the Faculty of Arts Research and Practice showcase for the Hull School of Art & Design, Hull School of Performance Arts and the Harrogate School of Art & Design.
Gamification is at the core of Paul Starkey’s practice, teaching and research.
Dreaming up gaming devices is second nature to Paul, a lifelong gamer and a member of the BA (Hons) Games Design and Animation teams at Hull School of Art and Design (HSAD). So it was only natural for the academic to apply the principles of gamification – the use of gaming mechanics in a non-game setting – to his lectures.
It is a pioneering method of delivering learning materials for education, and the subject of his MA proposal.
Paul says: “I have completed an experiment to develop a method of gamification. It involves dividing facets of education into separate elements and attaching game technology into them. Students then embark on a “quest” to gain experience points, or bragging rights to gain access to the next level.”
With a student website built, a pilot group of students have completed their “quests” to gain experience points as part of their studies.
The early indicators are that Paul’s educational experiment is likely to be very successful. Since introducing the gamification of knowledge in the Games Design studio, student attendance, punctuality and the volume of work produced have all improved. Student attendance has risen to 100%.
He is now looking at embedding gamification firmly into the first and second-year Games Design programmes and says the principles can be applied to any course, in any educational institution.
Paul is also involved in a large-scale research and development project with fellow academic, Gareth Sleightholme.
Rabbit Heart is a long-term research project that is being added to by students in each graduating year of the Games Design course.
“We’re going through every single process,” says Paul, whose major role on the project is to develop and produce all the visual game elements and mechanics of the game.
“I’m the tech guy who makes everything work,” he says, simplifying the complex, highly technical process somewhat. The plan for Rabbitheart is, eventually, to develop it into a tangible end product, in the form of a educational coffee table art book.
In the space of two years, the team has already taken the game to its first playable level and presented it at Hull’s annual Platform Expo in 2012. Paul’s students all have the opportunity to get involved with user-testing, producing assets – the “furniture” of a game’s set – and producing designs.
Paul has been teaching at HSAD since 2011, delivering lectures and technical software support that allows students to understand games design. At the time of writing, he is teaching nine different software products to industry standard, and counts 27 more software variations in his repertoire. He has a BA (Hons) in Games Design from HSAD.
In his spare time, Paul’s practice includes freelance games design work, developing assets for games or other digital environments for clients in the games industry or other digital environments. He specialises in 3D modelling, such as the development of scenery, furniture and terrain, and texturing. He also builds and designs html and Flash websites.
He is currently developing a second personal games project based on a range of European folk tales.
Games Design. Animation. Visualisation. Inspirational platforms to fire the imaginations of the next generation of Hull School of Art and Design (HSAD) creatives …and the research interests of lecturer Gareth Sleightholme.
A prestigious early career in historical illustration for museums and set design for theme parks all over the world set the creative bar pretty high for Gareth. And, as one of the key driving forces behind several HSAD research projects, Gareth believes it is vital to continue to raise the bar, without losing sight of basic creative skills.
Drawing on his historical illustration skills, Gareth has spent over 15 years in the theme park and visitor attraction industry, designing sets and themed environments and producing artwork for attractions all over the world. An impressive portfolio includes designs for London Dungeons; Sea Life Aquariums; Santapark in Rovaniemi, Finnish Lapland; at the same time developing a post as visiting lecturer at his former university, where he helped to develop an MA in Animation & Sound Design.
A move to Essex and a role as Creative Director of a company called HPL saw Gareth explore 3D visualisation and production design for the likes of Virgin, Orange and Blackberry, and take his work to new parts of the world including Florida.
Becoming somewhat “disillusioned” with work in the corporate world, in 2008 he returned to Hull to teach at HSAD and resumed his freelance practice with theme park design; historical work for the museums services in Norfolk, the Midlands and Manchester; and most recently theatrical posters in Hulland Manchester and freelance production design works for an aquarium in Eastern Europe; and designs for themed attractions at a well known castle in Northern England.
“I continue to work as a freelance creative for clients that stem from a variety of markets that keep my knowledge of the various disciplines in which I teach current and vital. Some of these are projects which take me outside the typical workplace developing resources that can inform projects and discussion with students, for example working with Lego in Denmark, and recently producing concept art for a heritage project in the Caribbean.
It helps when working with consultants and spokespeople involved in developing links between students and SSC’s as well as other clients and industrial links – For example being asked to act as support on a five day project at the World Skills Conference 2011 in London, or helping Yr 2 Games Design students engage a unique client through which they exhibited their work in front of a unique audience.”
On the Games Design BA – a focal point of Gareth’s teaching at HSAD – his production design input reflects the type of work he developed in his career in physical theme park scenarios. In other words, students build 3D environments, just here they do it digitally. Working on a project called The Streets, students are asked to research a local thoroughfare, then as a group develop a believable, “evolved” environment. As the project grows year on year, so does a digital “city” and alumni are invited to donate buildings to help create a sense of connection to creatives beyond the course itself. Of course there is always the reward of playing a “game scenario” in this extending environment at the end of the module as well.
Students can collaborate with Gareth and colleague Paul Starkey to help develop an actual game in progress. Rabbit Heart is a learning resource that will ultimately spawn a book, The Tale of Rabbit Heart, providing tutorials for anyone conducting independent research in this area.
Work by Gareth and Paul and their students is regularly showcased at the annual Platform Expo convention in Hull (this year in November, 2013.
He has shown his own sequential illustration comic book art, The Indian Fighter,(image) at last year’s ThoughtBubble Animation and Sequential Art Convention in Leeds; expanding upon his work in illustration, drawing, infographics and concept visualisation.
As part of his Masters study, he is developing a number of board games, one, Game Hackerlooksto help his students understand game play and the development of game mechanics.
“It’s almost a Lego kit for board games,” he says. “I give them the basics and let them make up the rules as they go along. It’s all part of my research in process, primarily about the ways in which students learn or interface with learning, particularly those who have chosen a visual subject area”.
Another board game encourages students to become confident with the basics of drawing, and developing their draughtsmanship. I like students to look at the whole journey of developing a skill such as drawing, making mistakes included, which is difficult because they tend to focus heavily on each individual drawing they do. This encourages them to draw from real life and not worry too much about what they’re drawing.
“The idea is to start students off in their comfort zone until they become confident enough to naturalise their drawing process. In other words, they ‘get over themselves’. It’s a great teaching tool that emphasises self-motivated learning in the student while generating work. It works for animators, games designer and graphic designers.”
The basic craft of drawing forms another one of Gareth’s major research interests. Liaising with Jackie Goodman & Sarah Humphreys on research into the importance of Drawing, including helping develop the course structure for Medical Students SSC to explore drawing as part of their learning process.
Hull Urban Sketchers is a collaborative project with Illustration and Animation lecturer, Domanic Li. At its heart it celebrates the process, and the joy, of drawing. Its premise is to lead by example, and encourage students to build confidence in their drawing skills, in particular, drawing from observation in the urban environment through which they move everyday.
Gareth’s urban sketches and other work have been shown at; Studio Eleven art gallery, in Humber Street, Hull; ArtLink gallery in Princes Avenue, Hull, and Hull School of Art and Design.
Regarding his continuing work in education,
“I love the idea that I’m now doing an MA when I’m from a housing estate in Withernsea,” says Gareth. “There’s something fundamentally liberating about education. You should be able, if you have the will, to get out.”
Kevin Whittaker’s academic interests lie chiefly within the delivery and development of teaching and learning.
As our curriculum leader for five New Media courses – Animation, Digital Media Journalism, Games Design, Web Design and Interactive Media – Kevin co-ordinates the lecturers and the learning experiences of each. He also teaches and researches new ways of teaching.
He has delivered his theories on e-learning to an international conference audience in the USA, as well as presenting workshops on contemporary learning technology in the UK.
In 2010, Kevin delivered an innovative paper to the Designs On e-Learning International Conference at the University For Creative Careers in Savannah, Georgia, USA. In it, he questioned whether Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) simply replicate teaching mistakes of the past, suggesting Learning Activity Management Systems (LAMs) as a potential, highly visual alternative.
In 2011, he updated and developed his theories further and presented them before an HE research conference at Hull’s KC Stadium.
“We’re continually asking, ‘are we doing it right or are we doing it wrong?’,” says Kevin. “You can’t teach in the same way now as you used to 20 years ago. I do a lot of work with students along those lines and I correlate and share this information with all members of staff.”
Advancing technology, he says, allows educators to provide online learning environments. But, in order to educate students effectively, these environments must also adapt their content.
Kevin explains: “True online learning comes from blended learning environments.”
A particular area of interest is what Kevin describes as “user experience design”. In other words, how people actually use interactive products.
“I do a lot of work on the technical aspects of mobile phone applications and tablets, as well as websites,” he says. “I work on ‘cultures’, looking at the differences between, for example, games design and web design. We’re trying to get our students ready for their respective workplaces, so we try to recreate each professional culture in the studio.”
Kevin’s own journey into the world of academia is an inspirational one. He left school at the age of 15 to do an engineering apprenticeship. Engineering qualifications at Hull College led him into a 20-year career in the British Merchant Navy, firstly as an engineering officer, then as chief engineer. When family life meant he wanted to spend more time at home, he began teaching and, it’s fair to say, found his calling as an educator and academic.
He began teaching Auto CAD systems to architecture students, completed a degree in electronics and communication systems at the University Of Lincoln as a mature student and, in his own words “never left university”.
In 2001, Lincoln asked him to lecture in architecture and work as a learning advisor. By the time Lincoln had merged with Hull College he was lecturing on New Media courses. And in 2012, he took on his current role of New Media programme leader and ran with it, creating e-learning tools to benefit students across all five of its subject areas.
“You never know what road you’re going to travel on when you get involved in education,” says Kevin. “In many ways, that’s what it’s all about.”
Here you will find outlines and case studies of various projects created and developed across the Faculty of Arts, ongoing research projects investigated by staff, as well as staff and course profiles enabling you to see not only see and to give an insight into the methodologies and staff experience that drive our students projects.
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