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Phase 7

April 2021 – September 2022 

Phase seven was an opportunity for Shades of Noir to solidify its position as a Centre of Knowledge Exchange at UAL. Throughout this phase we specifically focused on refining current processes and took the opportunity to articulate an updated framework of practice:  

  • Representation – Build capacity at all levels of society for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others 
  • Remuneration – Support financial liberation for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others 
  • Reparation – Action approaches making amends for the wrongs done to marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others  
  • Reclamation – Develop strategies to reduce erasure, misappropriation and or undervaluing theirstories/herstories/histories for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others 
  • Redistribution – Evolve practices to redeploy powers and privileges for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others 
    Redistribution – Evolve practices to redeploy powers and privileges for marginal communities to grow, thrive and support others 

Outcomes. 

Student Development:

This Phase was unique in regard to our student cohort, due to Covid restrictions this cohort was completely digitally based. Our student team was recruited and inducted online throughout the beginning of the phase and continued to deliver their work remotely throughout. Although the lockdown was officially over in January 2022, since March 2020 SoN has continued working online and will remain working online.  

Throughout this phase, we continued to partner with courses and course teams around UAL to deliver unit briefs and guest workshops. We ran ‘Positionality in Relation to Race’; a reflective two-session programme for MA Applied Imagination, Central St Martins. The aims of the workshops were to consider positionality in relation to race, asking students to think about how they apply to their day-to-day work at the university. Additionally, we guest tutored for MA Narrative Environments, CSM as part of an industry-partnered project with Arup Service Design Agency. 

Safe Space Crits continued in the online digital space for the second year running and students became more familiar with the online format in comparison to the first year. Uptake continued to be steady and feedback has been excellent. 

Additionally, some of this team shared their reflections on their time at Shades of Noir via our site: 

Academic Staff Recruitment:

Teaching Within continues to evolve in its practice and investment in the community. TW6 (Sept ‘21 – Dec ‘22) formally created space for MA Practitioners to join the cohort, building on the success of a pilot programme in previous cohorts. The PgCert returned in part to being on-site across UAL, however Teaching Within modules, workshops and tutorials remained online in recognition of the benefits of a blended approach. Reporting around Teaching Within also evolved, with a particular focus on data analysis to demonstrate how this programme aligns with and often exceeds UAL’s Anti-Racism Action Plan. From its conception, Teaching Within has contributed 61% of current Academics of Colour at UAL. Additionally, the Teaching Within Prospectus was updated to become digitally accessible.

Staff Development:

As well as partnering with courses and departments to deliver unit briefs, we continued to deliver Emancipatory Consultancy to teams around UAL. These workshops provided space for teams to come together and critically evaluate how to recentre their praxis in anti-racist social justice. Throughout this phase we delivered to; Digital Teaching and Learning, CSM; Spatial Practices, CSM; Culture and Enterprise, CSM and Central Knowledge Exchange Teams. 

The ‘Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Higher Education’ Unit of the PgCert was rebranded to become the ‘Inclusive Practices’ Unit and became a compulsory module of the course. This meant scaling up the provision from an average of sixty students, the highest self-selecting unit, to over one hundred students. The unit remained online to continue a practice of care for our delivery team. The scale-up of the unit also meant that more tutors joined the unit meaning that we have also been able to bring in more expertise and develop our digital approach. 

Throughout this phase, we also continued to build on our external consultancy, delivering to a number of HEIs, Non-Profit Organisations and Think Tanks around the UK and Europe. This consultancy continues to be in high demand and creates long-term relationships with institutions and organisations. As we move into Phase Eight, we continue to develop our product provision and are looking forward to supporting our clients through substantial change.  

Events & Publications: 

During 2021 and 2022 Aisha Richards contributed to the book,  The Black Experience In Design (2022).  The Black Experience in Design, an anthology centering a range of perspectives, spotlights teaching practices, research, stories, and conversations from a Black/African diasporic lens. Through the voices represented, this text exemplifies the inherently collaborative and multidisciplinary nature of design, providing access to ideas and topics for a variety of audiences, meeting people as they are and wherever they are in their knowledge about design. Ultimately, The Black Experience in Design serves as both inspiration and a catalyst for the next generation of creative minds tasked with imagining, shaping, and designing our future.

Additionally, several members of the Shades of Noir team were nominated for university awards, with Aisha Richards being awarded the ‘Above & Beyond’ award, for her contributions to Teaching & Learning.

Keynotes included ‘You, Me, We and the I’ Anglia Ruskin University (2022), Buckingham New University 2021 and In July 2021, Aisha Richards (Director) delivered a keynote in partnership with Terry Finnigan at UAL’s Education Conference 2021 entitled “Critical Friendship”. 

The Keynote was outlined as such: 

This conversation will share some life and current issues for Aisha and Terry as practitioners who cultivate radical honesty, critical friendship, and transformational, rather than transactional, antiracism practices. How they have navigated the institution and milestones on this journey will be discussed, including a critique of white allyship, white voyeurism and ‘trauma porn’ moving to a place of solidarity, as well as what sustains their friendship as colleagues, through pain into unity. They argue that trust and belonging are overused, and the long-term work of critical discussion demands humility, vulnerability and radical empathy.

“Empathy is commonly viewed as putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and imagining how you would feel. That could > be seen as a start, but that is little more than role-playing, and it is not enough in the ruptured world we live in.

Radical empathy, on the other hand, means putting in the work to educate oneself and to listen with a humble heart to understand another’s experience from their perspective, not as we imagine we would feel.

Radical empathy is not about you and what you think you would do in a situation you have never been in and perhaps never will. It is the kindred connection from a place of deep knowing that opens your spirit to the pain of another as they perceive it.” (Wilkerson, 2020)

Due to the challenges of both covid and lockdowns, there were no further events or publications within this phase.   

Challenges Faced. 

  • Continuing to work online throughout Covid
  • Building up a new team throughout Covid and maintaining momentum 
  • Greater demand from external organisations & Institutions
  • Matching expectations in terms of deliverables
  • Transitions into institutional cultures and practices whilst retaining the framework of practice
  • Changes to institutional vision with new appointments with Executive Board UAL
  • Building research for deliveries 
  • Maintaining critical practices whilst engaging in aspects of mainstreaming 
  • Pressures of quality assurance around consistency, development and delivery.