Christine Kingsley

Current practice emerged as a conference walk in 2019, which centred on the therapeutic practice of shinrin-yoku: the Japanese term for immersion in nature to reconnect and awaken the senses through mindful practice. As mental health issues rise, the need to spend time restoring in our natural environment is a proven alternative to digital living. The University of Dundee’s Festival of the Future have disseminated the activity through the film showing Restoration in 2021. This film reflects the people centred practice in her work. Sharing forest bathing practices at the University of Dundee’s botanical gardens highlights the co-design practice of using urban green spaces. She believes learning in digital environments is rich and rewarding, but that learning also requires rest and rejuvenation and this can be found in campus green places. The Higher Education sector is keen to enhance both learning experiences and environments post-covid. This activity builds on empathic research for the chapter, the Empathic graduate published by Routledge-Graduate Attributes in Higher Education: Attitudes on Attributes from Across the Disciplines.

Further wellbeing work with the University of Dundee Archives centres on the Big Back Garden, a further collaborative project in Dundee’s Baxter Park. It is a celebration of the changing needs of urban parks. An interest in the park was peaked as a previous local resident and gardener, but it was the opportunity to co-design with the communities involved that made this project and the historic design connection to Designer Sir Joseph Paxton was an added plus. The insights gathered are evident in the film, the Big Back Garden- from your park to mine. It demonstrates through stories city dwellers reuse of an 1861 part for the people. The film also highlights the social capital of the University of Dundee in acknowledging its history and future in its city’s green space. 

Teaching across critical and cultural studies and studio practice is conducted through the focus of design studies. The multimodal nature of living and working is key to first year teaching and sets a digital literacy benchmark to all visual practice in studio. Alternative Futures modules for level 3 and 4 design students present an alternative to a traditional dissertation. Writing for professional practice and developing a personal voice is celebrated in these modules. The learning consolidates research methods for all visual practice and in publication of past, present, and future communication. Previous studio activity has been funded by Chest, Heart and Stroke, Scottish Government and RSA catalyst funding to explore interventions for local communities with communication impairment. By using technology to meet people’s needs first, we customised communication to shape and support social interactions. learning to learn with technologies is central to the art and design community’s curiosity. As a creative practitioner in Higher Education notable roles held within the School of Art and Design have been as Admissions Lead; Academic Lead; Academic Digital Champion; before taking the role of Associate Dean of Quality and Academic Standards for the School of Art and Design in 2021.