Workshops
Some examples are listed below. Workshops can be tailored for particular contexts and audiences.
Please fill out the form below for more information.
Doodle game
Time: 45 min—one hour
Process: collaborative story telling and character development
“Look at walls splashed with a number of stains, or stones of various mixed colours. If you have to invent some scene, you can see there resemblances to a number of landscapes, adorned with mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, great plains, valleys and hills, in various ways. Also you can see various battles, and lively postures of strange figures, expressions on faces, costumes and an infinite number of things.” -- Leonardo da Vinci
Rationale: Humans are hard-wired to interpret ambiguous forms and shapes, form hypotheses, and invent stories to fill in missing pieces. This exercise uses this capacity to invent surprising and novel images, which are developed and refined in teams of three or four participants, through a series of collaborative iterations. Unique variations amplified through iteration simulate the development of local sub-cultures and languages.
Learning objectives: drawing to generate novel concepts (creativity), team building, engagement
(this is super fun, expect lots of giggles)
Improvisational Drawing
Time: 2 hours
Process: observe, reflect, collaborate, communicate
Rationale:
Build capacity to use drawing as a tool for discovery. Drawing allows us to freely play with thoughts and perceptions on paper without a clear end in mind, This guided collaborative improvisational drawing workshop jumpstarts the discovery process, as participants learn from observing and working with one another.
Learning objectives: Overcome resistance to experimentation and invention. Understand the drawing can capture non-visual perceptions. Expand drawing vocabulary through observation and imitation of lines and marks made by others. Develop awareness of the relationship of parts and wholes and develop new compositional strategies through collaboration.
Problem solving
Time: (two 1.5 hour sessions)
Process: problem solving, communication, collaboration, visual metaphor
Rationale: Apply principles of visual cognition to solve problems, through a series of individual and group activities.
Learning objectives: Participants will invent visual analogies that they can play with and reconfigure to visualize solutions to a range of concrete and abstract problems. Previous workshops have addressed problems ranging from how to get to work on time to the impact of rising sea levels on the world’s cities. Participants will walk away with new conceptual and practical tools to help their students find, understand and visualize solutions to their own problems through drawing.