Author: Caro McCaw

Newsplash Studio

Newsplash was a project-based learning centre at Otago Polytechnic, from 2012 – 1017. 

Following the experiences of design students in one New Zealand educational institution, this paper considers the opportunities and challenges created by project-based learning where students are engaged in live innovative projects. Students gain skills and confidence by working in teams on live projects. These are sometimes classroom-based and at other times facilitated by Otago Polytechnic’s commercial innovation studio. A high level of motivation and engagement are evidenced through both types of learning activities. As this polytechnic takes on the role of innovation facilitators for the wider community, with the aim of generating income to cover the decline of government funding, we consider the risks and benefits to students learning through engaging with these live projects and workplace learning contexts as a part of their education. 

https://www.academia.edu/80955900/Making_a_Splash

Links to other articles

Links to articles about Caro McCaw.

Teaching media
Media watch. Caro McCaw, Update. New Applied Research. Issue 3: October 2009. Special Issue: Teaching and Learning in Art and Design. Otago Polytechnic.

Who Cared? Otago Nurses in WW1
A journey of care. Caroline McCaw, Leyton Glen, Morgan Oliver, Jon Wilson and Craig Scott. Pg 23, Whakapuaki kā Rakahau: 2015 research highlights, Otago Polytechnic.

A Darker Eden
Place-based fashion identity. Jane Malthus, Caroline McCaw, Leyton Glen and Professor Margo Barton. Pg 21, Whakapuaki kā Rakahau: 2015 research highlights, Otago Polytechnic.

Design education with the More-Than-Human: Owheo Rising

Owheo Rising was a collaboration with visiting research Nina Czegledy (CA), Ron Bull (Kai Tahu Māori cultural advisor) and staff and students from the Schools of Art and Design – a collaborative teaching project– that extended the collaboration to include our local river.
A symposium began this student project bringing multiple perspectives of the river that runs through the Otago Polytechnic campus. Students from both schools first learned about the social, environmental and cultural histories of the river, and engaged in experiences with the stream as a living being. The images below depict The Paper Boat project. A student team developed hand-made paper embedded with seeds required to grow the native grasses in the stream that endangered native fish need to lay eggs. It was designed with local kindergarten children and teachers as stakeholders, along with the fish and stream itself.

Images: Students gather around the Owheo river to prototype a paper boat race
Images: Students gather around the Owheo river to prototype a paper boat race

Public presentation and curation: Dunedin Dream Brokerage

I am one of a group of four trustees (Hoe Akau) who facilitate the Dunedin Dream Brokerage a charitable public arts organization that brings life into empty urban and retail environments through brokering a lively programme of creative project occupation. We work with property owners, artists, individuals and community groups to broker the temporary use of space, producing between 12 – 20 projects per year.
Dunedin Dream Brokerage:
• Supports the work of creatives and increase citizen engagement and local storytelling
• Reduces vacant space and activate the city’s under-utilised buildings and spaces for creative purpose
• Delivers a lively and diverse programme of experiences and events that celebrate our city.

Kindly supported by the Dunedin City Council and Otago Polytechnic.

Image: Dunedin Dream Brokerage screenshot of website showing a variety of recent presentations.
Image: Dunedin Dream Brokerage screenshot of website showing a variety of recent presentations.

Design Research Field Work: Nature Relations Project

Led by Professors Kate Fletcher (UK) and Louise St Pierre (CA) and with Zack Camozzi (CA) I participated in Field Work as part of the Nature Relations collaborative research project in 2023. Together we conducted field work in our own locations and came together online and in person where possible to share our experiences, observations and insights. We collectively explored ways to foster new actions in design disciplines, towards a partnership approach with nature. “With awareness of the ecological realities in design and the continuous need for nurturing collaborations with nature, we put stories, moments and conversations at the heart of the project.” (Nature Relations, Occasional Press 2023).

https://www.academia.edu/98121462/Attentive_and_Appreciative_Designers_Connecting_with_More_Than_Human_Beings

Image: A page from the Nature Relations book (2023)and a photograph from my local neighbourhood considering the complexity and inter-relations of moss, lichen and wood.

Sounding

Sounding is a series of exhibitions produced with artist Vicki Smith. This work began as a response to oil and gas exploration permits being opened up off the coast of Otago, the south east of New Zealand. I collaborated with Vicki, and together we developed great working relationships with marine scientists, sound designers and creative technologists to develop and present a highly engaging exhibition that was exhibited in New Zealand and Canada. Sounding Walks was an additional walking presentation of the work, where umbrellas were developed with technology that responded to transmitters in the environment to play sound tracks and encourage lively conversations with and between scientists and walkers, mimicking the scale and processes of local whales.

https://www.academia.edu/98121458/Sounding_Walks_Evoking_Empathy_through_Social_Sound_and_Walking_Practices

https://ako.ac.nz/programmes-and-services/te-whatu-kairangi/awardee-community/2014-tertiary-teaching-excellence-awardees/caro-mccaw

Fulbright Scholar in Residence 2016 – 2017

I spent a wonderful 10 months at SUNY Canton, in Northern New York, as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. Along with collaborative teaching projects (with Professor Kathleen Mahoney at SUNY Canton, and Trudy Lane, Dunedin), and ongoing research, I met amazing people, and had life-changing experiences. 

Super gratitude to the Fulbright Association, Fulbright New Zealand — Te Tūapapa Mātauranga o Aotearoa me Amerika, and the Fulbright Enrichment programme.

https://www.academia.edu/79861525/Here_I_am_Doing_Culture_Together_A_collaborative_exhibition_project_that_considers_cultural_ideas_from_New_Zealand

https://www.academia.edu/79860646/Here_I_Am_A_Collaborative_Exhibition_Between_Technology_And_Art_History_Students_Exploring_Culture_And_Identity

Anei Au

Anei Au was a collaborative student project – an interactive exhibition produced between a programming class and an art history class at SUNY Canton in upstate New York, 2016. The collaboration started with a lecture by visiting New Zealand artist and museum professional Vicki Lenihan about Contemporary New Zealand Maori Art which drew upon the history of art and ancestry in the work of her extended family. Students were particularly drawn to the art of poupou, carved images of ancestors on wooden posts traditionally found in wharenui or meeting houses. 

Taking the poupou as a source of inspiration, students drew upon their own ancestors and their unique cultural identities as the exhibition subject, and developed interactive elements using Augmented Reality software available through the Library and Learning Commons. 

Through working together on a shared brief each student discovered connections to the past, adopted their own tools and literacies to position themselves and shared their positions with others. In the face of fleeting connections through their common digital experience: browsing, messaging, posting and searching, this collaborative project required deeper human connection both as a research and design process as well as through the negotiated development of an outcome.

Produced collaboratively with Kathleen Mahoney, graphic and interaction designer with 20 years experience in industry and professor at SUNY Canton. I was working at SUNY Canton as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence. We thanks Vicki Lenihan for her insight into the importance of Ancestors across cultures, and hep with the students concept development stage.

Landscapes and social exchange


This workshop was presented in Pachuca, Mexico at Simbiosis, Encounters of Interdisciplinary Art, the result of a collaboration with biologist Dr. Raúl Ortiz-Pulido (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo). Entitled ‘Landscapes and Social exchange’ we focused on a research project that examined the white-eared hummingbird, its seven mutualistic plant species and a climate change event.

Through site visits, visual and social research methods, the 2‑day workshop encouraged a group of Mexican English language students and attending artists and designers to develop a full scale project, using video and social media to encourage the establishment of urban hummingbird habitat development and ongoing collaboration between two universities.

As instigator of the workshop, I enabled a local network to develop with creative, social and environmental outcomes that have resulted in ongoing collaborations between two Mexican Universities.

Caroline McCaw