12 :: ? THE EVOLUTION OF THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAMME In the everyday-cliché story of the caterpillar and the butterfly, the cocoon tends to get barely a mention, despite its role as the fundamental catalyst in the process of magical metamorphosis, which makes this tale of transformation so worth telling. At the moment, with change catalysing (so very hopefully) in our country, institutions and minds, a project that embodies “metamorphosis” in all the ways, seems an appropriate mechanism through which to explore the “cocoon” of collaborative creation that makes change possible. Inspired by the approach of the Bauhaus School of 1920s Germany, which pioneered modern design, a large-scale collaborative design project was brought to life at UJ in 2017. This was under the leadership of the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA), Professor Federico Freschi. The stage is a vital example of productive team work, and because of the diverse and extensive range of its requirements, theatre production offers a perfect laboratory for collaborative creation. In the UJ context, over 300 students from the eight creative disciplines taught within the Faculty worked with a creative team from UJ Arts & Culture to produce a professional theatre piece. An outcomes-based process, this project places early-career (second-year) students at the coalface of learning about collaborative functional design. Teams employ the principles of design, thinking to explore challenges of a context they do not necessarily understand, pitching their ideas to a panel of experts with the winning ideas materialised in the creation of the set/lighting/space/costume design for a brand new play. The 2017 iteration of African Gothic (translation of Reza de Wet’s Diepe Grond), took this collaborative learning process one step further, with the presentation of a “developmental run”, which included eliciting feedback from audiences as part of the monitoring and evaluation process. Along with practical input from members of the teams, gleaned through navigating the live production experience, changes will be incorporated into a final iteration, to premiere at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, in July this year. One might wonder what place this has in the context of a learning environment. As Professor Freschi explains, “As we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we are preparing Opposite :: Liezl de Kok and Zak Hendricks in UJ Arts & Culture’s African Gothic Photos :: Jan Potgieter continued >>