Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020 - 29

Ocean Design 3:
★ This take on a two piece gown is
inspired by our ocean's vast
expanses and how much we do not
know about the deep blue ocean.
★ The design features a bustier style
bodice and a high-waisted skirt
detailed with real pearls.

Bianca Bellavia's final class project: " What Will it Take? Global Warming, an Educational Fashion Show, "
with original fashion designs.

environmental and social justice in the
context of broad, network-based systems.
The course deployed project-based assignments that used human-centered
design to serve as the brainstorming and
foundational work for the final project.
Ultimately, the ideal course takeaway was
to provide these students with design

skills and the confidence to make positive
change for causes that impassion them.
The fashion sustainability content
was particularly well suited to the Map
the System global competition run by
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
at Oxford University and sponsored by
universities around the world, including

Vanderbilt. Map the System provides a
framework within which students think
deeply about social and environmental
change, starting with an understanding
of a challenge in a fuller context than a
study of superficial causational problems. Systems mapping is an effective
way for an interdisciplinary team to research and understand the wide variety
of factors, including economic, political,
and global trends, that comprise the complicated systems that shape businesses
and supply chains. In this competition,
the mapping process allows students to
creatively construct a narrative through
discovery and understanding to address
a challenge, and then share out the problem, existing solutions, and leverage gaps
or places where they see potential for improvement and positive change. Map the
System serves as a tool for understanding how specific changes might lead to
system-wide improvements. The class of
15 students was broken into five groups,
based on their top-pick topic from a predetermined list. The teams researched,
further refined their main question, developed an annotated bibliography, and
created an initial list of actors within
the system that they chose as the basis
for their narrative. They then completed
the requirements for the competition: a
2,500-word report, a bibliography, and a
visual presentation of their findings to a
judging panel on campus.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the
final class project was amended through
a class brainstorming activity, allowing
for an empathetic response to the needs
of students who found themselves in an
entirely new learning environment. In this
regard, the early-semester discussions of
human-centered design enabled the collaborative transition into an online classroom that best served everyone. Online
teaching and virtual learning reinforces
the blurring of lines between student and
teacher, because of the democratization
that occurs due to the untraditional formatting of teaching outside a classroom.
A new kind of engagement between
teachers and students is necessary in a
virtual setting where a window opens,
breaking down traditional boundaries.
Human-centered design reflects and
promotes teacher-student engagement
mirrored in online teaching and learning.
Brainstorming activities advance the flow
of design ideas and allow students to
FALL 2020 | THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

| 29
Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2020
