Drawing Methods as Tools for the Interdisciplinary Imagination

The topic of this presentation was drawing methods and their application in thinking through 'wicked problems'. The presentation focussed on three aspects of drawing and diagramming: drawing as observation; drawing as imagination/speculation; drawing and 'rich pictures'.

The presentation was delivered as part of the HEA-funded workshop 'Interdisciplinary Imaginations: using creative methodologies to solve 'wicked problems'. Organisers were Rowan Bailey, Katie Beverley, Karen Shah and Juliet MacDonald. This presentation and workshop event sought to foster new knowledge and understanding of creative methodologies in the context of interdisciplinary problem solving. ‘Wicked problems’, broadly defined, are social or cultural issues that are almost impossible to solve, due to their complexity. Humanitarian issues are familiar wicked problems: poverty, education, health, sustainability and equality are all indeterminate in scope and scale and thus never resolvable with one clear-cut solution. The magnitude of these complex global issues highlights a growing demand for interdisciplinary teams to come together to effect social change through collaboration. At the core of this growing cultural and social phenomenon is an understanding of the value and benefits of working collectively and creatively, divergently and discursively. This event set out to promote the idea that the condition of the interdisciplinary imagination has the potential to create new learning experiences. Participants at the workshop were encouraged, through designed tasks, to explore different disciplinary perspectives and world-views, actively engage in dialogical processes to produce new dynamics, deploy and invent creative approaches to wicked problems, and experience first-hand, interdisciplinary learning across the disciplines.