Unspecified Project Scenes of digital media practice in Spatial Design

Main Article Content

Carl Douglas
Susan Hedges
Rafik Patel
Nooroa Tapuni

Abstract

Working from a comparison between two teaching spaces used by the Spatial Design program at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), this article discusses the idea of ‘technical teaching.’ It describes how the authors have consciously sought to build a pedagogy around the teaching of digital media. Central to this pedagogy is the idea that learning to design is about producing a space of practice. This space is not merely the room in which practice occurs, but the space of possibility available to the designer. This space is not infinite or universal but relates specifically to a repertoire of actions (which links it in turn to the possibilities of the sites where it manifests). We offer an overview of four technical courses and describe the rationale for their structure and relationship to studio teaching. By counteracting predispositions toward completeness, finality, and linearity, these courses teach students how to prolong the design process, to stretch it out and keep it in motion. The computer lab and teaching studio are ‘practised places’ in de Certeau’s terms, construction sites for an improvisational space of practice.

Article Details

How to Cite
Douglas, Carl, Susan Hedges, Rafik Patel, and Nooroa Tapuni. 2020. “Unspecified Project: Scenes of Digital Media Practice in Spatial Design”. idea journal 17 (01):131-48. https://doi.org/10.37113/ij.v17i01.385.
Section
text-based research essay
Author Biographies

Carl Douglas, Auckland University of Technology

Dr Carl Douglas is Programme Leader for Spatial Design at AUT University’s School of Art and Design.

Susan Hedges, Auckland University of Technology

Dr. Susan Hedges is Deputy Head of School at AUT University’s School of Art and Design.

Rafik Patel, Auckland University of Technology

Rafik Patel is a lecturer in Spatial Design at AUT University’s School of Art and Design. 

Nooroa Tapuni, Auckland University of Technology

Dr. Nooroa Tapuni is a lecturer in Spatial Design at AUT University’s School of Art and Design.