Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education - Volume 13, Issue 2, 2014

The article explores how intentional instability may be defined as a quality of a learning environment, thus aiming to contribute to the discussion concerning the complex question of what constitutes a creative learning environment. The study uses interviews and observations from three different art academies’ learning environments as a point of departure. Five variations of intentional instability are discerned and discussed, and intentional instability defined as follows: By intentionally twisting what we experience as familiar a bit, thus adding some instability, we are forced to shift positions and experience the familiar in new ways, and it is in this gap created in the discrepancy between balance and off balance that new insights may be articulated.

In the field of design, the challenge in the ideation process is determining how to balance between constraining a task and at the same time creating new paths for expression. The focus of this article is on students’ idea generation process during the module of their textile design learning in a higher-education programme. In the module, students completed an open-ended design assignment. The assignment encouraged reflective insights about individual and shared practices and emphasized material experimentation during the ideation process. The data were drawn from interviews, essays, diaries and observations of real-time processes. This article reports students’ ways of interpreting sources of inspiration, related constraining processes and students’ reflections.

With a focus on the teaching of design students in higher education, the article will present a teaching approach model that follows the stages of the design process. The model suggests that at the Definition stage, the supervisor can focus on leading the student into a more thorough elaboration of the design problem; at the Analysis stage, the supervisor can facilitate a controlled structure of what needs to be investigated by taking on the role of a caring guide; at the Creating stage the supervisor can ask questions that reveal alternative angles; and at the Form Making stage the supervisor can apply an approach inspired by the master–apprentice relationship, where the student learns by observing the master at work.

This article is a research evaluation of a project that utilizes the social media website, Pinterest.com, in a collaborative learning experience between second year fashion design students at a United States university and young urban professionals as customers. Technology is changing the higher education environment, and interacting with social media in engaging ways provides fashion design students the opportunity to connect with a wider community of customers to better understand their needs. Second year students in a fashion design course at a university in the United States were asked to collaborate with young urban professional customers using the website Pinterest.com to develop a six-piece garment collection based on the customer’s inspiration and feedback of the student designs. Student responses suggest this was beneficial experience for using social media in a learning environment. Communication between students and customers illustrate an example for interactive social media use that could be replicated in other fashion design courses.

This article looks at experiences of writing in higher art education. It demonstrates how the experiences of art students with dyslexia affect their perceptions of themselves as writers. It proposes the role of the agreement in providing a negotiated space for students with dyslexia to explore difficulties and to take on responsibilities regarding their academic literacy. The need for an agreement becomes clearer when we examine the significant role writing can play in expressing ideas, concepts and theories about students’ own visual practice, This article proposes the idea of agreements that might facilitate the process of integration between writing and creative visual practice. These agreements take place at the institutional, diagnostic and educational level. The article highlights the importance of these agreements in establishing a culture of mature and democratic discourse around education; one that acknowledges both rights and responsibilities.

This article explores the nature of the art and design lecturer’s role in relation to Weber’s definition of charismatic leadership, and to more recent theories of transformational leadership. By reference to historical examples, the author analyses the process by which the charismatic art and design lecturer can influence students, and when necessary overcome their resistance to change. Using French and Raven’s model of social power, the author goes on to investigate the contribution made by charisma to the lecturer’s power to persuade, even when the lecturer may be committed to using a constructive model of the educational process. Finally, the article explores the potential of ‘frame alignment’ as a strategy by which charismatic lecturers can overcome the reluctance of some students to open themselves to new ways of thinking and working.

Sebastião Salgado. Genesis, Lélia Wanick Salgado (2013) Cologne: Taschen, 520 pp., ISBN: 9783836538725, h/bk, £44.99

Color Studies, Third Edition, E. Anderson Feisner and R. Reed (2014) Bedford Square, London: Bloomsbury Publishing Inc, ISBN: 9781609015312

Symbol, Pattern and Symmetry: The Cultural Significance of Structure, Michael Hann (2013) UK: Bloomsbury, 376 pp., ISBN: 9781472503121, p/bk, 24.6cm x 18.9cm, £29.99

Design for sustainability: History, method, practice and possible futures

The Handbook of Design for Sustainability, Stuart Walker, Jacques Gaird and Helen L. Walker (eds) (2013) 1st ed., London: Bloomsbury, 550 pp., ISBN: 9780857858528, h/bk, £95

The Handbook of Design for Sustainability, Stuart Walker, Jacques Gaird and Helen L. Walker (eds) (2013) 1st ed., London: Bloomsbury, 550 pp., ISBN: 9780857858528, h/bk, £95