Drawing dialogues: Participatory design education

Abstract

This paper offers an alternative view of drawing activities within an educational design studio environment. It analyses drawing tasks using the theoretical propositions of transformative learning, educational dialogues, and conversational frameworks. Such analysis highlights the possibilities for exploring true visual communication through drawing dialogues. It describes an action research project in which students and staff engaged in a range of drawing activites in order to generate deeper visual conversations with their associated systems of participation and feedback. The paper concludes by proposing that the theories of conversational and participatory education can be applied through the drawing activities of a design studio to generate and promote drawing dialogues.