Description: Often in the ‘making professions’ – professions that have creative expression in physical form as their output, writing is a descriptive ‘afterthought’, something that comes once the project is completed, after the making is made. However, increasingly theory, discourse and research have become just as important aspects of the making professions as the spatial and formal outputs – though most often without a focus on the role this writing has and how it is to be facilitated. This course addresses the writing process itself as an unveiling that defines direction, generates ideas, uncovers connections and hones precision in the writing of the PhD thesis, the academic article or in general expression in written form.
Within the course 2 workshops will be held that address the ‘hows and whats’ of writing: a Title Workshop and a Flow Writing Workshop.
The Title Workshop takes its point of departure in the on-going written thesis work of the individual PhD student and works hands-on with how scientific academic work can be conveyed accurately, descriptively, and at times poetically.
The Flow Writing Workshop instructs in the technique of ‘flow writing’ as a productive and efficient method for developing written texts. Flow writing works with giving the participants tools to be better at avoiding writing blocks and putting off the writing process, developing more natural, fluid and personal writing, generating new thoughts and ideas, and developing a more constant and productive writing process.
There will be an opportunity to develop a paper and receive feedback.
[NB. Most instruction on ‘flow writing’ (flowskrivning) will be in Danish, although the assignments/paper writing can be in Danish or English.]
Key Literature:
Skjoldborg, Bo. (2014) Flowskriving, Dansk Psykologisk Forlag og Powerwriting.dk, Copenhagen
(The book is only in Danish)
(Participants will be given a copy of the book at the course)
Crylser, Grieg C. (2003) Writing Spaces – Discourses of Architecture, Urbanism and the Built Environment 1960-2000, Routledge, London (excerpt – Chapter 1 Introduction)
Crylser, Grieg C. (2003) Writing Spaces – Discourses of Architecture, Urbanism and the Built Environment 1960-2000, Routledge, London (excerpt – Chapter 7 Conclusion)
Forty, Adrian. (2004) Words and Buildings – a vocabulary of modern architecture, Thames & Hudson, London (excerpts)
Additional:
Crylser, Grieg C. (2003) Writing Spaces – Discourses of Architecture, Urbanism and the Built Environment 1960-2000, Routledge, London (Chapter 3 Assemblage)
Booth, Wayne, Gregory G. Colomb and Joseph M. Williams. (2003) The Craft of Research, University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Phillips, Estelle and Pugh, Derek S. (2010) How to Get a PhD – a guide to students and their supervisors (5th edition), McGraw Hill, Berkshire
Prerequisites:
Open for all regardless of discipline. The course though would be specifically relevant in the context of PhD students within architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, industrial design, mobilities studies, urban geography, planning, and other ‘making’ disciplines – or disciplines related to this - in which conceptual ideas, spatial studies and constructs and theoretical dimensions are meshed and communicated in and through writing.
Learning objectives:
The participants will obtain knowledge of the writing process and the use of the written word as a communication tool that is both precise and creative. Participants will also obtain skills and competencies in using writing as a defining and generative process, in avoiding writing blocks, and in general, writing efficiently, productively and fluidly.
Teaching Methods:
The course is comprised of 2 hands-on workshops that focus on writing as process: the Title Workshop and the Flow Writing Workshop. The workshops will be conducted with an interplay between lectures, exercises, feedback and reflection in a group setting.
Criteria for Assessment:
Active participation and engagement with the course literature, the plenary sessions and reflections over their own projects in an open ‘research workshop’ atmosphere. ’
Organizer: Shelley Smith, Associate Professor, PhD, Architect ssmi@create.aau.dk
Lecturers: Shelley Smith, Associate Professor, Architect, PhD Bo Skjoldborg, Cand. Phil., Author
ECTS: 3 ECTS without paper, 5 ECTS with paper
Time: 21-22 April, 2015
Place: Aalborg University, Rendsburggade 14
Zip code: 9000
City: Aalborg
Number of seats: 20
Deadline: 23 March, 2015
- Teacher: Bo Skjoldborg