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The University of Southampton
Winchester School of Art

Design Concepts - WSA Design Teaching and Learning at Dalian Polytechnic University

Jason Kao - 3D in Dalian

Dalian is one of the fastest growing city in 3D graphic entertainment industry in China. The famous award-winning 3D animation series 'Xia Yi Xao Qing Tian' showed in the hottest evening session at CCTV is the production of Tsanghao Animation based in Dalian. The series is the first domestic 3D animation production in China, which applied the most advance motion capture system. More than 200 TV studios signed the right to show the series.

The success of 'Xia Yi Xao Qing Tian' presents the capability of Dalian in producing quality 3D animation. There are more than 150 animation corporations in Dalian with 4.8 billion yuan annual revenue. Apparently Dalian is leading north east China in 3D entertainment industry however it's still in the shortage of 3D professionals.

Based on a solid base of graphic art education at Winchester School of Art, I believe we have the opportunity to expand our area to 3D graphics and bring world-class 3D design modules in our Dalian campus. It would be interesting to investigate 3D graphics education in Dalian and current market demands for 3D professionals.

Jenny Robinson - Proposal for a Chinese-British Fashion and Textile Design Centre

Concept

The Design studio (set up by UoS/WSA) would be a collaboration between UK Universities and Chinese Fashion and Textiles manufactures.
It would offer creative, innovative Western design services to Chinese companies wanting to produce their own high quality ranges for sale in both China and overseas.

The Design centre would create valuable opportunities for real work placements to UK, European and Chinese students in a professional, creative environment.
It would offer Chinese fashion manufactures access to design outsourcing and sample manufacturing services.

It would be a research and development centre, integrating domestic and foreign advances in fashion and textiles and could offer personnel training services.

Function

Students from UoS/WSA and other UK universities would spend 2-3 months at the Design Centre in China working on projects for Chinese manufactures.
Their role would be to work with the manufactures (through the studio manager) to create designs and a sealed sample (first sample, used for manufacturing quality control) for mass production runs.

Chinese manufactures use the Design centre as an outsource to gain access to innovative design concepts with high quality creative pattern cutting and technical skills.

Requirements

A fully equipped, state of the art, Design Studio based in China close to the high quality, mass quantity production manufacturing areas near Shanghai and Beijing.
A sample cutting room, again fully equipped with the latest technology (to attract potential Chinese manufactures to use the services). Sample production room, where the sealed sample is developed for mass production.

Staff

Project manager - Working with UK Universities to recruit the best students for work placements at the Design Centre. This would involve visiting UK Universities and events (e.g. Graduate Fashion Week) viewing portfolios and interviewing students.
(Experience and extensive contacts in UK education, based in UK and China)
Studio Manager - Overseeing the running of the Design Centre, coordinate the workload and the students on placements. (Experience running a studio/teaching, based in China)
Chinese Coordinator - Promoting the Design Centre to manufactures and liaison with the factories to bring in projects. (Strong links/contacts with fashion companies in China)
Cutting and sample room manager - to oversee technical production of sealed samples.
(Experience and excellent pattern cutting and technical skills, based in China)
Office – To organise student’s flights, accommodation, payments and day-to-day admin.

Financial

Chinese manufactures would pay a fee for the design service; this would cover the cost of running the studio.
Student’s flight and accommodation would be paid and they would need an allowance while in China.

Development

Initially the Design Centre would offer Fashion design and sample production services. Future services could include, CAD pattern making, Textile design (fashion & interiors), Knitwear, Global Trend Prediction, Brand development, planning and promotion.

Olivier Blanc (Senior Teaching Assistant), Li Fang Chen (Fashion Design Tutor DPU), Richard Child (Teaching Fellow), Rob Huddleston (Senior Teaching Fellow), Yuan Yuan Wang (Teaching Assistant) - Design: Contemporary Perspectives

Introduction

The proposed project addresses the need to redesign the Contemporary Issues in Practice module (Dalian), which is currently based on its WSA equivalent. The above WSA/ Dalian Polytechnic University (DPU) group sees significant potential for cross-cultural curriculum development and student learning via this module within the Dalian campus international art and design education context.

The proposal aims to jointly create new learning resources and module content: and to innovate learning methods. Whilst the project concentrates on the Dalian Contemporary Issues in Practice module, the outcomes of project would be beneficial to equivalent WSA module website.

Aims

The proposed project aims to enhance cross-cultural student learning through the development of research informed curriculum and learning and teaching methods. The aims are to:

Context

The proposal is to develop and test lecture topics, one chosen from the module’s lecture programme, ‘Mass Production and Consumer Society’, while the second plans to utilize Dalian architecture in relation to the art and design theory. The module currently covers aspects of theory via standard texts and images on the influence of the Bauhaus, Photography and so on. However, recent lectures and activities have introduced Chinese references within their wider international and global contexts. For example, Li Fang Chen. ‘Mass Production and Consumer Society from a Chinese Perspective 1950-2010’.

The development of learning methods concerns the context of first year study and the module’s mixture of English and Mandarin languages. Although the module is formally taught in Mandarin library- and studio-based activities effectively use both languages. Compared with lectures their current standard format, these sessions are encouraging more active student engagement. For this reason, it is proposed to develop and test different methods, including primarily visual lectures (supported by the module website), jointly tutored Design and Academic English for Art & Design sessions (to be piloted from November 2012).

Methods

The following methods are proposed:

Expected outcomes

The proposed duration of this information gathering and prototyping project is six months, commencing in January 2013. Outcomes are expected to be a report on findings, recommendations for the module in 2013-14, including lecture formats.

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