For my micro-teach, I decided to explore ‘Narrative’ within creative practice. My personal practice is fashion focused and so it was only right that I referenced the exploration of narrative within the recent AW21 Louis Vuitton Men’s Fashion show. In this show which was presented a day after the inauguration of Joe Biden and created within the controversial US election, the creative Director Virgil Abloh (who is from the US and of West African heritage) explores and merges cultural narratives, “Inspired, and reflective of a world we live in today, all while examining the “unconscious biases instilled in our collective psyche by the archaic norms of society.”. I decided to reference this as I found the context of the show to be very relevant and the perfect example of the social, cultural, and political climate that we are currently living in and intervention to encourage the exploration of ones own cultural narrative in response to the curriculum to encourage inclusivity.
AW21 Louis Vuitton Men’s Fashion show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV_QoQD_nrA
To begin my micro-teach I asked my participants to reflect on their personal understanding of what narrative was using the whiteboard function on the blackboard. I wanted to establish their initial understandings through critical and creative thinking as well as creating an interactive space for dialogue and learning. I received some great responses and references from this 1st task which provided, (as designed) the perfect progression into introducing my main reference and presenting the further context for my micro-teach.
To follow on I presented three key looks from the micro-teach. I found it effective to present images due to the session being digital, which allowed me to access a larger range of resources than I may have had if done in person.
I posed questions for the participants to reflect on in their discussion of the images that had been presented, these were; What are the narratives explored in these images/collection and how do they unpack the current climate? How is identity explored and represented? This created some very good responses, on reflection I could have posed more open questions to encourage a deeper reflection, nevertheless, I found this task to be a very effective tool in critical thinking. The participants developed in-depth discourse in unpacking cultural narratives presented in the works and their deeper context of gender, politics, and diaspora.
Lastly, I asked my participants “If you were to create a look that represented you, what would it consist of / what would it be?”. For this, I encouraged them to bring an item of clothing that best represented them and their narratives. I wanted to use object-based learning as an exercise for the participants to relate the earlier task back to themselves through critical thinking and reflection and furthermore how their own narratives could be used creatively within their own works.
Overall I found the Micro teach to be a success and the team provided some valuable feedback regarding my use of the tools, tasks, and how effectively this brought the group together.