Using Fundamentals of Description: A Foundation for Historical Inquiry

Issue Students have shown a need for increased development of visual and analytic skills when confronting pictorially presented information. Material culture studies utilize descriptive technique as the foundation of their investigative methodology and provide a basic structure for a modified pedagogy of design history Courses Goal A case for teaching verbal and graphic techniques of analytic description in the context of introductory design history courses is built in this report. Application Engaging students in fundamental descriptive techniques provides a link between a synthetically experiential understanding of the built environment and the analytic, fragmented comprehension common to visually presented slide images. Students utilize information about historical examples not as passive learners but by building for themselves an active framework for understanding. Description Descriptive exercises were added to an introductory design history course to engage students in the development of visual and graphic thinking skills that become the foundation for their historical inquiries Projects incorporating descriptive inquiry for introductory history courses serve as a case study. Conclusion Descriptive exercises allow learning history to be more closely associated with skills basic to studio activity Results indicate increased student interest, deeper penetration of inquiry, and greater impor’ of histcrical content into studio work.