UWTSD’s Swansea College of Art Lecturer presents a Vision of an Ai and Immersive Art & Design School at European Conference on Education

UWTSD’s Swansea College of Art is set to take the stage at the European Conference on Education in London in July. Timi Isaac O’Neill will present his paper titled Meta-Disruption in Art and Design Education: A Constructivist Approach for Chinese Postgraduate Students. Timi’s paper reflects his team’s extensive work with Chinese students enrolled in the Professional Doctorate in Art and Design and MA Art & Design programmes. It suggests that educators have reached the educational Rubicon and the need to adapt to emerging technologies is urgent.

The relentless growth of Ai and emerging technologies is asking some difficult questions of the current education system. He posits a vision of the current concept of an art school as a virtual coliseum where tradition and innovation battle . As a result, he argues it is evitable that educators must question traditional teaching styles. He suggests that the only solution is not only to embrace the potential of AI and immersive technology, but to use it to shape a creative curriculum. Evidencing his Chinese students, with their ability to blend tradition and new technology, he suggests they serve as a compelling example of the necessity to reimagine old teaching models and infuse new vitality into education.

Timi O’Neill said: “The concept of ‘Meta-disruption’ as articulated in our course manifesto, suggests a series of systemic shocks to the practices of art and design teaching. These shocks create cracks in the traditional view of creativity and hopefully develop new thinking. It’s a similar idea to academic’s explanation that the meta disruption of the English reformation created cracks in the way the world was seen and allowed Shakespeare to see deep structures of human life. For us, the cause of these shocks is AI and immersive technology in the field of art and design education. The new thinking provides students and staff the confidence to explore and develop new creative practices.”

Teaching through the paradigm of “Hybrid Creativity”, O’Neill’s research suggests students explore more deeply the symbiotic relationship between human and AI-generated artistic expressions. He suggests that through employing transdisciplinary practices, students have been more engaged in new creative forms, allowing them to construct their own understanding of the evolving nature of creativity. Timi O’Neill and his team of Kylie Boon and Yueyao Hu aim to revolutionize teaching for Chinese postgraduate art and design practice students in the UK. The aim of the research is to empower the students to navigate the rapidly changing educational landscape effectively, and to take these new ideas and practices back to China. 

Dr Mark Cocks, Interim Dean of the University’s Wales Institute of Science and Art said: “As academics it’s important for us to question how future educational contexts may shift in light of technological innovation. The meta-disruption concept, in Timi O’Neill’s paper for the European Conference on Education in London, presents a valuable challenge to the expected notions of art and design learning practice.”

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Rebecca Davies

Executive Press and Media Relations Officer    
Corporate Communications and PR    
Email: rebecca.davies@uwtsd.ac.uk    
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