Visuals and Learning, Education and Art Further Research

Lucienne Roberts
- Graphic designers surveyed (lib 741.6 PRI)
- Can graphic design save your life? (Book)

Persuasion:

• ' Design has the power to reveal key problems and solutions.' - language dept
• ' Design has the power to increase engagement, to become culturally 'sticky', to increase awareness and innovative dialogue.' - language dept
• The unbranding of cigarette packaging - pictures have more of an emotional impact, making them more memorable and noticeable. 

Education:
Graphic communication helps medical professionals understand how the body works, and inform choices made about our health.
Learning tools for medic students incorporate interactive activities.
Designers of educational material for the general public (adults and children) experiment with abstraction, metaphors and irreverent humour.

• Fritz Khan - tells visual stories about how the body works. 
• Erwin Powel - n+m medical covers, designs had strong colour presented complex scientific systems in an abstracted fashion, draws the readers attention inward. 'Physical theories are free inventions of the human mind, and the conversions of these theories into graphic art are inventions as well - not of scientists but of designers.' - Ernst Peter Fischer. 'Designers apply their imagination when trying to explain science, aligning it with knowledge to at least help people survive. This mental activity is called Einbildung in German. Bild means 'image' and this term expresses the idea of forming a shape in your mind and of knowledge transfer via the imagination.' - Ernst Peter Fischer.
• Peter Grundy - Infographics: Human Body Book. A book for children, started with data to create a book for young people to help them understand the human body. 'Wanting to steer away from conventional medical illustrations and employ information design as a form of story telling instead.'
• Kelli Anderson - The human body app. - animated illustrations. Aimed at children 4-10. Interactive app that encourages exploration into how the body works through creative play. Inspired by old biology textbooks, paper and glue type model. 'The systems that are most vital to our lives re also the ones that tend to  be most complicated, inscrutable and difficult to comprehend.' Graphic designers can make this complexity more understandable for more people. 
• Early Lab - Cofounded by Nick Bell and Fabiane Lee-Perrella. The aim is to demonstrate the value of highly visual design thinking that is informed by doing and making in the early exploratory and problem framing stages of a project. 

Early Lab

The Human Body App

Infographics: Human Body Book

Infographics: Human Body Book

n+m covers

Looking for into the Human Body App:

- Saw other apps by Tinybop, lots of educational apps, all in a similar interactive style. Coral Reef, Mammals (see below), Space, Simple Machines, The Earth, Weather, Plants etc. 

- downloaded the lite version of the Human Body App to see how the app works. It's quite hard to use on a small screen like a phone, would definitely be better on n iPad. 

- The illustrations in the app were really nice, very childlike but informative. 

- Very much related to what Kelli said in 'Can Graphic Design Save Lifes?' 'The systems that are most vital to our lives re also the ones that tend to  be most complicated, inscrutable and difficult to comprehend.' Kelli managed to present the complexities of the human body in a way that allows you to understand them, this is largely due to the interactive elements in the app. 

- Wonderlab https://www.scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/wonderlab#explore-the-exhibits

Wonderlab is all about experimenting with science. Students can investigate how light and sound work through an amazing range of fun, interactive exhibits. Exciting live science shows will take them on a journey of discovery. By experimenting, playing and exploring, students can understand how light and sound are the building blocks of the technology they use every day.

- Lucienne has worked with a lot of exhibitions presenting factual matter in a more visual engaging way. There is a clear market for educational systems like this.
- The activities are all very engaging and all very visual, they present light and sound in a new way to children that is easy for them to comprehend.
- More visuals making it easier for children to understand such difficult topics.

What about art in schools?
- Art topics being seen as less important than academic subjects, why so? Is this being reflected in the school ciriculum?

https://www.learningliftoff.com/10-reasons-arts-in-education-important-kids/
10 reasons as to why art in education is important:
1. Creativity. This may seem like a no-brainer, but the arts allow kids to express themselves better than maths or science. As the Washington Post says: In an arts program, your child will be asked to recite a monologue in six different ways, create a painting that represents a memory, or compose a new rhythm to enhance a piece of music. If children have practice thinking creatively, it will come naturally to them now and in their future career.

2. Improved Academic Performance. The arts don’t just develop a child’s creativity—the skills they learn because of them spill over into academic achievement. PBS says, “A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the arts (three hours a day on three days each week through one full year) are four times more likely to be recognised for academic achievement, to participate in a maths and science fair or to win an award for writing an essay or poem than children who do not participate.”

3. Motor Skills. This applies mostly to younger kids who do art or play an instrument. Simple things like holding a paintbrush and scribbling with a crayon are an important element to developing a child’s fine motor skills. According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Around age four, children may be able to draw a square and begin cutting straight lines with scissors.

4. Confidence. While mastering a subject certainly builds a student’s confidence, there is something special about participating in the arts. Getting up on a stage and singing gives kids a chance to step outside their comfort zone. As they improve and see their own progress, their self-confidence will continue to grow.

5. Visual Learning. Especially for young kids, drawing, painting, and sculpting in art class help develop visual-spatial skills. Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University says, Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticise, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.

6. Decision Making. The arts strengthen problem solving and critical thinking skills. How do I express this feeling through my dance? How should I play this character? Learning how to make choices and decisions will certainly carry over into their education and other parts of life—as this is certainly a valuable skill in adulthood.

7. Perseverance. I know from personal experience that the arts can be challenging. When I was trying to learn and master the clarinet, there were many times when I became so frustrated that I wanted to quit. But I didn’t. After practising hard, I learned that hard work and perseverance pay off. This mindset will certainly matter as they grow—especially during their career where they will likely be asked to continually develop new skills and work through difficult projects.

8. Focus. As you persevere through painting or singing or learning a part in a play, focus is imperative. And certainly focus is vital for studying and learning in class as well as doing a job later in life.

9. Collaboration. Many of the arts such as band, choir, and theatre require kids to work together. They must share responsibility and compromise to achieve their common goal. Kids learn that their contribution to the group is integral to its success—even if they don’t have the solo or lead role.

10. Accountability. Just like collaboration, kids in the arts learn that they are accountable for their contributions to the group. If they drop the ball or mess up, they realise that it’s important to take responsibility for what they did. Mistakes are a part of life, and learning to accept them, fix them, and move on will serve kids well as they grow older.

WHY STUDY ART?

Video from the Tate:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/talking-point/why-study-art

Really inetresting to hear different responses about the arts within schools.
notes i made and quotes I pulled out of the video:
- We've been drawing for 30,000 years.
- Teaching people to draw is like teaching people to look.
- Art is connected ot life.
- You can't teach art in the same way you teach literary subjectts. Art is within yourself, if we don't make it it won't exist.
- Art opens questions, makes us think beyond what we know.
- We need to be creative to get anywhere in any industry.
- Art helps define the identity of a nation, it can be traced back.
- 'Art in schools shouldn’t be sidelined… it should be right there right up in the front because I think art teaches you to deal with the world around you. It is the oxygen that makes all the other subjects breathe.'

WHAT IS ON THE CIRRICULUM?

Aims:
The national curriculum for art and design aims to ensure that all pupils:
 produce creative work, exploring their ideas and recording their experiences
 become proficient in drawing, painting, sculpture and other art, craft and design techniques
 evaluate and analyse creative works using the language of art, craft and design
 know about great artists, craft makers and designers, and understand the historical and cultural development of their art forms

Subject Content:
Key stage 1 Pupils should be taught:
 to use a range of materials creatively to design and make products
 to use drawing, painting and sculpture to develop and share their ideas, experiences and imagination
 to develop a wide range of art and design techniques in using colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space
 about the work of a range of artists, craft makers and designers, describing the differences and similarities between different practices and disciplines, and making links to their own work.

Key stage 2 Pupils should be taught to develop their techniques, including their control and their use of materials, with creativity, experimentation and an increasing awareness of different kinds of art, craft and design.
Pupils should be taught:
 to create sketch books to record their observations and use them to review and revisit ideas
 to improve their mastery of art and design techniques, including drawing, painting and sculpture with a range of materials [for example, pencil, charcoal, paint, clay]
 about great artists, architects and designers in history.

STATS FROM SCHOOLS:

• The report, the Warwick Commission on the Future of Cultural Values, found that between 2003 and 2013 there was a 50% drop in GCSE entries for design and technology, 23% for drama and 25% for other craft-related subjects.
• since 2010, the number of arts teachers in schools had fallen by up to 11%, teaching hours and teachers for design and technology were down 11%, drama teacher levels had fallen by 8% and teaching hours for the subject, including hours taught by non-specialists, had reduced by 4%.
• Research from the Education Policy Institute has shown a decline in the proportion of pupils taking at least one arts subject at GCSE level. In 2016 it reached 53.5%, the lowest level for a decade.
• Out of 1,200 schools 1/3 had cut lessons in music, art, drama and DT. 2/10 were concerned about having to drop a creative subject at GCSE level. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31518717


Is the relationship we have to the arts related to other academic subjects?
Is visual learning underappreciated? Not respected?