29 Sep 2025

James Armstrong is a Lecturer in Music Composition and Technology at UCA and an alumni student of the PgCert in Creative Education.

JA

Higher Education (HE) has been significantly impacted by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with 81% of students in HE reporting to have been affected. The crisis is disproportionately affecting students already considered at a disadvantage, from lower socio-economic backgrounds (Dabrowski et al., 2025:281). In my own experience as a lecturer in creative arts HE at University for the Creative Arts (UCA), I have noticed this impact become increasingly worse, with many students balancing a variety of jobs outside of their studies or attending lessons hungry and lethargic. Students living with food insecurity are recognised to experience a variety of social, physical, and mental wellbeing difficulties as a result (Defeyter et al., 2020:2), affecting their ability to meaningfully engage in their studies.   

The broad scope of inclusive pedagogies may help to support those impacted, with a student-centred approach providing a cooperative exchange between student and educator, with “transformative potential for conceptions of teaching and learning” (McCabe and O’Connor, 2014:356). ‘Inclusive pedagogy’ refers to a variety of approaches to provide all students with a meaningful, engaging experience of education for all students, and that everyone can learn with appropriate support (Moriña, 2020:135). This may include but is not limited to conscious decisions in curriculum development, such as alternative methods or reasonable adjustments to assessment as provided through university quality and standards (QS) processes (University for the Creative Arts, 2022:3) and ensuring little to no monetary investment is needed by the student to successfully complete assessments. Despite my students having extensive access to computer and studio facilities to minimise the demand for personal investment, there is an undeniable advantage that those with their own personal computers and software licenses have over those that don’t. 

After initial tests and a proof of concept with multiple visual outputs, I approached the final pieces for my creative response with input from students at UCA, who will remain otherwise anonymous. This brings an element of primary and participatory research to what was initially a subjective response informed by secondary research. The students were asked to suggest food items they rely on when trying to save money. The responses included pasta, instant noodles, toast, rice, crackers, beans, and grains. Coffee, and tea were also mentioned. Worryingly, one student stated if they’re feeling tired and have no money, they will mix sugar with water throughout the day for energy. These items were incorporated into the final pieces; all sourced from my own cupboards to avoid additional purchases and food waste. The use of spray paint aligns with the disproportionate effect of the cost-of-living-crisis on students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Despite the potential for spray paint to be a visually appealing art form, it is often associated with vandalism, anti-social behaviour, and deprived settings. Considered a form of Kitsch art, spray paint graffiti is a symbol of lower social classes and low cultural capital as defined by institutional gatekeeping (Jovicevic and Schaap, 2016:2).  

In addition to the visual elements of these collected pieces, the process was also documented sonically. Audio recordings of the practical process were captured in binaural format. When the audio excerpts are heard via headphones, the binaural capture creates an immersive listening experience (Rafaely et al., 2022:1) with a sense of 360° directionality. Finally, to incorporate a musical aspect to the output of this creative response, reused a variety of the food items mentioned by students and poured them over the strings of an electric guitar in an open tuning that is neither major nor minor in key allowing for a degree of listener interpretation. This unconventional technique of playing is achieved through ‘prepared instruments’, such as guitar (Lähdeoja et al., 2010:51). The guitar recordings were then processed using a variety for effects for listener interest.  

In conclusion, through this creative response, I have engaged with the cost-of-living crisis as an issue within the broader higher education environment that is impacting my own students. Student participation in the project has allowed me to explore the issue with a greater sense of authenticity without choosing food items based on aesthetic potential. 

References

  • Dabrowski, V., Atas, N., Ramsey, T. and Howarth, N. (2025) ‘Money anxiety’: Understanding HE students' experiences of the cost‐of‐living crisis. Social Policy & Administration, 59 (2), pp.280-292. 
  • Defeyter, G., Stretesky, P., Long, M., Furey, S., Reynolds, C., Dodds, A., Porteous, D., Mann, E.J., Stretesky, C., Kemp, A. and Fox, J. (2020) Food insecurity and lived experience of students (FILES). London, UK: Parliament. At: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/24283/1/FILES%20evidence.pdf (Accessed 05/04/2025). 
  • Jovicevic, M. and Schaap, J.C.F. (2016) Spray Paint Art: A Socially Stratified Art Genre. 
  • Lähdeoja, O., Navarret, B., Quintans, S. and Sedes, A. (2010) The Electric Guitar: An Augmented Instrument and a Tool for Musical Composition. Journal of interdisciplinary music studies, 4 (2). 
  • McCabe, A. and O'Connor, U. (2014) Student-centred learning: the role and responsibility of the lecturer. Teaching in Higher Education, 19 (4), pp.350-359. 
  • Moriña, A. (2020) Approaches to Inclusive Pedagogy: A Systematic Literature Review. Pedagogika, 140 (4). 
  • Rafaely, B., Tourbabin, V., Habets, E., Ben-Hur, Z., Lee, H., Gamper, H., Arbel, L., Birnie, L., Abhayapala, T. and Samarasinghe, P. (2022) Spatial audio signal processing for binaural reproduction of recorded acoustic scenes–review and challenges. Acta Acustica, 6, p.47. 
  • University for the Creative Arts. (2022) Procedure for making adjustments to assessment tasks 2022-2023. At: https://uca.assetbank-server.com/assetbank-uca/assetfile/50342.pdf (Accessed 05/04/2025).