Enhanced Understanding
MoolBhoot : Nature of Nature
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Darshan Chandekar
As we delve into the evolution of self and the environment, we come across a history of visual culture through an interactivity of man with nature. This project is an investigation into different aspects of visual culture and its influence on lifestyle, product evolution, and genre formation. Man has interacted with everything that is present in nature and new technology. This inquisition has given rise to a constant exploration using everything that is available. Tools were created, furnaces strengthened the clay, and we stumbled upon metal. Metallurgy gave rise to another era of love and war so on and so forth. Starting with the most “ancient products”, there look and feel, this inquiry explores product development processes through a need-based and eventually a want-based society. A race into commercialism is taking us away from nature and a spirit of understanding. We all are living inharmonious lives following the lifestyles against the natural creational laws within the societies we have developed for ourselves. Each day we are creating inharmonious products which affect us as well as the planet.
Thinking Through Making
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Santanu Majumdar
Present day design students have a partial understanding of design, but sometimes they do not grasp enough to articulate responses. It has been observed over the period of time that students often struggle to translate in-depth understanding acquired through lectures into a usable form required by the practice. Thinking-through-making can help students explore new ideas and concepts through an active process of hands-on exercises. Design knowledge is always context driven, which is acquired through analytical thinking, experiencing challenge, and involvement in real-world situations. More emphasis should be given on concepts to a physical form with carefully sequenced steps to enhance students' design thinking ability. It is becoming increasingly common in design schools to investigative case studies, practice methods, and problem-based learning, replacing traditional teaching methods. Thus, learning outcomes through critical thinking and problem-solving has become increasingly important which can be achieved by engaging students in various large-scale multidisciplinary hands-on projects. A well-thought design activity and assignment not only allow students to acquire foundational knowledge but also helps them think through the process. The investigative learning assignments help students understand design research, allow them to value assigned work and understand its relevance application to real-life situations. Design innovations are rarely found among young design students who respond directly to assignment requirements due to lack of genuine curiosity, exploration, and reading habits. The paper reviews class assignments based on student work created as part of thinking-through-making.
Contextualizing the Pedagogy of Design: The Promise of Design Studio-Based Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aidan Rowe
Higher education in the twenty-first century faces challenges, changing contexts, and opportunities. To respond to these issues academia has looked to incorporate new learning and teaching practices including attempts to: increase interdisciplinary learning opportunities; create increased collaborative learning situations; and, ensure students have quality curricular experiential learning to ground and extend their education. A common factor is that these practices—and others—are central within design education. In this paper I argue that Design Studio-Based Learning (DSBL) offers unique teaching and learning practices to non-design areas and in fact can serve as a model educational framework. DSBL commonly employs a range of robust learning and teaching practices including: Students assuming a critical stance; Learning though problem-focused scenarios; Employing a variety of alternative communication methods; Interdisciplinary and interprofessional learning; Collaborative learning situations; Curricular and co-curricular experiential learning experiences; A focus on hands-on creation and making where students learn through doing. While common to DSBL, these pedagogical practices are often at the cutting edge of other academic disciplines. This paper articulates the benefits of applying DSBL to other academic disciplines, the positives discovered, and the challenges encountered. If we conceptualize of design in a broad sense—and after Simon—as the changing of existing situations into preferred ones we must engage with the edges of our discipline. By examining the contexts of, and possibilities for, design education we provide potential futures and directions for higher education and practice pushing both into the twenty-first century.
