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Specialist Studies | MA Creative Education @00218600

MA Creative Education Specialist Practice Submission A visual documentary of specialist practice development using tablet and pen input devices to achieve traditional art practice results. @00218600

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

What is my specialist practice?

As a full time University programme leader, and as a parent of young children, it is difficult to balance the need to maintain relevant and up-to-date professional specialist practice with the quotidian pressure of a full teaching timetable. This module is an opportunity to re-engage with specialist practice and acquire new skills that can be usefully deployed in teaching.

There is a perennial dilemma for University lecturers - they are required to wear three hats researcher, teacher and practitioner /specialist.

Perhaps this is why they are not given any of those titles and has the catch all ‘lecturer’ as an appellation. As a young designer rising to the role of company director and owner I had one job, and one mission. The mission was embodied in the company’s articles of association, the job was to design. The success of the company was the prime and only goal.

Simple Photoshop filtering and layer blend modes.

As a teacher in Further Education I taught.

Every moment of the day was focused on teaching. Every staff development was a discussion and refinement of teaching and promotion of effective learning. A first degree was considered sufficient subject knowledge. The primary concern was the state of the knowledge in the head of the student. The ever present threat of an OFSTED inspection blotted out any other concern. Teaching, Training and Learning: A Practical Guide Authors Ian Reece, Stephen Walker was the vade mecum and the sacred text. No other book was needed. Successful teachers with successful classes were the top of the pile.

Those that had the gravitas to silence a class by their mere presence were revered as demi-gods who ‘had the gift’.

Upon taking up a post at a University, a senior colleague, gently rested their hand on my arm and whispered the following. ‘Forget the teaching it gets you nowhere. If you want any sort of career here, then develop your research profile and the world of H.E. will be you oyster. Just look at the salaries. Look at who gets head hunted. Look who gets in the plaudits. Look who gets the private offices. It’s the Doctors and Professors. So take my advice do a PHD, skill up and then bugger off to wherever you want to. Teaching staff are mugs.‘ I dismissed the advice as cynical jealousy and cracked on with the teaching. Sadly after eight years I can see that there may be a grain of

truth. The most willing donkey carries the biggest load.

So is it possible for a lecturer to wear all their hats at once, or at least consecutively? Perhaps teaching part time is the way to balance current knowledge and pedagogy. Part time jobs are often full time jobs in disguise. Without very clear boundaries the result can be an unfortunate falling between two stools. In researching a new course in Design I have been exposed to new paradigms. At the design academy in Eindhoven no employee is employed for more than one day a week. All must practice to survive.

There are 150 different designers, experts, artists and professionals working as teachers, or as we call them, tutors at our academy. For one day a week they are DAE tutors, and alongside this they remain firmly rooted in the realities of their professional practice. This allows students to experience the realities of the profession first-hand. http://www.designacademy.nl/Study/ Bachelor/General.aspx Would that work at the University I work for?

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Getting the picture?

Interior designers are often required to communicate with a diverse client base. The clients are, more often than not, non-designers. The specialist language of design and aesthetic and form can be alienating.

Interior designers are trained to withhold the specialist lexicon and communicate directly, they explain and persuade often without spoken language, the universal communication of images and objects are our preferred tools.

It is rare to pick up a publication about design that is not rich with images. The academic texts regarding interior design are for a rarefied and esoteric audience only. The paper HEI–LO Model: A Grounded Theory Approach to Assess Digital Drawing Tools (Tan et al 2014) illustrates how dense referencing within academic writing can obfuscate rather than illuminate.

Remove the academic style and some rather obvious truisms are left. ‘The literature tells us that sketching involves the brain, hand, and eye’ – wow.

You saw the bulrushes first, didn't you? You didn't follow the academic extract.

As previously stated, drawing is one of a designer’s main methods of ideation and communication (Goel,1995; Goldschmidt, 1991; Schon & Wiggins, 1992)and “an integral part of design” (Bilda & Demirkan,2003, p. 28). Drawings developed for ideation and more informal design communication during the conceptual phase may be termed sketching (Sun, Xiang, Chai, Wang, & Huang, 2013). Studies of sketching represent a well-documented niche within the larger body of knowledge related to design drawing. In fact, free-hand sketches have been the most common type of drawing studied in the design process (Bilda & Demirkan, 2003). The current study focuses specifically on the role of digital drawing tools in sketching. The literature tells us that sketching involves the brain, hand, and eye (Goel, 1995; Sun et al., 2013; Taura et al., 2012) and that it aids design thinking in multiple ways (Goel, 1995; Goldschmidt, 1991). The literature also reveals that the process, as it relates to ideation, is non-linear (Sun et al., 2013) and consists of iterative looping patterns (Howard, Culley, & Dekoninck, 2008; Jin & Chusilp, 2006) that involve modal shifts between thinking, drawing, and examining (Cross, 2006; Jin & Chusilp, 2006).

That is the picture superiorly effect.

For this submission I intend to sidestep the over intellectualising of the process and look rather at the tangible and the palpable. In much

Conditions for a PictureSuperiority Effect on Consumer MemoryTerry L. Childers and Michael J. Houston Journal of Consumer Research Vol. 11, No. 2 (Sep., 1984), pp. 643654 Published by: Oxford University Press Article Stable URL: http:// www.jstor.org/stable/2488971 Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships By Gail Freet Hannah Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (2 July 2013)

the same way as I teach my students to communicate with their clients. Picture superiority is the watchword. Chunk the text and apply text hierarchy. Three items per page – dominant sub dominant and subordinate.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Keep taking the tablets Early in the 2014 -15 teaching cycle the University of Salford invested in a range of new digital input devices including 8 No. Large Wacom and smaller Cintiq tablets. The large Wacom screens were installed and distributed in both PC and Mac suites. The existence of the smaller tablets was publicised to the student body.

The method of obtaining a tablet was made easy. Just turn up and sign for it. No deposit . So why are they gathering dust? Is it Daniel Levtins 10,000 hour rule in practice?

Ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert -- in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals ... no one has yet found a case in which true worldclass expertise was accomplished in less time.

(Gladwell 2011 )

alive to how it feels and what is difficult I may begin to develop a teaching strategy latter.

The specialist practice of a designer is to expose the conceit of received wisdom and pull back the curtain. As we are fond of saying to our students ‘If you can’t explain it to your granny, then you don’t know what your concept is’.

Could it be that the technology is new to all, lectures demonstrators and students alike? It might need modelling to prove its efficacy before adoption takes off. If none of the staff are using it hardly endorses or legitimises the kit.

For this module I will attempt to gain some experience in the new tablets and pen displays so that I can make a personal appraisal of the tools. This perspective of a user is arguably closer to a student experience than that of an academic. Reading an academic paper then pontificating is disingenuous. The dialogue of colleague to colleague, new user to new user, is surely more authentic than that of pointy head to practitioner. As a teacher I have often noticed that the most successful sessions happen when I am unfamiliar with the topic. It forces and appraisal from a perspective closer to that of the student. When I know something intimately I miss things out of explanations as obvious even though I eventually discover that they are only obvious to me. Picking up a stylus and working on a couple of personal projects if the logical step to begin self-training. If I am

Wacom Bamboo. An entry level stylus input device. Less than £100. A5 functional pad area. Personal observation of interior and Product design student groups at UoS indicates that roughly 1 in 1o have bought one. Less than a quarter persevere and use the device regularly.

The reason cited is that they are skipping inbetween lots of tasks. Facebook; Youtube; Word; Mail; and Photoshop.

The pad is good for Photoshop but poor for anything that is menu or text heavy. You don’t type with it. A keyboard and mouse or keyboard and laptop track pad is an all round solution. Convenience and flexibility trumps specialism.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Of mice and men It is not enough to provide new tools. For them to be effective then they must be used. For them to be used then they have to be learnt or at least sufficient time invested to gain a basic level of familiarity and competence. Without investment of time it may always seem alien. Technology will continue to throw up new ways of interacting with a digital world. Some will catch and some will not. The adoption and acceptance is more about serendipitous meeting of user and the technology at the right time. Tablets, for instance, had been around for ages as a niche product, now they are ubiquitous. Who remembers the prophetic Apple Newton in 1993?

The adoption and decline of technology is evolutionary. The fittest survive and even then seismic events can cause overnight extinction to what seem like the unassailable dominant creatures. Kodak, Blackberry, CDs, VCR, landlines, typewriters, floppy disks.

Above WACOM 22HD Circa ÂŁ1600 Left

Cintiq tablet input Circa ÂŁ600.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Input device—some bugs Methodical studies compare and contrast the experience of user groups to new input devices. For this project I wish to formulate my own opinion based on personal observation. ‘User trip’ is the specific design research methodological term.

The larger 22 inch WACOM screens mirror the desktop screen and are a clear and bright as a standard monitor. The transition from mouse to stylus is easy. The big advantage is that you can stand and make gestural marks as would a painter sketching out and underlay. This alone is a revelation and needs to be felt to be appreciated. The proximity to traditional instruments flexibility is uncannily close. The slight delay in the line following the tip is hardly noticeable. I suspect this is an issue caused by the processer and RAM, not the input device.

Observation One. The screen surface is approximately 6-8mm above the actual LED screen. For detail work the tip of the pen cannot touch the arrow of the screen. Drawing is such subtle and connected act that this small disconnect is noticeable and ‘niggles’.

Observation Two. The low resistance between the pen tip and screen allows the stylus to skid.

As a designer the difference between a fountain pen, a biro and pencil are all significant. It feels odd and takes a few hours/days to normalise and accept.

Observation Three. The surface sheen picks up in a way that perpendicular screens don’t. The constant contact with fingers and the heal of the hand smears the surface and exacerbates the issue. Even with over head lighting off there is a sheen that feels a little like working through a Tupperware lid.

Observation Four. Unless you are predominantly sketching or working on artwork you need to input via the keyboard for speed. Keyboard shortcuts are the unavoidable route to speed. Having the stylus in your dominant

hand means the keyboard is naturally operated with the non dominant hand, and with the large screen at a stretch. The stylus is not a ease to find and orient as the mouse.

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Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

The smaller tablet seemed to offer advantages at a budget. Desk real estate is saved and its portable. At first glance its an excellent compromise.

The down side only reveals its self during use. The screen is 13� corner to corner—the size of a small laptop , slightly larger than a slate such as an iPad. Its very difficult to see the icons or if the icons are enlarged to get enough work space to see the work piece. A hand is shown in the illustration to give some scale to the screen.

The fine motor skills and strained vision required to find the icons meant this piece of kit was frustrating to use even after an extended period of testing.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Screencast-o-matic Despite sounding like a Wallace and Gromit invention this useful tool has been adopted by the university and a professional licence password is available via the VLE.

In its simplest form a bounding box is used to delineate an area of screen hit record and off it goes. Web based not installed locally. The pro tools have been used to generate the tutorial that accompanies this module. The sound track is overlaid the sequences have been stitched. Errors have been clipped out and titles added. For a lecturer the effective use of this software could be considered as specialist practice by itself. However it is quite straight forward and does not require the investment of time to master. It’s easy, and that makes it good. The reason for inclusion in this document is that YouTube is the method used for dissemination of the tutorial. The university may prefer the Blackboard VLE, however students invariable look to cut out the middle man and google is the first port of call for search, help and tutorials. It is a damning indictment of the VLE that searching for university documentation is more effective via google than it is using the intranet search engine.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

20 typed characters and one click get the tutorial via Google.

Blackboard requires a log in followed by a click depth of 4 levels to a specific and unsearchable location.

The tutorial is here https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CPIPLU7NIAg

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Inspiration and goal.

The posters of Norman Wilkinson 1878 1971

They may seem twee, representative of a naive internecine England, however the technique is unmistakable and, perhaps has more influence and resonance with modern graphics than it may at first glance reveal. The flat vector artwork of modern manga and illustrator has an uncanny similarity. The clearly delineated bocks of intense and exaggerated colour proceed the Adobe age. Without screen printing kit these posters would be difficult to simulate using traditional techniques.

Although these posters may considered ‘advertising’ or outsider art they have always resonated and continue to be sold as ‘wall art’.

I cannot fully account for the appeal but am drawn to the bucolic idyll. I don’t think I’m the first Morris to fall for this romance. A childhood visiting the Lake District to see relatives may have had an influence. The landscapes of Heaton Cooper are the watercolour equivalent of the Norman Wilkinson posters. Light, landscape and cloudscape.

http://www.travelpostersonline.com/

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

http://www.heatoncooper.co.uk

Paint The main illustration is a Lakeland landscape by William Heaton Cooper. 1903 – 1995 . Not particular lauded. A very brief Wikipedia entry and probably not well recognised outside the Lake district postcard industry. However I find them mesmerising. Minimum marks and maximum effect. As with all good watercolour the paint does half the work.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education I have introduced basic watercolour as a ‘specialist’ specialist practice to Interior design students. On this page are examples of the introductory exercise's I demonstrate in class.

Starting with laying washes and mixing secondaries. The sessions move from tonal

studies to simple still life and build towards techniques that are particularly applicable to Interior Design. Trees and various mis en scene.

Our course, particularly at Level 5, is so filled with technical knowledge that watercolour sessions are received as a welcome reconnection with our art practice.

Marilyn Monroe (1967) Andy Warhol http://www.tate.org.uk/ Akira (1998) Director Katsuhiro Ôtomo Banksy - Napalm (Unsigned) Print (2004) http://banksy.co.uk/ Through a scanner darkly (2006) Dir Richard Linklater

paint | raster | vector Flat colour has impact

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

http://www.e-ir.info

The stylised block colour of Wilkinson's posters was partly the print process but mainly the artists recognition that the images may need to work from a variety of distances*. A flat colour thread can be traced to today. From screen print to the vectors of Adobe Illustrator.

The most widely distributed version of Shepard Fairey's Obama poster, featuring the word "hope." Other versions used the words "change" and "progress."

GTA Vice City Stories (2004) Rockstar Graham Coxon (2000) by Julian Opie NPG 6593(2)

* Norman Wilkinson went on to work for the War Department and used his understanding of shape and colour to design anti submarine Dazzle Camouflage to protect merchant shipping during WW1.

What to do?

I propose to develop a strand of visual practice that, as a pencil and paper designer I am unskilled. Styli and tablets are the available at all price points. The smart phone is ubiquitous in the western world. We can finger paint as children and as adults.

However I intend to bend the new technology practice to suit my preferred style rather than copy a tutorial and reproduce the plethora of speed painting or concept art tutorials that exist. As observed in the class room - following a good tutorial can often teaches the participant to click buttons as commanded, a well trained monkey could do it. As soon as the activity deviates from the prescribed action ( something goes wrong) the participant is lost. In short, tutorials teach you to follow instructions. The learning is very shallow.

Working it out for yourself is far more time consuming, but the learning is deeper. It is difficult to comprehend that learning without a teacher can, under some circumstances, be more fruitful than learning with one. ( what’s my £9000 pounds for?)

Finger painting number one by author on Moto G phone using Autodesk Free sketch app.

Pencils don’t crash.

Developments in the specialist practice of visual communication in Interior Design parallel available technology. When I trained there were no computers available and the methods of design and visualisation would have been recognisable to Leonardo de Vinci.

Paper, pens, rulers and paint.

In the last ten years computers have become the de facto method for visualisation and a key competence of all designers. The average job description will include MS office, Photoshop, illustrator and CAD as essential competences.

Feedback from recent alumni and from industry contacts has been that now those computer/IT skills are so established in education, right from primary school, that the novelty of competence is beginning to wane.

Competence with a mouse and key board is ubiquitous. The ability to produce photorealistic interiors is commonplace and unimpressive. IKEA offers a three dimensional interactive view of its cheapest kitchen. The software can be used by a child without training. If these skills are not as impressive as they were 5 years ago, what is it that distinguishes designers in the job market? It is the competence in hand/traditional skills. Like fashion, what falls out of favour eventually makes resurgence. Whilst time has been spent on computers, sprinkling Photoshop dust on poor concepts time has not been spent practicing drawing. Drawing is back – just like flares.

There is academic research on the activities of computer visualisation, preferences and adoption however it is outpaced by the rate of change. On this topic an article that goes through the review and publishing process is already out of date. A blog or buzz feed comment piece is closer to the mark. The zeitgeist is mutating at such a rate that is no

longer possible to pin it down. Only in hindsight may we be able to see with any useful perspective.

When it comes to the art of drawing, the question of analogue versus digital inevitably arises. Though computer-aided design is wide -spread, the emergence of several manual technologies suggests that hand-drawing is far from dead. Instead, it is evolving as a vital and experimental means of creative production. Brownell says that although the crude interfaces of early computer technologies distanced the users from their drawings, today's wealth of tools enable architects to brainstorm ideas by hand freely, and with minimal disruption. Thus the debate between analogue and digital drawing should not be reduced to a black-and-white comparison. Rather, they should explore what, in reality, is a rich and varied field of experimentation in hand-based media.

Brownell (2013)

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Literature review

ABSTRACT This paper compares the efficacy of four digital drawing tools—mouse, iPad, Wacom Cintas, and Bamboo1—when measured by user perception of technical and aesthetic quality outcomes. The tools were assessed through the experiences of 20 senior-level undergraduate students majoring in interior design.

The results indicate the mouse was preferred overall, contradicting previous studies showing students’ preference for digital drawing tablets.

However, as we show, drawing is an affordancebased interaction that is influenced by participants’ prior experience with both hand and digital drawing tools. We therefore propose a grounded-theory model underscoring the importance of hand–eye–interface (HEI) and layout and orientation (LO) in supporting successful introduction of any new drawing tool. Further implications of the HEI–LO model suggest facilitating learning with multiple opportunities to use a wide range of tools to embed experiences in long-term memory, strengthen learned conventions, and promote positive affordances for both hand and digital media.

HEI–LO Model: A Grounded Theory Approach to Assess Digital Drawing Tools Lindsay Tan, M.F.A., Paula Frances Peek, M.F.A., and Veena Chattaraman, Ph.D.,

Tan et al use the HEI–LO Model: A Grounded Theory Approach to Assess Digital Drawing Tools to compare affordance of mouse against iPad Wacom bamboo and Cintiq. The study concludes that the mouse is the most effective tool for digital input. To its credit the study does acknowledge that factors such as familiarity may have an effect on the result.

The sample size of 20 is mentioned another possible shortcoming. The study’s complex pseudo mathematical and scientific diagrams fail to address simple confirmation bias and fact that the participants may have been native mouse users. A mouse is a terrible tool for drawing compared to a pencil. ‘Grounded theory’ is just an academic way of saying we looked at what people did and worked from there. What follows is an over intellectualisation of simple observations, without any common sense scepticism. The whole paper is beautifully referenced but amounts to verbose rhetoric. ‘The literature tells us that sketching involved the hand eye and brain’ – do we really need literature to tell us this? Am I alone in finding this form of academic writing pretentious and specious?

The papers authors reveal that they use Adobe illustrator as the test programme. Illustrator is a very strange choice as a test bed programme. Its vector based. Mathematical calculation between points. Why not Autodesk Sketch or a sketching/ painting programme. Photoshop is far closer to analogue and sketching than any vector input that mathematically calculates line weights and fits. Illustrator pen tool is about placing precision points and dragging the Bezier handles. A mouse is an ideal tool, the friction of the mat or surface allows fine motor control, the heal of the hand don a table allows for precise click move and stop. Exactly what you need for vector input. Perhaps the researcher’s next project could be to compare typing with fingers against typing with chop sticks.

First, it seems to be of extreme importance to provide at least a minimal level of materials instruction to our students. If students are to have a sense of accomplishment in their art making experiences, they need to know the basics of digital imaging software, such as Adobe Photoshop, to successfully navigate through an assignment such as this one. I thought the collaboration project was a good idea. The only problem I found was that I did not know how to work the computer program.

I know there has to be lots of neat tricks on Adobe Photoshop I am just not sure how to do it. (Anonymous, personal communication, 2004) Clear and easily accessible written instructions should be provided for students in advance. An instructor should also provide written documents or online instructional video tutorials describing and demonstrating tips, techniques, and step-by-step directions needed for certain processes. In my art education classes at East Carolina University, I use web conferencing software called Central to create online archives of my software demonstrations. My online students can access these archives at anytime to view my demonstration and listen to my instructions.

E-Learning in Art Education: Collaborative Meaning Making Through Digital Art Production Author: Quinn, Robert D

Specialist Practice | MA Cre

Illustrator Live Trace Given that the intended end result is more like and illustration than a painting it may seem logical to use illustrator rather than Photoshop. The pen tool process is the same; however the method requires a lot more planning and control. Every object, and there are thousand requires to be the right level of the layer stack. Having learnt the technique and achieved a greater level of specialist practice. I am confident I can use this tool. It took the baby steps of a programme I was more familiar with to make the transition.

Illustrator offers the tantalising prospect of being able to perform a trace of a raster artwork and conversion to a vector. Instant posterisation and transfer to scalable flat colour. In practice the tool is a fairly blunt instrument. The images give an indication of the amount of data and the decisions the programme makes when converting. Its not useful and starting from scratch is the only way to get what you actually want.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Marker Once the stalwart and ‘go to tool’ of the concept designer, markers have lost ground to the plethora of convenient digital visualisation tools SketchUp Autodesk sketch. Photoshop.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education Markers are expensive and don’t last long. The dashed off spontaneity of a good marker concept was the result is enormous amounts of patience and practise. Perhaps that practise time has been eroded by need to master so many new digital tools. Pre-visualisation and product visualisation can now be achieved by anyone who can pilot 3d software to make shapes. The lighting; the textures; the reflections; the caustics, the backgrounds are all handled by the software. The result is an uncanny bland perfection to good and bad concepts alike. Below is an attempt to use Photoshop to capture mimic some of the vitality of a marker concept. A ragged brush and low opacity enable a marker like build up of pigment. A chisel tip mimics an black marker. A white round brush mimics a correction pen.

Left and above marker concept sketches by author using marker and pastel.

Right a faux marker rendering over an outline supplied to student for traditional rendering practice.

Ironically I don’t think I could have produced the faux marker version had I not had some experience with the traditional tools ( see other illustrations of traditional markers. ) Its not the tool, it’s the intention that matters.

If you dont know what you want you cant emulate it.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Development of skill Photoshop The tutorial video goes through the mechanics of the process at twice actual speed. This is in keeping with the standard practice of extended art pieces. YouTube allows the video to be slowed or sped up with its own controls. (Vimeo does not). Twice actual speed keeps things moving at a reasonable pace and condenses what would be a laboured hour long video into a digestible 30 minutes. Space bar stops and the arrow keys skip 5 sec forward or back, I have not been able to find a YouTube user who is unaware of the basic controls.

To be able to perform the tutorial without error required at least three practice attempts. To achieve a satisfactory method of getting the effect took a week of trial and error. Just because we can easily record the screen and post directly to YouTube does not mean we should post everything. We must become our own editorial quality control otherwise the internet would soon be flooded with half-baked rubbish... Oh, right.

The caveat is that no tutorial will tell you what to do with the technique. Without the imagination to apply it is pointless despite seeming to offer a short cut to creativity.

Stretford keeping it real was the very first attempt—a joke really, just to see if I could pull it off. The thought was ‘how would Wilkinson respond to a rather run down part of Manchester cleft in two by the A56.’

The old Essoldo cinema was a novel piece of architecture in its hay-day. Now it has been boarded up for decades. The aircraft vapour trails were a figment of pure ‘spitfires over Old Trafford’ fantasy ( as were the clean surfaces.

The idea of Metrolink using the same visual language as the LNER tickled me.

Speed and Proficiency Towards the end of the module a request to demonstrate technique offered the opportunity to use the tools from scratch to produce a image from scratch.

Its not a benchmarked test, but it did feel quick. Each tool and technique fell easily to hand without hesitation.

Sketch up blocks 10 minutes Finding paper and map 2 minutes Assembly in Photoshop 3 minutes

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Why the Adelphi? Why Salford?

I have enjoyed teaching many international students.

I’ve always made a point of asking them what prompted them to chose Salford from amongst a world of destinations. Recently I set a project for the design students to analyse the identity of the University and produce concepts for marketing merchandise. In the team were a number of visiting international students. I was able to gently interrogate them and the answers surprised me.

Why did you pick Salford? Why not MMU? Salford is old and has tradition. The lion logo was better, it was heraldic. Like St George and the knights of the round table.

We do not have that sort of history in my country.

The Peel building and the hats and cloaks at graduation its like Harry Potter.

The past is as marketable as the future. Many of the international students had come from better building with far better equipment.

However ‘Altiora Petamus’ and the attendant kudos counted. The Photoshop artworks are an attempt to capture some of the history in an unusual and anachronistic way. Having set off I would like to make a series including other University buildings. Peel Building; The Old Fire station; Maxwell. (Perhaps we might give Humphrey Booth; Crescent and Faraday a miss. Although they do represent a singular challenge).

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

I originally started with the New Adelphi and the Peel Building. The subject matter of buildings is relatively easy—they are the containers of interior design and invariably need to be illustrated to give context to a scheme (and they are far easier to frame). The inset image is the way architects normally produce ‘selling’ images of proposed structures. The tropes and clichés are all in evidence. Lovely summer day. Happy ABC1s strolling. Forced perspective. Photorealist renders have become to real –hyper real. The simulacra is so pervasive that instead of looking impressive method of visualisation renders the structure pallid and boring. So what?—another shiny new plate glass university building. Doesn’t every campus have one? It’s a bit like MMUs Birley Fields— except not in Manchester. It’s the cliché of every prospectus, along with a ‘looking over the shoulder’ computer shot. Is that all?

The image was an attempt to reference the anvil of industry that forged Salford and Manchester. Its about building not about the buildings.

"One day I missed a train from Pendlebury - (a place) I had ignored for seven years - and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill …

The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out... I watched this scene - which I'd looked at many times without seeing - with rapture..."

L S Lowry. 1920

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Sam Lowry: Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle:

Sam Lowry: Archibald 'Harry' Tuttle:

Couldn't stand what?

The paperwork. Couldn't stand the paperwork. Listen, this whole system of yours could be on fire and I couldn't even turn on the kitchen tap without filling out a twenty-seven B stroke six... bloody paperwork.

I suppose one has to expect a certain amount.

Why? I came into this game for the action, the excitement. Go anywhere, travel light, get in, get out, wherever there's trouble, a man alone. Now they got the whole country sectioned off, you can't make a move without a form

Brazil (1985)

All the photography contained in this report is original and taken in the course of researching and preparing artwork for this module.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Reflections Developing my own skill and being excited by new developments in technology is not something I can let a avalanche of email to suffocate. I am a better teacher when am learning too. I came into this game for the excitement. And so, I hope, did my students.

All the photography contained in this report is original and taken in the course of researching and preparing artwork for this module.

Specialist Practice | MA Creative Education

Bibliography Bilda, Z. and Demirkan, H. (2003). An insight on designers’ sketching activities in traditional versus digital media Design Studies, , Vol.24(1), pp.27-50 [Peer Reviewed Journal] Brownell B (2013) When Drawing Goes Digital, a Paper and Pen Become Optional The lost art of hand sketching may not be lost after all. Retrieved from http://www.architectmagazine.com/ technology/when-drawing-goes-digital-a-paper-and-pen-become-optional_o Chin, C. S. and Tan, J., (2007). Use of SketchBook Pro with Tablet PC (Tab-Sketch™) as a design thinking tool in the teaching and learning of design and technology. IN: Norman, E.W.L. and Spendlove, D. (eds.). The Design and Technology Association International Research Conference 2007, University of Wolverhamnpton, Telford Campus, 4,5,6 July. Wellesbourne : The Design and Technology Association, pp. 11-20 Cortimiglia, M. N. Frank, A. G. ; Seben, L. (2013). Tablets: The Next Disruptive Computing Technology? IT Professional, May-June, Vol.15(3), pp.18-25 Eiliat, H. ; Pusca, D. (2013). Teaching and learning experience using digital sketching. 3rd Interdisciplinary Engineering Design Education Conference, March, pp.134-138 Garner, S. (2008). Writing on drawing : essays on drawing practice and research. Bristol, UK , Chicago : Intellect

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