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Journal of Writing in Creative Practice Volume 1 Number 1 © 2007 Intellect Ltd Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/jwcp.1.1.5/2 Editorial – The ethical purpose of writing in creative practice Julia Lockheart and John Wood

In place of educational bureaucracy, we envision a more joined-up, student-centred, collaborative, ethical, and ecological approach to learning, making and doing. At the institutional and economic level this would entail a closer integration of research, practice, and teaching. In effect, this suggests a unified field that acknowl- edges writing as a catalyst to a variety of practices such as ideation, visualisation, thought, speech, action, drawing, making or research. A more integrated learning environment will foster new practices of writing, which could become a common ground for staff from many disciplines. Students would also benefit from this process. We wish to develop and share this vision. We believe that, if it is imagin- able and shareable it is also viable. (From the Writing-PAD Mission Statement, 2007)

Initially, it seemed logical to call this ‘The Writing-PAD Journal’, because it embodies the vision and efforts of the Writing-PAD network. However, when Masoud Yazdani, the Chairman of Intellect Books, invited us to think beyond our known borders we decided to call it the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice. Thanks to Writing-PAD (and to Masoud) we can welcome you to a new and unique journal. For its first four years the Writing-PAD network was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Fund for the Development of Learning and Teaching (FDTL), and was one of their phase 4 projects. This support enabled the project to create an arena within which Art and Design (A&D) institutions could dis- cuss, review and share practices that take the writing process seriously. The acronym Writing-PAD stands for Writing Purposefully in Art and Design. This emphasis on purpose is important. It reminds us that the real value of writing is seldom predictable, because this derives from the needs of its authors, readers and their shared context. Our agenda is therefore refresh- ingly open and inclusive. In the five short years since it was launched, Writing-PAD has grown from 3 member institutions in the United Kingdom to more than 41 member institutions across Europe. Its success has led to the current period of self-funding, thanks to the contributions from many of our founding institutions. (Our founder members are listed overleaf). We are proud of the range, breadth and depth of articles in this first issue. Although the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice had its roots in the learning and teaching (L&T) community, it is also interested in studio practice and the research that informs it. The complexity of this mixture became obvious from many discussions at our conferences, e-forum and workshops. They reflect a historical predicament that emerged over hun- dreds of years. Erik Borg’s article ‘Putting writing in fine art and design

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education into context’ illustrates this very well (Pp 83–99). Strangely, then, writing for, through, or within A&D practice has remained a surpris- ingly under-theorized practice within colleges and universities. That there was always a mystery about its true purpose is not especially remarkable. When the UK government compelled art schools to add writing to their syllabus via the Coldstream reports of 1960 and 1970 it did not actually insist on a specific genre. However, what emerged leaned heavily on a humanities model of writing. With hindsight, it is easy to say that this model was a poor fit to the deeper needs of studio practitioners. What is more surprising is that it has taken thirty or forty years for a creative grassroots response to emerge. This is not to say that all educators meekly accepted the status quo. But what we have found is that isolated individu- als had been quietly developing alternative models, often without financial support or official recognition. The Writing-PAD project has fostered a supportive network that not only brings together tutors from across the disciplines, but also from across the roles of studio tutors, theory staff, learning development and support, and learning and teaching coordinators. We expect this momen- tum to continue, augmented by the growing interest and involvement of research students. In one of its initial tasks, Writing-PAD collected and analysed different case studies to see, amongst other things, how writing methods reconcile studio practice and theory. The idea of the ‘reflective practitioner’ (Schön 1983) has become well-enough accepted to enable meaningful discussion across many professional boundaries. We hope that the Journal will appeal to more professionals from within the ‘creative industries’, although we may seem somewhat sheltered from the day-to- day imperatives of the commercial world. There may be certain advan- tages to this position. For one thing, it is easier to frame radical questions, take a long-term view or challenge received ideas. Why, for example, do we continue to use the term ‘academic rigour’ when we inhabit such as fast- changing world (cf. Wood 2000)? And why must we see dyslexia only as a learning disability, rather than as a positive condition that could inspire a saner education policy (cf. Weaver 2003; Graves 2003)? Our members have explored the role of writing within studio practice (Lydiat 2003), the integration of studio, theory and educational support (Key 2005), the role and nature of assessment (Lockheart 2002) and the centrality of reflective practice (Raein 2003). We have looked at alternative forms of writing (Edwards 2002; Marks 2003; Francis 2004), asked how writing studies might become better integrated (Roth 2004) and shown better ways for writing to be embedded within study practices (Garratt 2004). Some of our members have explored the parallels between design and writing (Julier & Mayfield 2005; Orr and Blythman 2005), how visuals can be used in the teaching of writing (Lockheart and Barnett, 2003), or looked at aspects of the writing process (Lofting 2003; Kill 2005) and the uses of IT (Cunliffe-Charlesworth 2004). All of these papers can be accessed through our website: http://www.writing-pad.ac.uk. Although it shows much of our history and some current activities a website cannot do what a paper journal can do. For one thing, it is not a collectible resource for the bookshelf. We aim to make the Journal a useful archive for new ideas and helpful information. We plan, for example, to focus on key topics, such as

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co-authorship, writing in performance, writing within interactive systems (e.g. Web 2), image-based relational writing, visual spatial ability and its relationship to the thorny question of dyslexia. For many of these we will invite guest editors to devote a whole Journal issue to a specialist topic. For example, we have commissioned Nancy Roth to manage a whole issue on the work of Vilém Flusser. Other likely themes include a review of writers who somehow make art or design using text, rather than drawing. (See Harriet Edward’s review of John Chris Jones’s book The Internet and Everyone, Pp 103–105). We will also devote special issues to events that are especially relevant, such as ‘Writing Encounters: The Space Between Words’: a conference that will take place at York St John University in September 2008. This issue will focus on writing practices with/in perfor- mance and will be edited by Claire Hind and Susan Orr. Another edition will explore issues concerning the JOE (Journal or Equivalent) Group at Manchester Metropolitan, to be edited by Tim Dunbar. Although the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice is not Writing-PAD’s first publication, it looks likely to become our main focus – augmented by some web development – over the next few years. It will continue to repre- sent its founder members and their institutions, but we are also determined to increase its circulation and attract serious critical respect. We believe this can be achieved by keeping in touch with the best thinkers, and by ensur- ing that the Journal’s first task is to inspire and support everyone in A&D who finds writing frustrating, elusive, arcane or inhospitable. It is for his- torical reasons that writing to/for/within creative practice has failed to attract mainstream interest, even though it is a perennial necessity for all of us. In the past, we expected students to write about context – even though the purpose of this word was never discussed. Perhaps their tutors believed that the act of writing like a social scientist would, magically, purify the soul or transform humble practitioners into wiser citizens. These issues remain complex and controversial. However, they should no longer be discounted as a parochial debate for worthy educators. In the age of global warming, they are important to all of us. A few years ago the architect Frank Gehry was quoted as saying, ‘I don’t do context.’ Whilst this may have been an ironic quip, it may remind us that the Enlightenment, and the Romantic movement led, among many other things, to a peculiar kind of western arrogance that came to seem normal, even captivating. This may help to explain why the word ‘creative’ (in the Journal’s title) is now a buzzword. In today’s A&D schools, the idea of creative licence is still sometimes offered as a legitimate way to avoid social, political or ecological responsibility. Since Writing-PAD was launched, creativity sud- denly became fashionable in economic and political circles. This is because it was seen as the coolest catalyst for economic growth. Books on the eco- nomic and social importance of creativity, by authors such as Florida (2004) or Howkins (2001) reflect an enduring faith in the effectiveness of competi- tive and laissez-faire economics. This renewed affinity between economic growth and the creative spirit is worrying, especially as designers, and other creatives, have already played a significant, albeit unintentional role in help- ing an insatiable, novelty-oriented culture of consumption that continues to damage the environment. In the current era of ecological panic we may come to see the received idea of creativity as intrinsically amoral, especially if

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it simply means an egoistic, transgressive act that needs no justification. While the techniques and attitudes of creative thinking are increasingly adopted all over the world, they are often said to stem from a tireless quest for innovation that is peculiarly Socratic, in other words, they are essentially individualistic. Today, what we would recognize in the word creativity is best characterized by the Romantic movement’s often rather theatrical, self- absorbed mode of thinking. For sales managers, the implied association between freedom and creativity works frighteningly well, especially where the customer is invited to look in the mirror, and to tell herself to shop ‘because I’m worth it’. And what would sales figures of Apple products be without the sexy styles, shapes and, indeed, names of their products? Of course, the creatives produced by the A&D schools are rightly proud of their enormous success within advertising, fashion and the art world. Unfortunately, many are still taught by lecturers who saw no option but to dance to the tune of industry. The corporate world has an insatiable appetite for smart, screen-based monkeys who will apply their visual wit and ingenuity to making more products more attractive to more people. Where industry is clamouring for more skills, what we need are creatives who can think more deeply. This is why we must end the traditional polar opposition of theory and practice. It is hard to imagine how any creative practice could exist in the absence of a thought process, yet this remains a vexed issue for some practitioners. Most of us find ourselves writing thoughts down for a variety of reasons. For some visual creatives, writing is seen as either dangerously prescriptive, or naggingly critical. For these stu- dio-based die-hards, it is the gut, or the heart that drives creative practice. They believe that thinking can confound what Pascal (1623–62) called the ‘heart’s unknown reason’. At the other extreme, a few of those who teach, or support the practice of writing may have found it hard to grow beyond their early training as some kind of ‘-ologist’. They may therefore see their task simply as training students to use rational argument for elucidating and verifying rigorous claims to truth. Not surprisingly, the gulf between these two standpoints has remained airless and dizzying for many bright students (and lecturers) who lack the self-confidence to challenge the status quo. Those who are bewildered by the proper teaching approach need more than a sympathetic ear. They also need thoughtful, creative and well- informed support. This may be difficult. Whitehead’s reminder (1997 [1926]) that ‘unlimited possibility and abstract creativity can procure nothing’ may fall on deaf ears. It has not deterred twenty-first-century artists from defying taboos or breaking boundaries for the sake of it. However, many now see the importance of aligning creative practice within an ecological context. This calls for a new approach to writing. But writing is changing anyway. Once, it existed only in heavy books that stayed, predictably, on some bookshelves. Today, our world is written in codes that move at the speed of light, therefore writing has become more shareable, mercurial, lawless and accessible. The distinction between pictures and words is blurred and we live in an exciting jumble of possibilities and contingencies. When change is ubiquitous, the language melts down and needs constant attention. This may remind us that, as creative individuals, we are capable of introducing new words, meanings and values into the discursive realm. This is why the

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‘P’ word is important. By always questioning purpose, in situ, we can reframe any aspect of the method or the suitability of that method for what is happening. Just as there is no single, clear, predictable, unified pur- pose within a given task undertaken by artists and designers, so the artist and designer must accept greater responsibility for our collective destiny. Students will need, among other things, to have a high level of self-knowledge (including self-doubt and self-respect), client empathy, open-mindedness, candour, respect and tact, and much more. For today’s universities this comes at a price. Our tick-box society currently appears to value league tables, and ‘level playing fields’ more highly than the process of ‘learning how to learn’ (Shah 1978). In an accelerating world where success is the currency, rather than quality of life, it is surprising that so many people still want to become artists. It is hard to equate this agenda with the received notion of being an artist. Who wants to be an impoverished artist? With this in mind, it is inter- esting to note how employable artists often are, despite their apparent lack of what governments believe to be the essential prerequisite to securing use- ful employment – identifiable skills. Ironically, however, the less stable global economics becomes, the less we will be able to predict what skills will be needed. If we cannot be sure what skills will be needed in five years time we can, at least, devote more attention, care, respect and – of course – resources to the reflective nature of the creative act. This must include a serious questioning of the received writing and research methodologies that were borrowed from others disciplines whose purpose was entirely different from what we do in A&D colleges. For the creative industries change has been relentless and inescapable. For many years, A&D schools tended to emphasize the visual and to underestimate the importance of the verbal and textual. The pendulum began to swing the other way when the ‘R’ word (research) became a fashionable imperative, and good old-fashioned scholarship entered the canon of the creative studio. Today, however, it is virtually impossible to ignore the importance of studio copy lines, branding, strategy, IPR legisla- tion and computer programming. However, this will require a shift of con- sciousness in which the creative act is understood as a process that helps practitioners to reconcile their inner realities with the world that is chang- ing around them. In order to manage these shifts it is vital to utilize an arsenal of words as an integral part of the whole creative process. Our evo- lutionary path has, so far, attracted a wide range of individuals from stu- dents to teaching professionals, including lecturers, senior lecturers, readers, deans, researchers, teaching and learning coordinators, man- agers, heads of schools and wardens. We thus present this first, celebra- tory issue. Although forthcoming issues will only be half the size, they will be available three times per year. We therefore welcome you to the first of many issues and volumes that will engage, engross, and energize the debate that is Writing in Creative Practice.

Thanks to the founding institutions We are indebted to those colleges whose support has enabled us to produce the first of many journal issues. These are: Art, Design and Media – Higher Education Academy (ADM-HEA) at the University of Brighton; University of

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the Arts (Chelsea College of Art & Design, Central Saint Martins College of Art and London College of Communication); Edinburgh College of Art and Design; Goldsmiths, University of London (Department of Design, Department of Visual Arts, Learning and Teaching Office and the Language Studies Centre); National College of Art and Design, Dublin; The Oslo National Academy of the Arts (KHiO); Swansea Institute of Higher Education; University of Wolverhampton; and York St. John University.

Acknowledgements We would also like to offer our thanks: first of all to Harriet Edwards from the RCA who has been unstinting in her advice and support particularly in her role as Editorial Advisor, and also to Editorial Advisors Professor Linda Drew (Chelsea College of Art and Design, the University of the Arts London), Dr Susan Orr (York St. John University), Dr Margo Blythman (London College of Communication, the University of the Arts London), and Professor Joan Mullin (University of Texas at Austin, College of Liberal Arts) who have been extremely generous in their time and advice. We would also like to thank all of the individual founder members who have offered counsel, including: Maziar Raein from KHiO, George Marks and Jane Cooksey from Wolverhampton University Faculty of A&D, Erik Borg from Northumbria University, Adrienne Lowy from John Moores University, Rebekka Kill, Wendy Mayfield and Professor Guy Julier from Leeds Metropolitan University, Nancy Roth from Falmouth University, Pat Francis from the University of the Creative Arts, Jo Walter from Swansea Institute, Annie Grove White from the University of Wales Cardiff, Joan Turner from Goldsmiths, our contributors, our blind reviewers, and all of the members of the Writing PAD network for their support. Thanks are due to the esteemed members of our Editorial Board who have been steadfast in their support of the work of Writing PAD and the founding of the journal. Finally, we would like to thank Carolyn Bew for her enthusiasm, advice and guidance and the ADM-HEA for their unstinting support for the Writing PAD network and the Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.

References Cunliffe-Charlesworth, H. (2004) Writing is Harder compared to Designing: Encouraging Academic Writing in Designers and Artists, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Edwards, H. (2002) Matters Around Art and Design Dissertations – Supporting Students’ MA Dissertation Through and Interactive Facility, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Florida, R. (2004), Cities and the Creative Class, London and New York: Routledge. Francis, P. (2004) Reflective Learning Journals in Studio Practice, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Garratt, J. (2004) Study Skills Innovation: Bath Spa University College, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Graves, J. (1996) Dyslexia in an Art and Design College – a case study, discussion paper published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Graves, J. (2001) Dance, Desire and Dyslexia – Random Thoughts on Creativity, discus- sion paper published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Howkins, J. (2001), The Creative Economy, New York: Allen Lane. Key, S. (2005) Enhancing Traditional Programming with New Writing Strategies, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Julier, G. & Mayfield, W. (2005) Designers are Writers, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk

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Kill, R. (2005) Thinking about Writing, case study published on www.writing-pad. ac.uk Lockheart, J. (2002) Support for Writing on A&D Courses, discussion paper pub- lished on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Lockheart, J. & Barnett, P. (2003) Visual Writing for Textiles at Goldsmiths, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Lofting, C. (2003) Thinking Through Ellipses, discussion paper published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Lydiat, A. (2003) Writing as Practice – Practice as Writing, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Marks, G. (2003) Helping Students to Overcome Anxieties about Writing – The ‘Visual Thesis’ of the BA Graphic Communication Course, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Orr, S. & Blythman, M. (2005) The Process of Design is almost like Writing an Essay, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Pascal, B. (1966), Pensees (ed. A. J. Krailsheimer), London: Penguin. Raein, M. (2003) Where is the ‘I’? Discussion paper published on www.writing-pad. ac.uk Roth, N. (2004) Contemporary Exhibition Project, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Schön, D. (1985)3), The Design Studio, London: RIBA Publications Ltd. Shah, I. (1978), Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way, London: Octagon Press. Weaver, C. (2003) An Exemplar of Student Writing: The Theoretical and Historical Essay of Yvonne Flavell, Level 3 BA Textiles Design Student, case study published on www.writing-pad.ac.uk Thackara, J. (2005), In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World, Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press. Whitehead, A.N. (1997 [1926]), Science and the Modern World, vol. 55, Great Books of the Western World Series, New York: Simon & Schuster. Winnicott, D.W. (1953), ‘Transitional Objects and Transitional Phenomenon Wood, J. (2000), The Culture of Academic Rigour: Does Design Research Really Need it? The Design Journal, Vol. 3, Issue 1, UK: Ashgate Publishing.

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