Writing-PAD context (2000-2007)

Writing-PAD has generated many debates on a variety of issues involving writing in Art and Design education particularly at HE level. When we began the project in 2002, many of our debate papers (cf. www.writing-pad.ac.uk) were aimed at starting open debate where previously discussion had been hidden at the margins and situated in deficit (Wood, 2000; Raein, 2003b; Lockheart et al, 2004; Lockheart and Wood, 2007). The 2008 QAA benchmark statement introduced writing

approaches in response to the Writing-PAD debates. Indeed, Writing-PAD

contributed to the statements. As a result “a variety of written forms” are mentioned through which students can “articulate and synthesise their knowledge and

understanding” (The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, 2008:4).

When we launched the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (JWCP) in 2007 many of our initial papers aimed to take stock of what had come before, as well as to address what was happening across the sector at HE level (Graves, 2007;

Hand, 2007; Borg, 2007). The first editorial written for JWCP 1:1 (Lockheart and Wood, 2007) quotes from the Writing-PAD mission statement on the development and sharing of the vision and purpose; it aims “to create an arena within which Art and Design […] institutions could discuss, review and share practices that take the writing process seriously’ (2007:5).

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The foundation of the JWCP was heralded by the writing themed issues 2 and 3 (pp 75-216) of volume 3 of Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education (ADCHE): The Journal of the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Art and Design, guest edited by Susan Orr, Margo Blythman and Joan Mullin. These issues focussed on textual and visual interfaces in art and design education, and on advances in debates within academic literacies that addressed artists and designers’ need to write in HE directly (Lea and Strierer, 2000; Mitchell et al., 2000). Due to “the scale and response to the call for articles for this special edition”

(Orr, et. al. 2004:75) we decided to dedicate a journal to writing in creative practice.

The early Writing-PAD debates are varied and cross many disciplines, historical, theoretical, geographical and institutional boundaries. The early papers were uploaded on the original project website and covered the first five years of the project prior to the JWCP’s launch in 2007. Some make clear practical links between writing and designing (Orr and Blythman, 2005; Julier and Mayfield,

2005); others make links between writing and studio practice (Lydiat, 2003); design literacies of word and image developed through the visual essay (Marks, 2004); the integration of studio, theory and educational skills development (Key, 2005);

embedding writing within studio practice (Garratt, 2004) using online intranet sites to demonstrate students writing (Edwards, 2002); and assessment practices (Lockheart, 2002). Others posed questions about the centrality of reflective writing and the use of ‘I’ (Raein, 2003a), alternative forms of writing (Edwards, 2002;

Marks, 2004) and the use of reflective journals for illustrators (Francis, 2004).

Indeed, some of the debates were given in verbal form at conferences and symposia, some were recorded but some were never written down, such as an extended plea made by Mike Gorman at our first Writing-PAD symposium at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2003, for the use of the viva voce rather than the written text at examination. This was later followed by a study by Heather Symonds (2008) called, I can write but it’s like walking against the wind, in the first volume of JWCP. This introduced a model for oral assessment within creative practice. All of the contributions to the debate in the first five years seek to identify

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and disseminate a range of approaches for writing or presenting ideas and new knowledge. This stance has remained a feature of the articles published in the JWCP.

These discursive and inquisitorial starting points introduce the themes that have been developing in the articles written for the JWCP. These themes will act as a support for the writing approaches, practices and tools (APTs) that I explore in my workshops.

Figure 4.2 The JWCP and Journals of Art, Design and Communication concerning Writing in Art and Design

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Writing as Collaboration: Collaboration through writing The good collusion defeats the Lone Ranger

(Holland, 2008)

Writing as Design Tool: Design Tool as Writing Bisociation within keyword-mapping: an aid to writing purposefully in design

(Jones, 2007)

Walking with wolves: displaying the holding pattern (Raein and Barth, 2007)

Adaptive Assembly (Spring, 2008) Writing as Practice: Practice as Writing

Art - Write (Hand, 2007)

Unnatural fact: the fictions of Robert Smithson

(White, 2008)

Behind the lines and lines and lines: student studio solutions to projects that facilitate the exploration of visual and textual languages within fine arts practice

(Charlton, 2008) Here, I am (O’Neil, 2008) Reading as Practice: Practice as Reading

Sylexiad. A typeface for the adult dyslexic reader (Hillier, 2008)

Writing as Speech: Speech as Writing Conversations heard and unheard:

creativity in the studio and in writing (Graves, 2007)

In the Café Flaubert (Francis, 2008)

Introducing oral assessment within creative practice: I can write but it's like walking against the wind

(Symonds, 2008) Situated Writing: Writing Situated

Will Web 2.0 add purpose to writing by artists and designers?

(Speed, 2007)


Beautiful place/beautiful view journey scrolls and writing structure in the hea(r)t of the southern hemisphere

(Diggle, 2008)

Writing as Reflection: Reflection as Writing Another kind of writing: reflective practice and creative journals in the performing arts (Evans, 2007)

The Critical in Design (Part One) (Dilnot, 2008)

Writing as Research: Research as Writing Writing in fine arts and design education in context

(Borg, 2007)

Thinking-through-Writing: Writing-through-thinking Design research by practice: modes of writing in a recent Ph.D. from the RCA

(Edwards and Woolf, 2007)

The relevance of academic writing in design education:

academic writing as a tool for structuring reasons 
 (Häggström, 2008)

The relevance and consequences of academic literacies for pedagogy and research in practice-based

postgraduate design (Melles, 2008)

Auspicious Reasoning: Can metadesign become a mode of governance?

(Wood, 2008)

Diversity of approaches: Approaches to Diversity Complexity, Universities and the Arts

(Elton, 2008)

Figure 4.3 – Mapping the ten themes in JWCP 1:1-3 (2007-8)

JWCP Volume 1

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