Graduate Archive for Faculty of Creative and Performing Arts and Media

Within the classrooms, labs and studio sessions, the analysis and critique of work forms a major part of the student design experience. Through The Graduate Archive, students can now access work done outside of their own medium, but perhaps dealing with a shared theme or subject. The searchability by theme/keywords on the MTU Graduate Archive has enhanced the research breath and exposed students to creative approaches and perspectives they may not otherwise have encountered. This affords a deeper awareness of other work still produced within the ‘hothouse’ conditions of final year study and helps to reimagines the scope of what is possible. When used within the classroom as a resource it also fosters a sense of a community of practice. This, in turn, nurtures a sense of belonging and visibility.

The Graduate Archive offers a lit path – a compelling creative prompt in the initial stages of project development and a motivator as the work develops over the semesters. The collected references can offer further insights into stylistic development and decision-making, story/conceptual refinement, workarounds for technical challenges, tricks-of-the-trade, new approaches or problem-solving methods. The Graduate Archive reinforces the importance and diversity of story-telling, shared creative culture, and continuity.
While the immediate benefits of the archive as an applied learning resource and a means of connecting are palpable, it also serves as a portal to an archive of previous work. In this way we can reflect on previous topics, styles and trends and how these have changed over the years; The learning resource behaves as a social document, capturing and resharing the creative culture at the Faculty of Creative, Performing Arts and Media as it evolves. Future developments that would be worthy of exploration include capturing reflective interviews with students, staff, external examiners, process walkthroughs and examining social media opportunities to drive activity towards the website. This might be achieved by a socials ‘shop-window’, showcasing short samples of student work and linking it to the website, thereby embedding it in the student awareness as a dynamic key resource.
The showcase also serves an online rolodex to alumni and as such provides access to past creative practitioners, who may be potentially contacted by staff, or students, for project advice, guest lectures and even work placements. This is an incredibly powerful teaching resource. Graduates can be reached and invited to offer insights on specific topics, projects, or practices and programme development. These connections can extend the classroom outward into industry, and can facilitate conversations between yesterday’s graduates and todays learners. The archive is also used to contact graduates to invite them to visit or collaborate on projects, advise them of opportunities, funding, awards and guest lectures they might be interested in both attending or providing.