Constructive Copying: Exploring the Vocabulary

Abstract

Increasingly, concerns are being expressed about the negative effects of digital copying in both industry and higher education. A project was formulated to investigate the use of paper-based drawing methods for copying from visual source material in varied and structured ways and, thereby, to mitigate the adverse effects of design student dependency on screen-based copying. A Copying Vocabulary Matrix was formulated based on findings accrued through a practice-based enquiry where methods of copying were explored and a terminology of copying identified by the authors. A Constructive Copying Workshop was then devised for integration into an existing printed textile design course. Students were asked to respond to the words in the matrix through copying from the same visual source and were limited to pencils and paper. They were also encouraged to keep a reflective journal to record their thoughts as they worked. Their views were monitored during and after the workshop, and the drawings produced were then reviewed and analysed. It was found that a wide variety of images were produced based on either experimentation or strategic rationale by the students and that their visual literacy, analytical skills and understanding of textile design were enhanced, leading to the conclusion that similar teaching interventions into the design drawing curricula could benefit the student learning experience.

Connected Design Learning: Aspiring Designers, Pinterest, and Social Media Literacy

“….] to see it [my creative work] on Pinterest, on other people’s boards as a source of inspiration for other people.” In addition to confidence, Kellie confided that she also worried about her ability to translate inspiration into a new design and explained her hesitancy about “leaning pretty heavily on Pinterest for inspiration” in her earlier years: “I sometimes wonder in a project, if I find a piece of inspiration from an image and I use that inspiration pretty strongly in my project, I worry that it would almost come across as plagiarism.” This concern speaks to the practice where often art and design students learn through emulating what they see as a form of practicing their creative skills (Castro, 2012; Schenk & Parker, 2019), taking missteps around the distance between inspiration and the new creative product. The difference in the contemporary era is that digital platforms have made it possible for practice work, originally intended to be in the confines of a safe learning environment, to circulate widely intersecting more explicitly with issues of credit in a public setting and professional context.…”