016; Parks & Schueller, 2014)” [Carr et al (2020) p.749]
[6] Lots of research to evidence this. See for example a study mapping quality of life in relation to internet usage across 4 Chinese cities. “Contrary to our expectation… Internet use for interpersonal communication cannot predict people’s quality of life, while face-to-face interaction with friends and family members can. The result was the same across the four Chinese cities.” [Lee et al (2010) p.383]
[7] I was diagnosed with dyslexia whilst a postgraduate student at Chelsea in 2011. This has been very helpful in terms of understanding how I can rapidly process visual information but find processing oral information difficult. I also resonate with the following: “dyslexic students feel overwhelmed by perceived ‘big’ tasks. They tend to see the magnitude of the whole project…” [Hudson (2024) p.36]
[8] See Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’
It’s difficult to write anything meaningful about race as a white academic in a position of leadership in Higher Education, let alone in a mere 500 words. In attempting to do so, what follows is part of a personal commitment towards allyship and a wish to be held accountable to the on-going responsibility to continue to educate myself. I do this as a human being, and to best serve all the global majority [1] students [after Campbell-Stevens (2020)] that are on the 2nd Year of the BA Fine Art at Chelsea.
In the “The Room of Silence,” a short documentary about race, identity and marginalization at the Rhode Island School of Design, RSID alumni Eloise Sherrid uses students’ firsthand testimonials to expose what it feels like to be on the receiving end of white privilege in a familiar art school format; the crit. In the video, students talk through common experiences of being met with a ‘room of silence’ in response to works about race or cultural identity. As one of them elucidates “if no one wants to say anything how are we going to get any feedback?” And another, “I need you to say something about this, otherwise how am I supposed to learn?” The video illuminates how white students’ and academics’ lack of racial and cultural literacy means that often global majority students’ work is met with silence. Students repeatedly share about their experiences of not receiving critical feedback, even when are asking for it, and how damaging this was.
This is not an experience confined to US design students. One of CSM’s 2024 Changemakers Hugette Tchiapi outlines her experiences of exactly the same situation whilst studying Fashion. “Imagine the scenario. You are a Black fashion student developing an assessed project that has specific roots in your culture or ancestry. As your tutorials progress, it becomes clear that your assigned tutor lacks the foundational knowledge to be able to deliver clear, meaningful feedback on your project. Meanwhile, your peers are given numerous references from their feedback sessions. They move forward with multiple conceptual frameworks and ideas that they can use to strengthen their project. Your tutorial feedback notes are filled with gaps.”
Simply, tutor and peers’ lack of cultural and racial literacy damage the learning environment and outcomes for Global Majority students. Hugette has used her experiences to devise Fashion FeedBlack, a tool for designing inclusive crits [2].
According to the Ethnic Representation Index [Mba et al (2023)], UAL has 30.9% BAME students (sector-wide terminology) and an awarding gap of 10.9%. It is clear there is much to do. Rethinking crits so they are more racially and culturally literate is one place to start.
Action:
Develop a Fine Art inclusive crit pedagogy focusing on asking questions rather than making assumptions.
Prioritise my own ongoing education in areas of cultural or racial ignorance.
Channel 4 Entertainment. (2020, June 30). Heartbreaking moment when kids learn about white privilege | the school that tried to end racism [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I3wJ7pJUjg
Campbell-Stephens, R. (2020). Global Majority; Decolonising the Language and Reframing the Conversation about Race. [online] Available at: https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/-/media/files/schools/school-of-education/final-leeds-beckett-1102-global-majority.pdf.
Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.
TEDx Talks. (2023, March 2). Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learning how to get it right | Asif Sadiq | TEDxCroydon [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR4wz1b54hw
Tchiapi, Hugette (2024) in CSM Changemakers Publication https://learnteachcsm.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/07/CSM-Changemakers-2024-Publication-online.pdf
The Telegraph. (2022, August 5). Revealed: The charity turning UK universities woke [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRM6vOPTjuU
[1] “Global Majority is a collective term that first and foremost speaks to and encourages those so-called to think of themselves as belonging to the global majority. It refers to people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’. Globally, these groups currently represent approximately eighty per cent (80%) of the world’s population” p.1 Rosemary Campbell-Stevens (2020) see Bibliography for full citation.
[2] See https://learnteachcsm.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/07/CSM-Changemakers-2024-Publication-online.pdf
The UAL Dashboard shows that across at Chelsea specifically, 58.1% of students stated they had no religion. Of those who identified as having a religion, the three largest categories where Christian (11.7%), Prefer not to say (9.6%) and Muslim (6.1%).
The shortcomings of the data collection that UAL does around protected characteristics prevent any engagement with an intersectional analysis of these figures as each characteristic is treated as a standalone category. No analysis is possible about how much those who identify as having a religion overlap with other protected characteristics such as race and ethnicity. This creates a lack of comprehension, even institutional blindness, of where there may be layers of systematic discrimination e.g. for the black female Muslim Curating student I met at a recent opening.
I am personally interested in the ‘prefer not to say’ category. Building from my Disability blog I wonder again about non-disclosure in these contexts. The students selecting this option have chosen to identify themselves as having a religion but would ‘prefer not to say’. Why is this? Is it personal preference or the fear of institutional or peer bias? As Nicole Brown (2022) has pointed out in relation to disclosing Disability status, there is a cost-benefit analysis that is happening in these hidden moments of decision-making. There are questions to be asked here about why the cost is too high to disclose, and what the institution can do to be a space that is inclusive of faith as a protected characteristic under the 2010 Equality Act.
Some of this hesitancy is likely driven by what is happening in the wider socio-political sphere, what Simran Jeet Singh (2025) identifies as fearmongering about religious groups by politicians to accrue power. Whilst Singh is talking about his own context in the US, similar prejudice is very evident in the Islamophobia in political discourse in the UK. A most recent example is Keir Starmer’s ‘island of strangers’ speech that drew parallels with Enoch Powell (Syal 2025). This is complicated by high profile British Muslims publicly supporting Reform, such as the party’s Chair Zia Yusuf, and much of the last decade of anti-immigration rhetoric spearheaded by other prominent Muslim figures like Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.
I would speculate that another contributory factor in the ‘prefer not to say’ choice, is the paucity of attention given to religion in the wider fields of both arts academia and contemporary art practice. Whilst there is a contemporary trend (with strong art historical antecedents) towards pagan and occult expression in art practice (see Marciniak (2019), established religions as a serious area of contemporary practice and research are quite a non-sequitur. As Gilbert et al argue in an interesting study in the field of cultural geography “religion has been given little or no attention in academic discussions of vernacular creativity, while arts policy as it developed in the United Kingdom in the post-war period has had a strongly secular focus” [Gilbert et al (2018) p.1].
These observations aside, the historic oppressions, persecutions, genocides, corruptions and colonising done by established religions surely holds responsibility for the secular turn. I have my own, at times conflicted, positionality to consider here as a white person who does have a personal faith, yet is strongly LGBTQ+ inclusive and wants to actively play a part in decolonisation, and as an artist in the field of contemporary art practice.
UAL generally has a strongly secular feel, with religious holidays often the taking place without interrupting the academic calendar. An example of how this impacts students came to my attention recently, when one of my exchange students who comes from an Italian institution queried why Easter didn’t align with the UAL Spring Break, as it meant she was unable to go home to celebrate the most important holiday of her year with her Catholic family.
Another issue I have found at UAL is that the Quiet Space and Prayer Room facilities are one and the same. The designated space at Chelsea is in a small, dark and quite damp room in the basement of C-Block. It is supposed to be open but is often locked and needs a key code to access it. This one room is the place that students of faith are supposed to pray in, and the one that Disabled and Neurodivergent students are to use if they are feeling overwhelmed. I don’t think these uses are compatible and so neither group are adequately catered for.
As an action moving forwards, I am going to set up a meeting to start a dialogue with the multi-faith chaplaincy team to understand their role more, and how we can work together to support an inclusive environment for people of faith or none on the 2Y of the BA Fine Art.
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Bibliography
Akhtar, P. (2025) Zia Yusuf: The British Muslim Driving Reform’s transformation into an election winner, The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/zia-yusuf-the-british-muslim-driving-reforms-transformation-into-an-election-winner-256003 (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Brown, N. (2022) Wellbeing in higher education podcast: Ableism, Dr Nicole Brown. Available at: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/wellbeing-podcast/ (Accessed: 23 May 2025).
Gilbert, D. et al. (2018) ‘The hidden geographies of religious creativity: Place-making and material culture in west london faith communities’, cultural geographies, 26(1), pp. 23–41. doi:10.1177/1474474018787278.
Marciniak, C. (2019) Wicked! modern art’s interest in the occult, Frieze. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/article/wicked-modern-arts-interest-occult (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Singh, S. (2025) Challenging Race, Religion, and Stereotypes in Classroom, Trinity University, YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CAOKTo_DOk (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Syal, R. (2025) Starmer accused of echoing far right with ‘island of strangers’ speech, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/12/keir-starmer-defends-plans-to-curb-net-migration (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Mobile-free studios: developing positive studio cultures on 2Y BA Fine Art
The intervention I propose is that certain studios in the 2Y BA Fine Art footprint become mobile phone free ones as part of a pilot aimed at addressing poor mental health and a demise in productive studio culture post-pandemic.
We have approximately 12 different studio rooms across 3 different floors of B-Block at Chelsea, currently with 162 students in the year. Take up across the studios can be limited and the most successful studios are ones which have actively engaged student community. The 25-26 cohort is looking to be 180-200 students with a slightly expanded studio footprint.
Students are to collectively select which studios are to trial this pilot, which will work on an opt-in basis. The aim is to create studio spaces where students:
Feel safe and want to spend time
Can work productively without distractive and extractive apps
Can develop a discursive culture with their peers, and consequently feel less isolated
A colleague in product design has a contact for a charity that supplies ex-office furniture for free to educational establishments. As part of this intervention, I would get some sofas (meeting latest fire safety regulations) for studio spaces in the pilot to help create environments that encourage students to spend time there.
This intervention is informed by:
My own research particularly 2015-17 into online behavioural addictions and the way that the meshing of telecommunications devices with network culture, helped create a context for the use of behavioural psychology to channel user attention, creating ‘sticky’ environments that people find very difficult to negotiate. [See https://www.katrionabeales.com/arewealladdictsnow & the accompanying book edited by Bartlett and Bowden-Jones (2017)].
Two significant interpersonal ruptures within the student body 23-25. Both involved messages shared on social media negatively overspilling into the physical space of the college and studio, which had serious and longlasting impacts on studio culture and usage by students.
Conversations with Sarah Campbell, the Mental Health Advice Manager at UAL, whom I have worked with closely regarding some of my 24-25 students who have experienced severe mental ill health.
Various campaigns within different parts of the education sector. A network in secondary schools in the London borough I live in (Southwark) have recently banned smartphones [Hill (2024)].
I am aware this could be seen as overbearing and carefully need to position this, as I am not trying to encourage a Luddite position but one of having a critical engagement with technology. I am perhaps confusingly, very interested in digital artworks and am not suggesting it would be a laptop-free space. It is the dynamics around social media apps (reliant on smartphones) that evidence suggests are the most problematic for mental health [Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) p.1646]. I am also aware of that many of our international students use translation software in tutorials and need to be careful that this isn’t discriminatory by encouraging the use of laptop or tablet devices as opposed to phones. The transition to using SEATs to mark attendance through student’s mobile phones is also potentially an issue. We can work around this by these studios having an agreement that once they have logged their attendance their phone is stored is off.
I would like to run this as a longitudinal trial over the autumn term 2025, with questionnaires exploring students’ perceptions on studio culture and their mental health in both the mobile-free studios and the ones that hadn’t participated in the pilot. I am aware I might need ethical clearance to undertake some of this research.
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Bibliography
Beales, K. et al. (2017) Are we all addicts now? Digital Dependence edited by Bartlett, V and Bowden-Jones, H. Liverpool, UK: Liverpool University Press.
Hill , A. (2024) Group of 17 London Secondary Schools join up to go smartphone-free, The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jun/06/group-of-17-london-secondary-schools-join-up-to-go-smartphone-free (Accessed: 23 May 2025).
Girela-Serrano, B.M. et al. (2022) ‘Impact of mobile phones and wireless devices use on children and adolescents’ mental health: A systematic review’, European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 33(6), pp. 1621–1651. doi:10.1007/s00787-022-02012-8.
Lopez-Fernandez, O. et al. (2017) ‘Self-reported dependence on mobile phones in young adults: A European cross-cultural empirical survey’, Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 6(2), pp. 168–177. doi:10.1556/2006.6.2017.020.
According to the UAL Dashboard, across CCW 18% of our students have declared a Disability. Chelsea specifically has a slightly higher rate with 18.5% of our students having declared a Disability, of whom 3.4% declared a Mental Health condition. These statistics are at odds to the general populace. In terms of Mental Health alone, a 2023 survey [see Baker and Kirk-Wade (2024)] found that among those aged 17 to 19, 10% had a probable mental disorder in 2017, rising to 23% in 2023 (emphasis mine). In 2025, these are the 19-21 year olds on the 2nd Year (2Y) of the BA Fine Art.
I don’t have space here to unpack all the reasons behind the sharp rise in mental ill health amongst young people, but research shows that COVID and the climate crisis are contributory factors [Lawrance et all (2022)]. In terms of mental health alone, there is a disconnect of around 20% between the national statistics (23%) and the student disclosed statistics at Chelsea (3.4%). From my experience as Year leader for 2Y, I would say the national picture is a much more accurate reflection of my students’ mental health.
As educators the mental health of our students has a direct impact on how students engage with us and learn, and should impact our pedagogy. Hence, the non-disclosure of students’ mental health conditions raises particular challenges. Whilst visible Disabilities have their own distinct concerns, particularly in a building as inaccessible as Chelsea’s, I am concerned that invisible Disabilities are remaining hidden in a context where students must disclose in order to be seen. Why, as these statistics suggest, are students unwilling to disclosure? There is support (albeit limited) via the Disability service, and students with an ISA (Individual Support Agreement) can get two-week extensions on deadlines.
A starting point to truly trying to address students’ reluctance to disclose would be to understand more fully, the personal and external barriers students face that prevent them from doing so. As Moriña summarises the most common external factor students’ identity is faculty themselves. “Many students with invisible disabilities find that faculty members are neither informed nor trained to support them and contribute to their inclusion.” [Moriña (2022) p.919]
Dr Nicole Brown has raised this as a critical issue, asking how visible people with Disabilities in teaching or academia are [see Brown (2018)]. If students can’t see themselves represented in staff, how can we say we are truly creating inclusive environments for teaching? This creates a self-fulfilling cycle where ableism is not tackled. Are students choosing not to disclosure their Disability due to the perceived cost of being stigmatised, marginalised and categorised in a context where they are not represented? This might be particularly true in the case of mental health where there are strong social stigmas at play, particularly when we take into consideration different intersectional cultural, class and gender-based factors.
What is clear to me, is that in my role at UAL I have the opportunity and responsibility to visibilise my own invisible Disabilities. By doing so, I can contribute to a more inclusive working and learning culture at UAL, for both staff and students.
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Bibiliography
Baker, C. and Kirk-Wade, E. (2024) Mental health statistics: Prevalence, services and funding in England – House of Commons Library, House of Commons Library, UK Parliament. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06988/ (Accessed: 26 May 2025).
Brown, N. (2022) Wellbeing in higher education podcast: Ableism, Dr Nicole Brown. Available at: https://www.nicole-brown.co.uk/wellbeing-podcast/ (Accessed: 23 May 2025).
Brown, N. and Leigh, J. (2018) ‘Ableism in academia: Where are the disabled and ill academics?’, Disability & Society, 33(6), pp. 985–989. doi:10.1080/09687599.2018.1455627.
Lawrance, E.L. et al. (2022) ‘Psychological responses, mental health, and sense of agency for the dual challenges of climate change and the covid-19 pandemic in young people in the UK: An online survey study’, The Lancet Planetary Health, 6(9), pp. 726–738. doi:10.1016/s2542-5196(22)00172-3.
Moriña, A. (2022). When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education. Disability & Society, 39(4), 914–932. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2022.2113038
