THE PURSUIT OF
-NESS
exploring the significance of a haptic reflective practice in graphic design education
THANK YOU Were i t not for the unwavering suppor t, scholarship, patience and guidance from the individuals before me, I can say wi th conf idence that this endeavor would never have come to frui tion. This thesis represents the collective ef for ts of all those who have stood by me over the past 18-odd months. I would like to especially thank my thesis chair and commi t tee members for their mentorship and ser vice. Vicki, thank you for your steadfast encouragement, unbounded inspiration, wisdom, wordsmi thing, philosophical insig hts, and spiri t hug s (and fantastical emoji usage). Brian, my commi t tee member and independent study mentor-extraordinaire, thank you for your incredi ble kindness and inexhausti ble enthusiasm, and for g if ting me wi th some of your extensive drawing knowledge and talent. Meera, my commi t tee member, f ive-star directed reading mentor and harbinger of solace, thank you for sharing your valuable insig hts from the realm of psycholog y and ar t therapy. Each of your distinct areas of exper tise have informed the evolution of this research, and made i t stronger, because of i t. Each of you is monumental. And I am ever grateful for all that you have dedicated.
In the creative process, internal mechanisms of thought eventually seep up to the surface as intuitions of breakthrough and insight. While these emergent awarenesses are important, they are often fleeting—and perhaps never actualized. It is through the process of externalized reflection that these tacit understandings are afforded the opportunity to become embedded knowledge that will benefit the designer practitioner in the future. Engaging in reflection through haptic activities like drawing and writing by hand allows tacit understanding to become more tangible for a person; for they are, in effect, becoming an audience to their own ideas.
This thesis reflects an embedded passion and reverence for the power of writing’s tactility, drawing’s capacity to exist as a language in itself, and an informed realization of what’s been missing in my own design education and literature on reflective practice. Hand-drawn writing and drawing reflective practices are embodied acts that not only require a sustained level of concentration and focus, but in turn also engage a synthesis of thought, action, and recollection—an experience that embeds meaning in the act of making.
Students in traditional design schools, specifically the field of graphic design, are educated with high emphasis on technical production skills— yet what is absent is instruction for developing a reflective practice that links design projects, lived experience, tacit knowledge, and generative ideation toward the robust development of successful design outcomes. More specifically—and the focus of this thesis—is the opportunity for the inclusion of a haptic reflective practice in graphic design education. Such a haptic reflective practice, which includes drawing and writing by hand, has the potential to support students in bridging implicit awarenesses with tangible knowledge outcomes in the design development process.
PURPOSE Champion the application of a haptic reflective practice in graphic design education for the improvement of meaning-making and knowledge assimilation from the design process.
Review existing literature on reflective practice, writing- and arts-based research, design education, drawing and handwriting, and examine my own practice and to make recommendations for graphic design education.
Offer a position of support for haptic processes of writing and drawing that could potentially enrich existing conversations on reflective practice in graphic design education.
Develop a foundational rationale for a future case study of haptic reflective practices in design curriculum.
SEMANTICS
haptic
drawn and hand-written
hand-
Haptic drawing describes both haptic drawings
Haptic writing denotes composing text
(Vengua, 2014)—the marks made on a surface guided
by hand with instruments and media not
by sensorial stimuli (sight/sound/touch/taste/smell/
limited to pencil and paper.
and memory)—and more representational, visual representations of an object or idea.
SEMANTICS
Lasting meaning refers to the distinctive, personal problem-finding and solving methods that a person begins to “see� and claim as their own though the ongoing, iterative processes of making/thinking/reflecting.
These patterns of problem-solving and methods of making and discovering are processes that build lasting meaning.
METHODOLOGY S I NG LE CAS E ST UDY
LITERATURE REVIEW
WRITING AS INQUIRY
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH EDUCATION ART AND DESIGN
HAPTIC REFLECTIVE PRACTICES PRACTICE-LED REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
LIMITATIONS While single case study analyses are valuable for the level of detail and understanding of a phenomenon and context they provide, they are inherently subjective and limited in external validity and generalizability (Willis, 2014). This research of haptic reflective practice reformulates questions of validity, moving from “Is this valid research?” to “What is this research valid for?”
CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND
REFLEXIVE NARRATIVE why the Pencil is mightier than the keyboard Olivia Bruner High point university class of 2015
class 4 tern Art Ancient Near Eas Iran. Pink sandstone. Naram Sin" from Susa, "Victory Stele of e. ca. 2254 - 2218 BCE 6'6" high. Lourv low relief Lullubi shows the victory overtime in Mesopotamian art king as deity - first imperial authority connection with gods note mountain and osite view Naram Sin = comp ors = power order of Akkadian ewarri weakness defeated = powerl ssiformand) on mountain inscriptions (cune
The act of writing is actually a complex brain activity that integrates three brain processes: visual, motor and cognitive. When we listen to a lecture, the auditory and language regions of our brain are engaged. Some of what we hear is put to memory, but there is no discrimination between remembeing critical information and simple trivia. When we handwrite notes, we are creating spatial relationships between the verbal message and the information we record (Wax). Furthermore, the act of writing increases the attention to given to a piece of information, and increases information recall. When we write, we are consciously evaluating and organizing the information being received. Instead of the notes themselves, the PROCESS of writing them down is what solidifies concepts securely in our minds and contributes to lasting memory.
orientation - horizontal vs. verticaler (stele) vs. paraded around - one ised as a mark m - huge size vs. mediual scale - both use hierarchic e for the ruler - celebration of prais
Neo Sumerian Revivrulale with King Urnammu of Ur in 2112uff! BCE st - revival of Sumerian e back in charge? build best way to show you'r of Ur. Iraq. ca. 2100 BCE King Urnammu * Great Ziggurattheofmoon Nana god dedicated to - 4 staircases (100 steps) axis plan] - straight [not bentof king' s power ) - demonstration for gods and humans (just like White Temple - meeting place
Sunni Brown, Austin Kleon, Craighton Berhman, Eva-Lotta Lamb, and Lloyd Dangle are just a handful of the world’s up-and-coming professional strategic doodlers who have turned their knack for visual note-taking into marketable careers. Meaning of strategic doodle (Brown): the conscious tracking of auditory or text-based material and translating it into words and pictures. - Hey! – that’s what I do! Companies today seeking a competitive edge are hiring visual recorders as a vehicle for encouraging the synthesis of ideas and supporting intense, creative problem-solving and innovation in the board room and office (Brown). Indeed, there are many companies worldwide that have built themselves on the strategic doodle (and the number is ever increasing!) BrightSpot I.D: Sunni Brown’s consultancy that specializes in visual recording and information design. The Grove Consultants, Intl: employs visually based tools and services that empower companies to visualize success and innovation. Google: only company known to have an official “Chief Doodler” on staff
Karin Harman James, “Sensori-motor Experience Leads to Changes in Visual Processing in the Developing Brain.” Indiana University (2009) Children received different letter-learning instruction – one group practiced printing letters by hand, while the other group only looked at letters. The children were then examined by the researchers using a functional MRI (disguised as a “spaceship”) The neural activity in children who practiced hand writing letters was significantly higher than in those who only studied letters by sight
Lesson learned = handwriting increases neural activity
Berninger, Abbott, Ausburger and Garcia, “Comparison of Pen and Keyboard Transcription Modes in Children.” University of Washington (2009) Groups of 2nd, 4th and 6th graders (with and without handwriting and spelling-related learning disabilities) were compared on three writing tasks (letters, sentences, and essays) when hand written or typed. The results of the study found that students who wrote by hand produced lengthier essays at a faster word production rate than those who used the keyboard – handwriting gets ideas out faster! Also, the students who handwrote the essays produced more complete sentences than those who typed. The research emphasizes the unique relationship between the hand and the brain with regards to formulating thoughts and concepts. Whereas in typing one must simply press a key to record a complete letter, writing by hand is a complex neurological process of producing successive strokes to form a letter, and exponentially more strokes to compose a sentence or expanded thought.
More than one third of the population (37%) are visual learners. If so many of us learn best visually, why not create our own imagery to enhance learning of lectures, readings or meetings? By combining written information from a lecture, speech, or meeting with simple imagery, we have the power to make abstract concepts tangible, meaningful, and memorable. Not convinced? Doodling has been proven to help retain information in multiple studies. How does this work? We already know that the act of physically putting pen to paper is the superior method of note taking. Doodling helps the brain focus intently, engage with the material, and synthesize concepts tactilely and visually (Hoffmann).
Smoker, Murphy, and Rockwell, “Comparing Memory for Handwriting versus Typing.” University of Central Florida, Orlando (2009) A study of comparison of common vocabulary recall and recognition among a group of 18-24 year olds proved that memory is superior for words that were studied by writing them down versus typing.
As much as technology infringes on the skill of handwriting and traditional note taking practices, is it is not the enemy. Technology has the potential to rejuvenate the practice of handwriting. In fact, there are already several products on the market that combine writing by hand with tablets and computer screens (Deardorff), a couple of which are listed below: Learn to Write is an iPad application designed to teach pre-school and kindergartners proper letter formation. Animations instruct children to trace the letter using the touchscreen. Google search – In July, 2012, Google introduced touchscreen handwriting feature for Google searches on Smartphones.
Mangen and Velay, “Digitizing literacy: reflections on the haptics of writing.” (2010) “Brain imaging studies…show that the specific hand movements involved in handwriting support the visual recognition of letters” (Mangen and Velay). The physical act of writing supports both the visual recognition of letters and connections between them (and words and sentences) and therefore also encourages the synthesis of ideas.
Is this not proof enough for the importance of handwriting as an integral component of communication, understanding, brain development, and motor skills in education, the workplace, and public in general?
son learned: Les and pap er g pen n i d ar isc puter screens
n d com ds a r a bo ld be key wou fo r
sincere thanks to Dr. Anna Piperato, my faculty mentor in this exciting, edifying adventure. Karin Harman James, “Sensori-motor Experience Leads to Changes in Visual Processing in the Developing Brain.” Indiana University (2009). Berninger, Abbott, Ausburger and Garcia, “Comparison of Pen and Keyboard Transcription Modes in Children.” University of Washington (2009). Smoker, Murphy, and Rockwell, “Comparing Memory for Handwriting versus Typing.” University of Central Florida, Orlando (2009).
d
If America abandons pen and paper for the brevity of the word processor, we could face an epidemic of “handwriting amnesia,” a phenomenon already so prevalent in China and Japan that there is a word for it: “Tibiwangzi,” or “take pen, forget character” (The Week). Many fear that text messaging and computers are stripping Chinese youth of their culture. Unlike English, which uses an alphabet system, Chinese is built on a logographic system, in which symbols represent the words themselves (Shoebottom). Assistant professor of linguistics at Hong Kong University, Siok Wai Ting, cautions that forgetting how to write in Chinese could eventually affect reading ability (Farrell). Chinese uses a different region of the brain for reading than does English, one near the motor area, which is used for handwriting. The only way that the Chinese and Japanese writing systems can be learned is through rote memorization. Because of the increasing use of technology, youths in China are finding they can’t remember how to create characters by hand.
t in g a t s a v e d
"How Writing by Hand Makes Kids Smarter." The Week. The Week Publications, INC., 6 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Mar. 2013. n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2013.
Frankfurt International School,
Farrell, Nick. "Wired Chinese and Japanese Kids Forget How To Write." TechEye. TechEye Network, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 22 Mar. 2013. Brown, Sunni. "The Doodle Revolutionary's Manifesto." Doodle Revolution. Sunnibrown.com/The Doodle Revolution, n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013. 03 Mar. 2013. 2013.
Smashing Magazine. Smashing Media, 3 Aug. 2012. Web. Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 15 June 2011. Web. 03 Mar.
A survey overview of reflective practice theory, literature on reflective practice and methods of facilitating reflective inquiry (especially in relation to design) was conducted for the purpose of investigating relationships among reflective and haptic processes.
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
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A vital attribute of all effective practitioners, no matter in what area they operate, is that they are able to reflect on their ongoing experience and learn from it.
DONALD SCHÖN
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
DONALD SCHÖN
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
DONALD SCHÖN
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
DONALD SCHÖN
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-PRACTICE
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
DONALD SCHÖN
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-PRACTICE
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
REFLECTION-OUT-OF-ACTION
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-PRACTICE
BACKGROUND REFLECTION
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
REFLECTION-OUT-OF-ACTION
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
BACKGROUND REFLECTION
REFLECTION-ON-PRACTICE
INDIRECT
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE THEORY literature review
REFLECTION-OUT-OF-ACTION
REFLECTION-IN-ACTION
REFLECTION-ON-ACTION
DIRECT
REFLECTION-ON-PRACTICE
BACKGROUND REFLECTION
What do reflective practice, design thinking and haptic drawing and writing have to do with one another?
DESIGN THINKING
literature review
Design thinking can be interpreted as an approach to assessing a situation and, through experimentation and insights, the invention of an idea or solution. It “has been shown to be a successful method to encourage the generation of new concepts during the front-end of innovation,” and as such, has been speculated to utilize reflection indirectly, especially through ROA and background reflection (Currano et al., 2011, p. 1). Coincidentally, the design thinking process is, in a way, contrary to the method graphic design is taught. Graphic design educators generally attribute “significance solely based on what can be designed based on deductive reasoning,” and students are widely instructed that “they must have a ‘concept’ first before making anything, rather than allowing the creative act to play out and then teasing out or narrowing focus to the desired intent after the act of making.”2 Design thinking offers graphic designers a way of ideating and creating through inductive reasoning, shifting their focus from serving as “polishers” to problem identifiers and solvers (Cabianca, 2009).
Haptic writing and drawing’s nexus with both reflective practice and design thinking is one that is seemingly understated and overlooked. Such haptic practices are a part of reflective inquiry and design thinking, and yet their value has only outwardly been elevated and observed in encapsulated movements and fragmented outposts over the course of design education history.
SLOYD (SLÖJD)
Late 19th century-Present
MONTESSORI 1907-Present
WALDORF 1919-Present
BAUHAUS 1919–1933
BLACK MOUNTAIN COLLEGE 1933–1950
DESIGN EDUCATION “Design education, as we know it today, emerges from a rich tradition of the transmission of practical training, method and trade-specific experiential learning...” (Hoh, 2016, pp. 13–14)
“Formal education in art and design had dual goals... to improve practice, but also it was intended to raise the status of artists and designers from the level of craft workers to that of those in society who worked with theories and ideas...” (Borg, 2011, p. 2)
Correlation between the Arts and Crafts movement proponents’ desire to return to hand-driven making/embodied design and the haptic crux of this thesis
The haptic divide is driving a revaluation of drawing curricula in higher education
The inclusion of a haptic, reflective practice could be a component of a freshman foundations course as a way of helping students to have an embodied experience of reflection-on-action, and would provide them with a useful tool they could return to later in their professional career.
“If writing ‘is a method of inquiry’ for qualitative researchers (Richardson, 2003, p. 499), then how does writing function for designers who engage in research?”
WRITING AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL COMPOSITION AND PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY
literature review
Writing as inquiry
WRITING AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL COMPOSITION AND PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY
literature review
Writing as inquiry
Lynda Barry
WRITING AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL COMPOSITION AND PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY
literature review
Writing as inquiry Writing as “composition”
WRITING AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL COMPOSITION AND PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY
literature review
Writing as inquiry
Practice-led research Writing as “composition”
WRITING AS PHENOMENOLOGICAL COMPOSITION AND PRACTICE-LED INQUIRY
literature review
Writing as inquiry
Practice-led research Writing as “composition”
Phenomenology
There is a growing national-cultural conversation on mindfulness in education, contemplative practices, and being present, which the essence of this thesis aligns with. With the digital world becoming virtually omnipresent in a short period of time, we are experiencing a collective pendulum shift—people are now starting to look at what is missing from the human experience, valuing what we have lost, which is evidenced in the embodied being back in conversation. Journalists, psychologists and educators, especially over the past five to seven years, have broadcast the current state of writing by hand in the classroom, the decline (or complete extinction, in many cases) of cursive instruction in American schools, and case studies citing the exceptional power of writing by hand.
HAPTIC WRITING
literature review
Although keyboards and touchpads appear to offer superior note-taking capabilities—enabling you to type faster than you can write, so that you to capture a professor’s lecture verbatim—the quantity and quality of information that is absorbed and retained shrinks in comparison to writing longhand due to the lack of cognitive processing (James, 2010; May, 2014).
The act of putting hand to pencil, pencil to paper, and the haptic movements involved represents the complex integration of visual, motor and cognitive processes. Handwriting focuses the eye on the tip of the pencil, putting near total concentration on the tracing of each letter, which in turn leads to greater memory of the letterform.
A DRAWING INQUIRY
HAND DRAWING IN THE FINE ARTS
literature review
A DRAWING INQUIRY
HAND DRAWING IN THE FINE ARTS
HAND DRAWING IN DESIGN
literature review
A DRAWING INQUIRY
HAND DRAWING IN THE FINE ARTS
HAND DRAWING IN DESIGN
HAND DRAWING AS AN ESSENTIAL AND IRREPLACEABLE SKILL IN THE DIGITAL AGE
literature review
A DRAWING INQUIRY
H AP TIC DRAW I NG
literature review
A “practice in which a tactile and open awareness of the object are integral” (Vengua, 2014, p. 4).
Lead by and dependent upon the senses.
Meditative exercises in process, tactual awareness, and consciousness that discard the impulse to create lifelike replications of what is observed.
Their purpose, according to Vengua (2014), is in “cultivating and engaging your curiosity, thoughtfulness and empathy for the world, its inhabitants and other phenomena” (p. 7). Vengua (2014). Drawn to “Dear Prudence” (Lennon/McCartney, 1968). Colored pencils on paper.
A DRAWING INQUIRY
literature review D R AWIN G AS T H I NK I NG “How do we think as we draw?”
Patricia Cain (2010), author of Drawing: The Enactive Practitioner explores the nexus between enactive thinking and drawing practice, with drawings viewed as both a process and an artifact.
“Thinking might not just involve knowing with the head, but thinking through the body” (pp. 17–27).
Drawing affords us to instill lasting meaning, and to “become familiar with self-observation in a learning experience… be creative to develop methods…” and “become familiar with shifts in our modes of attention…” (p.272).
A DRAWING INQUIRY
literature review
DRAWING’S EFFECT ON AFFECT
A DRAWING INQUIRY
literature review
DRAWING’S EFFECT ON AFFECT
DRAWING AS REFLECTION
A DRAWING INQUIRY
literature review
DRAWING’S EFFECT ON AFFECT
DRAWING AS REFLECTION
DRAWING IN DESIGN
DISCUSSION
Inquiring reflectively on an experience, and then encoding it haptically, using both written and drawn modes of expression, forces ideas to become stickier—to grow and stick to one another—and to stick long-term to the practitioner.
This thesis represents ONE proposal for graphic design education, not an absolute or finite premise.
This thesis’s purpose, given its dualistic haptic writing and drawing dimension, is not an elevation of writing over the visual image, but rather an aim for common understanding between educator and student of a reflection on lived experience (counter argument of linguistic imperialism [Thompson, 2005]).
In the setting of this thesis, the coexistence of haptic writing and drawing function as an admixture of embodied meaning-making, seeking to maximize the transfer of lasting knowledge from the reflective practice.
ART OF WORDS INTERVENTION
Moon engraving poem (2016). Inscribed cantaloupe.
This is (not) a reflective practice (2016). Micron on paper.
How could graphic designers and becoming-graphic designers be convinced of the value of adopting a haptic reflective practice?
ANECDOTAL SUPPORT
“”
The act of writing something out, rather than typing, makes the stream of thought “flow better.” Drawing allows me to explore and discover more ideas, and I find doodling “leads to more variation and sometimes, happy accidents.” 2ND YEAR MDES STUDENT
ANECDOTAL SUPPORT
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“I also believe that when you spend time sketching, drawing and writing, you are studying/learning your subject and developing a relationship with that subject. It’s an unspoken dialogue (how’s that for an oxymoron!) between you and it. Perhaps that is why artists and designers become so attached to their work. But this is true for fine art pieces as well as logos because it is a physical, active and sometimes tactile study of an object or subject. This is getting loaded with academese, forgive me.” GRAPHIC DESIGN INSTRUCTOR, PRACTITIONER AND ILLUSTRATOR
I suspect I will not fully comprehend the effect this self study has had on my practice as a graphic designer and researcher for many months—until I have reached a temporal distance from it and reflected back on it as a whole. The nodes and knowings arrived at from the research at this point seem to stand at the very periphery of a greater discovery, while simultaneously representing a step in a lifelong pursuit of haptic-driven understanding.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Submission of the literature review portion to a design or art and design education journal, such as iJADE.
Potential for a PhD study to explore the role haptic drawing practices could play in graphic design education.
Possible future study on the correlates between haptic drawing and empathy.
Pursue a study of haptic/reflective practice in the UK ?
POSTCARD TO MY PRACTICE
a haptic reflection
Engaging in a written correspondence with your practice personifies it and gives it agency.
The process makes you very present and discerning to your thoughts, and drawing and writing provide two modes to more deeply embed meaning as it is expressed.
Writing in epistolary form helped to formulate thoughts into digestible pieces.
The necessity of sufficient temporal distance to fully reflect on an experience in entirety.
“”
Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
JEAN COCTEAU, LE SANG D’UN POÈTE