Digital dialogues: The Hyper-Layered Sketchbook

The sketchbook at both physical and perceptual levels captures our present, emergent and transcendent experiences; a repository of transformative ideas and engaged experiences. As a physical archive, the sketchbook captures a collection of (drawn) dialogues between objects, places and ourselves; representations which live on the recto-verso of the physical object. These diagrams serve to influence and inspire, but through this very act of placement, they become locked in the physicality of the page, as passive points of conception; for which the potential connections, relationships and conceptual links can often be difficult to uncover. Conversely, our engagement with the ever-changing digital revolution presents a new hyper-layered context of links, connections, networks and dialogues, beyond the conventions of the sketchbook page. Exploring this hybrid position, the paper explores a re-conception of the sketchbook not as a passive archive of statements, but as an active, reactive and interactive collection of dialogues; the hyper-layered sketchbook. The paper explores the inherent opportunities of this newly conceived sketchbook and digital dialogues in two key areas. Firstly, the paper explores the integration of current and future digital technologies as a means of capturing layered ideas, through the use of digital pens and accessible mapping software - the sketchbook is freed from its passive state and conceived as a transferable and layered tool. Secondly, the research explores the use of this hyper-layered sketchbook through work with design students within the Interior, Exhibition & Retail Design programme at the University of Huddersfield. The research questions if a more personalised imprint of the sketch/sketches can be achieved in this physical-digital state and be developed as a life-long sketchbook connected through time. The study concludes that the transferable hyper-layered sketchbook and its potential role and integration within the design, development process can and does connect a lifetime of fluid, layered experiences. Conference Themes Addressed: The digital sketchbook, the pedagogic sketchbook. Key terms: Digital drawing, the hyper-layered design process, design communication and experience, changing educational paradigms