James and Derek will be at the Association for Art History 2025 Conference
When: 10 April 2025
Event: The AAH 2025 Conference.
Where: University of York, UK
The talk will focus on the idea of studio as place and how that relates to studio as a pedagogy.
We’ll also be trying out a new format to communicate the richness of studio (as place) and how that can then be explored using Studio Properties.
Experimental academic modes of presentation … should be fine.
The full abstract is below and we hope to see you in April!
The Visibilities and Proximities of the Design Studio
This paper examines the architecture of the design studio from a pedagogical perspective. It emphasises the critical interdependence of studio as place and studio as pedagogy, highlighting that one cannot be fully understood without considering the other. This observation arises from the project Studio Properties, an international collaboration of studio educators bringing together research and expertise to identify a series of studio properties. This paper identifies some of these properties [bold in square brackets] to probe how the design school’s architecture and pedagogy collaborate to produce particular kinds of learning. Walking into a studio teaching space is a different experience than walking into a lecture hall. It can be challenging to discern where the ‘front’ of the class might be when neither the room’s arrangement nor the occupants’ behaviour is oriented toward a single point of focus [no front]. The space may feel cluttered with objects lying around, materials stacked up, and work in progress stuck to walls [surfaces], on desks [extended and distributed cognition], and in service of [making visible]. Tutors and students don’t always stay in place; they visit each other’s workspaces, stand and discuss pinned-up sketches, and may even be gathered in unexpected corners, which are not always inside the studio [informal learning spaces]. Other students may be hidden away, working behind ad hoc privacy barriers [public and private space]. The emergent architecture of studio enables participants to use studio as a space to design with, not just design in.