My time at ECA
One of the things I enjoyed the most during my time at ECA, was the opportunity to develop my skills in a variety of fields. On the one hand I was learning how to do 3D animation and on the other I was conducting primary research to improve the university's greenspaces policy.
I also had the opportunity to do a work-based dissertation with the Scottish Food Coalition, and both the programme staff and my employer were flexible and supportive, allowing me to develop a project guided by my interests. This project was the design of a Decolonial Workshop Toolkit based on building community awareness and engagement with the food system and how to make it more socially and environmentally sustainable.
I also found the opportunity to walk around ECA and meet people from different departments as well as attend events like the Custom Design show and a Zine workshop incredibly inspiring.
My experiences since graduating
Doing a work-based dissertation allowed me to leave ECA feeling confident that the skills I learned could be put to use in the field I wanted to work in. I saw myself using my creative and workshop development skills to support community participation in designing better food systems through a decolonial perspective. In both of the projects I am involved in, Dignity in Practice and the Fork to Farm Dialogues, I have had the opportunity to do exactly this.
Additionally, I am currently working with people from around the world to bring together farmers and policy-makers so that they can work together to tackle climate change. One of the stops of this project is COP26, an event that I would have never imagined I would be actively involved with!
One of my biggest achievements since leaving ECA has been to introduce and actively push for a decolonial approach to our work which I have now seen feed into our projects.
My time at ECA gave me the opportunity to bring together food, creative practices and decoloniality in a safe and nurturing space. This enabled me to confidently put what I had learned into practice in my current work.
My advice to new and current students
Try everything, however random it seems. ECA offers the brilliant opportunity to choose modules from a wide array of fields - use this to learn about something you’re curious about, even if it seems to be outside of your field. I would also recommend that you keep aware of the different events going on in different departments, it is a great way to be inspired, learn new skills and meet people!
For someone graduating, I would say that more and more creative practices are being recognised as crucial for positive social and environmental change and that they’ve just graduated with a tool that can really help tackle global challenges.
