The Sticky Studio: Proposing a studio model to reconcile the gap between broader university learning structures and specialist design education

Abstract

This paper addresses the pedagogical gap that exists between broader university learning structures and spaces, and the requirements of specialist art and design education. Conventional studio environments are at the heart of practice-based learning and this study was developed from the recognition that mainstream university teaching environments impact upon studio learning and student engagement today. As a consequence of the changing economic, political, and technological conditions favoured by universities today, specialist studio facilities are being reconfigured into classroom-based Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) spaces (often generically termed as ‘studio’). This paper attempts to examine what a studio education consists of; to define the underlying pedagogical philosophy of a studio education; and to report on how innovative studio learning spaces foster better engagement in higher education. This is with a view to proposing a model of studio delivery, referred to as the ‘sticky studio’, which enables a pedagogy of ambiguity together with flexible and active experiential learning in contemporary art and design education.