How well do you really use writing to develop and communicate your ideas?

Formal writing is a requirement of most professional visual disciplines. As an artist or designer you are expected to write formal components to accompany your work, such as concept presentation, artist statements, grant proposals or reflective journals. Instead of being a stumbling block, writing can become an important tool for professional development in your creative or visual practice.

This fully online course will help you to write about your own work in a more professional and effective manner. Using less formal, creative writing methods, you will learn to develop discipline-based vocabularies, which are more appropriate and meaningful to you and your practice. During this course you will investigate writing tools and methods used by studio practitioners; develop your own set of tools and writing strategies; then apply these to a professional scenario. By the end of this course, you should be able to more clearly articulate and contextualise your work in the marketplace and your professional community in your own words.

You will also explore how writing can become a more integral part of the conceptual development process. You will participate in activities designed to clarify and refine your existing ideas, and to evolve ideas that you may have not realised were even there. By using what Mike Sharples has coined, “the cognitive engine of writing” (Sharples, 1999) to engage with double-entry journals, ideaograms, braided texts, poetry, word-play, etymology and other innovative writing formats. You will also develop reflective writing skills that will allow you to closely analyse your practical work, ensuring your studio practice is well considered and thoughtful.

Sharples, M. (1999) How we Write: Writing as Creative Design, London: Routledge.