SHARING OUR CURRICULUM.
An opportunity for LCF course leaders to co-design with camp communities.
The branding workshop was designed and developed by Dr Nina Van Volkinberg, leader of the MA Strategic Fashion Marketing course and her PhD student, Josefa Lavandero Olivares. This short course was delivered in both Dzaleka and Maratane, stretching our communication capacities and inspiring reflection on what remains relevant—or redundant—in the world of brands across such different life circumstances. It raised deeper questions about what it means to encourage commerciality in places where markets are extremely limited, and about promoting a form of consumerism that “we in the West” believe needs radical change.
The whole group, now self-named Dzaleka Arts Lab, has completed a short branding certificate course.
“The power in this is that art needs no translation.”
Students from the MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology course study the “Pockets of Love” piece and discover the handwritten messages within it.
The students taking a class photo, holding all the pieces they made in response to the “Pockets of Love”, each piece taken back to Dzaleka to continue the long-distance conversation of courage and making between them.
“Look what happens when you devote your work to another – I will never forget this.”
LCF students share ideas of natural dyes made from vegetation and leaves. Leaf piece by Tianyu from the MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology course.
Finely cut tin cans made into flowers and stars by Yiying and Xianyin.
In response to the sense that trauma and upset can be part of everyday life, students wrote poems on stones, suggesting they were carried in people’s pockets to hold and squeeze in moments of overwhelm. Yuxuan, and J, Siqi made each stone a knotted denim nest.
“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about”
In response to the “Pockets of Love” and the messages within, these students were deeply moved by what it could mean to be a mother in Dzaleka. They wondered how children learned to read and what stories they would be told. They created a “roll-up” textile story book, entitled “What is Love?” Each fabric page has a visual way to understand love through touch and the eyes of animals. “What does a rabbit love? A carrot, of course”.
‘What is Love?’ textile book by Siyu and Yihan from the MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology course at LCF.
WhatsApp plays a vital and complicated role in keeping us connected when physical connection isn’t possible. The ethics of creative intimacy and considerations for GDPR are at the frontline of how inequality is encountered and faced.
“Care label tie” made by Wanru, Michela, Wenjing and Jayla from the MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology course at LCF.
“The Care tie” was made out of hand-stitched care labels in response to the “Pockets of Love” piece, intended for and inspired by the Sapologists.
The “Care label” textile prototype – chosen because abundant care labels bulge in garments the world over, are often multilingual and would be a plentiful textile resource to harvest from the abusive textile mountains this part of the world ships to Africa.
