Digital and Paper Sketchbooks

Since the introduction of the portable mobile tablet device in 2010 there has been a surge of interest in how these might enhance technology-based learning. The advantages of mobile tablets extend into all aspects of society and education. But it is the specific uses and impact on art and design practice that this study sets its focus. This study examines recent literature supported by the sketchbook practice of two product designers who are also educators. Many pedagogic studies herald the transformative powers of digital technology but through the experience of two practitioners this study aims to test some these claims in an educational context. It questions the effect that their experience of the functionality and versatility of new media has had on their sketchbook practice. Martin Heidegger’s theories of praxical knowledge in The Question Concerning Technology (1954) inform this study, questioning how we think through the materials that we use, in particular thinking through the act of drawing. As the experience of the world around us becomes increasingly digitally mediated it is important to consider how designers use sketchbooks in digital and analogue forms