Neuro-physiology of Design Education

Krishnesh S. Mehta

Abstract:

Design is a complex discipline; if at all one can call it a discipline. There are as many definitions of Design in this world as the number of Designers. Probably, the only thing that all designers will ever unanimously agree to is that there is no one definition for design. Unlike most other disciplines, design does not seem to have a strong basis or foundations or formative principles or fundamental knowledgebase that can be called its own. Often, there appears to be no universally accepted uniform end purpose for all designing. With no one fundamental theory or sets of theories, virtually no baseline, the sequential evolution of new principles and theories –new body of knowledge, as explicitly observed in other disciplines, is usually found either tangibly missing or at most implicit in the field of design. Moreover, the pure and applied branching of knowledge as found in the majority of other disciplines is virtually non-existent or at best indistinguishable. Under all the above circumstances, design has come to be seen as a predominantly subjective and intuitive discipline. Besides, Design is a dependent discipline. It derives and enriches by a meaningful, synergetic and a systemic integration and synthesis of the principles and knowledge bases of, ideally, all the varied disciplines in existence. Yet, Design is at the core of all human subsistence. To use an analogy, Design is more like a string that brings a meaningful systemic synthesis of all the varied flowers to form a dazzling, delightful garland. And like the string of a garland, it is too fundamental and invisible to be seen as a distinct discipline with a clear identity. Though, that is changing now. Design can be seen as a discipline that is a synthesis of all disciplines, perhaps the only truly trans-disciplinary discipline. The above necessitates that the nature and the way in which design education is imparted has to be different. While in most other disciplines, education is all about conveying the conclusions and convictions of the teacher to the taught, design education is about instilling the very processes and methodology of arriving at conclusions and convictions. Physiologically, it is about activating similar neural connections in the taught. It is about teaching to fish rather than giving a fish. Based on the latest understanding of the neuro-physiology of the brain and its functions and empirical studies carried out by the author, this paper identifies the neuro-physiology of a few key proficiencies like systems thinking, visual imagination, etc. necessary to be mastered by any design student and elicits educational interventions for the same. The paper also suggests an approach to design foundations and touches upon the need to have a distinct pure design and applied design branches manned by, coining new terminology, ‘designtists’ and ‘designeers’ respectively with roles analogous to what scientists and engineers have in the field of science and technology.

Keywords: Design, Education, Learning, Neurophysiology, Neural connections

Introduction:

Ever wondered why most designers in spite of being educated at the best of schools are not able to achieve much professionally while quite often those who never had any formal, or at best minimal (or in a lowest rated school or in one of intellectual, infrastructural and all other penury), education in design come to be recognized as all time greats. These exceptions, even if few, spurs a thought that, maybe, it is not necessarily always the imparting and the instructional infrastructure and architecture but the learning and grasping (something happening within the individual) that is more important for education and that the latter may happen with or without any structured or express/official coaching. While this may be observed in all professions and disciplines, it may be found to be more widespread in the design and related areas. The beginnings of this paper stem from a curiosity to understand and explore on what is it that is happening within the individual, why this may be so, whether this can be transferred, and then what, if at all, is the role of training/education. Of course, the full research caters to and is pertinent for all education -all different formats, disciplines and age groups, from the newborn to the most elderly, and the findings are applicable with appropriate modifications (that are also a part of this full research) to all disciplines, but for the purpose of this paper design and design education will remain the main focus.

This quest actually began years back as one of the many collateral interests in trying to understand and learn the formative principles of design and design education. This probe, more than anything else, very much began out of personal inquisitiveness, with one finding leading to the other but lacking in any presentably documented research rigour. Nonetheless it is not devoid of method, only that the findings presented here may not be supported by much author generated documental evidence. In that sense this paper may be termed empirical and epistemological, and seem speculative. In a way it is indeed so. That does not mean it is baseless. It is founded on what can be called extrapolative speculation based on intuitive insights informed, culled and developed from a cross disciplinary synergistic synthesis of the latest findings (mainly post 2000 AD) of various disciplines like neuroscience, physics, cognitive neuro-psychology, neurology, neurobiology, neurophysiology, etc. and the observed, experimental and experiential studies carried out by the author in the field of education. It is by no means an individualist approach, except that it is an attempt at linking the findings in the field of neuroscience to the field of education, and since this association is not seen too often it may apparently be seen as either radical and premature or irrelevant. What and how much then, is the significance and utility of such a study and, therefore, this paper? The refuge for this can be taken in what the great scientist and the father of wave mechanics, who in spite of being a physicist wrote a speculative book on biology, ‘What is Life’, mentions in the preface [1] “We have inherited from our forefathers the keen longing for unified, all embracing knowledge. The very name given to the highest institutions of learning reminds us, that from antiquity and throughout many centuries the UNIVERSAL aspect has been the only one to be given full credit. But the spread, both in width and depth, of the multifarious branches of knowledge during the last hundred odd years has confronted us with a queer dilemma. We feel clearly that we are only now beginning to acquire reliable material for welding together the sum total of all that is known into a

WHOLE; but, on the other hand, it has become next to impossible for a single mind fully to command more than a specialized portion of it.

I can see no other escape from this dilemma (lest our true aim be lost forever) than that some of us should venture to embark on a synthesis of facts and theories, with second hand and incomplete knowledge of some of them –and at a risk of making fools of ourselves”. (Emphasis added). Further the utility of such an endeavour, no matter how foolish it may seem or turn out to be, has been highlighted by the Nobel laureate James Watson in his book DNA: The Secret of Life [2] “My change of heart was inspired not by an unforgettable teacher but a little book that appeared in 1944, What is Life?...That a great physicist had taken the time to write about biology caught my fancy.”, and further “Schrödinger’s book was tremendously influential. Many of those who would become major players in Act 1 of molecular biology’s great drama, including Francis Crick (a former physicist himself), had, like me, read ‘What is Life?’ and been impressed.” That such works can have immense value has been amply illustrated by the living examples of the both of them , James Watson and Francis Crick, together winning the Nobel prize by being inspired by the insightful perceptions of a physicist looking at biology. Cross-disciplinary or trans-disciplinary interaction generally leads to exchange of fresh perspectives and insights that are by and large enriching for all those participating. Evolutionarily, hasn’t cross breeding always proved to be more beneficial than inbreeding? This paper dares to attempt to do something similar with full awareness of its inherent and imminent risk.

In the light of the preceding, this study may be seen as a pilot study and the paper may also be looked upon as provocative -to motivate all interested researchers from all the various relevant fields to come together and devote their time and efforts, all the influential to get the PETs, fMRIs, fDOTs, and the like to look at brains from this angle, and all the rich to provide funds to do more elaborate and authoritative investigation on the same.

The basic purpose of this paper is to present the latest understanding of how the brain learns and gets ‘educated’ and how that can be used to develop the theory for the neuro-physiologic model of design education. This paper also attempts to list, based on empirical findings, the central ‘soft’ proficiencies indispensable to be developed in those desirous of learning design, more so in the present socio-cultural and economic context, and discuss the probable neurophysiology associated with each of them and put forth some of the studies that demonstrate how this physiology could be attained and argues as to how altering/creating the required brain wiring can help make design education more effective and efficient. Just as it is essential to stretch the balloon from all sides before it can be blown into effectively and efficiently, so also enabling the acquisition of the requisite neural connections prior to imparting design will help achieve more effectual education, especially design education, that tangibly brings about a truly transformational learning and wisdom in the taught.

Physiology of Learning:

Education should, ideally, lead to learning and knowledge, then to experience and finally to wisdom. Knowledge is filtered and usable information. Experience is the ability to apply this knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to apply the knowledge most appropriately with the full consciousness and awareness and/or the anticipation of the consequences. That it may not always do so or that learning may happen without

education has already been mentioned earlier. Understanding the basic physiology of learning and education may offer some comprehension. Neurobiologists [3] define knowledge as structured bodies of information possessed by the organism about the world, and capable of setting the organism’s reactions to the world. (The ‘world’ means both the external milieu and the internal states of the organism, and the ‘organism’ means, specifically, the nervous system.). Further, they define learning as an experience dependent generation of enduring internal representations, and/or experience dependent lasting modification in such representations. (‘Enduring’ and ‘lasting’ mean at least a few seconds, but in most cases much longer, and in some cases up to a lifetime). ‘Internal representations’ are defined as neuronally encoded structured versions of the world which could potentially guide behaviour. Two other things crucial for learning and education are memory and retrieval. ‘Memory’ is the retention of experience-dependent internal representations over time. ‘Retrieval’ is the use of memory in neuronal and behavioural operations. Therefore, it can be said that any learning induces a specific alteration in the physiology of the brain, or the brain state, that may in turn affect behaviour. Neurobiologically speaking, behavioural states correspond to brain states. Any and every behaviour has and is driven by a distinct physiology in the brain. Moreover, neurobiologists assume that the hardware properties of the system are vital and valuable for discerning its function and output. In other words, any particular behaviour can be linked to the brain state or the neurophysiology of the brain which in turn has been derived from the learning. This in turn may have resulted from education in some formal sense or may have been imbibed through a series of favourable coincidences/accidents leading to the held physiology in the brain. Thus, it emerges that learning is all about appropriately activating and developing the desired kind of structures/connections in the brain.

The main purpose of education is, ideally, to make learning happen. The intention of all learning is to bring about a change and positive transformation in the existing state of being –perceptions, skills, thoughts, emotions, behaviour –all developing the desired internal representations -collectively termed ‘sensibilities’. All new knowledge is filtered and altered based on the prior or existing sensibilities and so on till a new sensibility or learning, which progressively affects and revises the behaviour is accomplished. All learning can be basically looked upon as the attaining of the requisitely derived perceptions and skills –the sensibilities that are acquired consciously/unconsciously with or without any formal and structured teaching. Physiologically speaking, these sensibilities are dependent on the nature and type and the quality and quantity of neural connections in the brain, and optimal brain structure (like prefrontal cortex, basal ganglia, etc.) activity. This means that for a good learning to ensue all that is required is a set of smart and sharp mechanisms and instrument/s that help in achieving the desired perceptions and skills –the desired type, quality and quantity of the neural connections. For humans, these instruments happen to be all the various [4] 35 plus sensory receptors and the apparatus that processes all the sensory data –the brain. The mechanisms then are the mechanisms happening in the brain and the nervous system.

Any long term, behaviour altering and significant learning is a four step journey from unconscious unknown to the unconscious known. The former is a state of ignorance and the latter of knowledge mastery or wisdom that capacitates effortless and automatic – intuitive behaviour and responding. The steps are:

1) Unconscious unknown2) Conscious unknown3) Conscious known4) Unconscious known

There is no effort required in the first and the last steps. The second and the third steps require maximum effort and may require some external help in form of education or training. Movement from the first to the last happens through learning and awareness that might result either from direct education/training and/or what can be called a series of favourable coincidences/accidents, occurring in presence or absence, partial or full, of any formal imparting. A closer look a the lives of the persons who excel in their fields without any formal education in the same will definitely show that they had indeed achieved through some apposite concurrence the preferred and requisite type of neural connections for their area of work. They had developed the right attitude that enabled them to gain a high level of perceptivity for their field that allowed them to build the exact kind of neural connections leading to the relevant sensitivities and sensibilities. This correct attitude, as evidenced by umpteen biographies and autobiographies, often develops as a result of scarcity, penury, survival struggle, near death experience, an inspiration, a dream, words from someone special, etc. that makes the person realize the value of life and work, almost instantaneously modifying their sensibilities and rendering them more perceptive. In effect, physiologically, what has happened, when such a phase occurs, is that the brain has been freed of prior debilitating sensibilities, preconceptions and inhibitions and has been rendered more plastic and available for new neural connections to be made. The increased perceptivity then helps in acquiring the desired physiology. Thus, attitude is also a very important factor that is essential for bringing about the aspired brain physiology and, therefore, learning. According to research, attitude also plays a major role in memory formation and retention, as well.

The physiology of learning, as derived from the latest neurophysiologic research, could be explained in simplified form as follows. Any and every exposure to the sensory stimulus/stimuli, external or internal, undergone by an individual definitely leads to some neuronal activity in the brain of that individual. Depending on the nature and strength of these stimuli and the ongoing brain activity (prior sensibilities), certain particular sets of neurons in the brain fire together as a result. As per the latest understanding of these processes, this simultaneous firing of the neurons can happen either linearly/serially, associatively or synchronistically and in any permutation –any one at a time, or any two or all three in concert. The serial neural connections give rise to rational and analytical and sequential cause-effect, rule bound thinking more generally referred to as IQ. The associative connections give rise to systemic, emotional and empathic, habit-bound, pattern-recognizing emotive thinking nowadays referred to as EQ or emotional intelligence. Synchronistic neural connections give rise to creative, intuitive, value forming, moral, holistic, insightful, ethical, decisional, discriminative, visionary, creatively spontaneous, more transcendental thinking –often called ‘unitive’ thinking- processes and capabilities referred to as SQ or Spiritual Intelligence [derived from 13]. One more aspect of brain physiology pertinent to learning is that each time a given set of neurons fire together, it becomes more likely for them to fire together in future. As is said, “Neurons that fire together wire together”. When these connections are repetitively activated, they form ever stronger links that bind them into a single unit. When this binding is strong and coherent enough it leads to learning of the unconscious known type leading to wisdom. The

strength of the neural bonding is a direct function of the amount of active cognition, involvement and the impact-fullness of the experience –the depth of emotion, extent of surprise, etc. Thus, physiologically, the nature and type of neural connections, IQ, EQ or SQ or any combination thereof, and the quality and quantity of the neural connections and the qualitative and quantitative simultaneity of neural firing giving rise to specific sensibilities , bestowing what can be called WQ –wisdom intelligence, constitutes learning. Physiologically, WQ is the executive ability of the brain to use IQ, EQ or SQ, either individually or in any most apt mix, with full consciousness and awareness coming from the optimal activity in the frontal cortex and the frontal temporal lobe regions of the brain. This, then, is what all education should strive to achieve.

Over and above the preceding, education is also about awakening the hidden potential, or fine tuning the existing sensibilities, for a given topic in the taught. Physiologically, this only means that the student already has some or all requisite neural connections. All that is required is to either activate them or to strengthen them. When we say some persons have a natural talent for something, it only means that either consciously or unconsciously, they had been exposed to situations and circumstances that led to their developing the required neural connections. Thus, any particular sensibility or learning displayed by any individual is and has to be based on the existence of the essential physiology for the same. Education either unveils or facilitates the creation of this desired physiology.

Further, one unsaid aim of all education is to see that, ideally, all the students get equally talented and adept in the areas taught. But, in reality, it is known that it is not always so. Everyone achieves differing levels of expertise, though all are exposed to the same inputs. This happens, as in the present non-neurophysiologic model of education, everyone makes sense of these inputs within the limits of their existing sensibilities and hence are able to generate, or otherwise, the neural capabilities only to that extent. Thus, these students neither have same level of understanding nor the equivalent expression ability, neither equal base nor the similar aptitude and adroitness to express and respond. In contrast, the neurophysiologic mode of imparting can enable more students to attain the similar neural wiring and brain structure activation capacitating the attainment of a common level of neural expertise or the foundation and talent, putting them all at an equal pedestal. Of course, it does not mean that this creates clones, or programmed robots, of all students and it does not take away the variety and richness that can come from the disparities and divergences. Only that it helps achieve an even playing field on which the diversity, multiplicity and creativity can then thrive and reach a new high. This is made possible by the fact that, in this case, the existing sensibilities come into play only in responding and expression and not in grasping. This makes education more uniformly effective among all students. Thereby enabling expansion of their individual and collective standards of accomplishments and in this manner help evolve and elevate the discipline as well.

Changing demands on Design and Design Education in the new economy:

Design in the new economy is becoming more business savvy. Or rather, of late, the industry has started realizing the importance of Design. Worldwide, design had largely been seen by the industry as having the art value or the cosmetic and gimmick value. However, the utility value and the humane value of design is just now being recognized and understood. The business world is still grappling with the innovative and strategic value of design. This turnaround has come about as a part of the realization that, ultimately, at the end of the day, all activities, scientific, artistic, business or otherwise, must be done to improve the quality of life and not be detrimental for the same. No one entity can exist in isolation of the other and no one unit can prosper without the prosperity of all of the others. Human and all life, and human values must be protected at all costs if the progress has to be of any lasting and evolutionary value. The fallacies of human greed and materialism has been amply made clear in this post 9/11 era. In fact, more and more businesses are now looking at making themselves human centered. The business people have now started talking about love, spirituality, emotion, sensuality, etc. as opposed to only gains (ROI), money and all things material just a few years ago. Some of the more evolved businessmen believe what Kevin Roberts, CEO Worldwide of Saatchi and Saatchi, well summarizes in his book ‘Lovemarks: the future beyond brands’ [5] “The idealism of Love is the new realism of business. By building Respect and inspiring Love, business can move the world”. Of course, knowing the business behaviour in the past, while this noble view may seem to be one more fad for businesspeople and one more of their many ways of this time ‘humanly’ making the wallets of their consumers lighter, it will have to, sooner or later, be out of real need, for otherwise the very survival of humankind and, therefore business, is in jeopardy. Design too has added its bit to this view by encouraging new (old wine in a new bottle –hasn’t design always followed systems approach) design thinking like universal design, inclusive design, green design, sustainable design, etc. However, even without these buzz words, design has always been more system oriented, emotional and humanizing. And it is this quality that is making design so popular in the new millennium. It is in this context that design is fast becoming accepted and is being embraced all over. And it is in this backdrop that the roles and responsibilities of the designers are becoming crucial and hence the demands on Design education too. Design education, today, as always, has to produce designers who are highly sensitized in order to be able to design with and for senses and sensibilities. Hence, designers have to first sense and experience before they can make others feel and perceive. Design educators, all the more so.

Besides, Design is a dependent discipline. It derives and enriches by drawing from all the other disciplines. Unlike most other disciplines, it does not have foundational or formative basis that can be called its own. Though, this need not and should not remain so. Most such are drawn from all the various disciplines. And that is desirable too, as mentioned by Donald Anderson [6] “While it is true that we all must learn to see, many people in the sciences learn to see better than do artists. For many of those not wholly engaged in a world of symbols, fine visual discrimination is a prerequisite. Gifted astronomers can resolve more detail than photographic apparatus. Those of us who are engaged in design fields can be helped to grasp the fundamentals of natural structure with the aid of those who are most closely associated with its study.” Very few other disciplines need do this and there lies the beauty and uniqueness of design as a discipline. If there is anything that is exclusive to Design, it is its ability to handle width and yet reach a distinct depth. It has a knack of forming its own foundations by

integrating and synthesizing the formative principles of all the various bodies of knowledge in existence today. The power of Design is founded on it being trans-disciplinary. This is well said by Evan Schwartz [7], “Inventors often need to go beyond the area of their training or past experience and extend themselves into new realms. They need to sense an opportunity to bridge two industries, two intellectual domains, or two different worlds. They need to combine conceptual models that have never been put together before. They need to cross or transcend boundaries.” While other disciplines have to be trans-disciplinary for individual and collective enrichment but need not be incomplete without it, the very fulfillment of design comes from being trans-disciplinary. Further [8], “a designer has to design a product such that the product by itself communicates the designer’s desired intent to enable the user to perceive and use the product as intended, in the process meeting the user’s expected sensibilities. And, design has to be responsible. It has to be environment friendly, optimal on resources (added), ethical and cares for the safety, ease of use, security, comfort and pleasure of the user. It has to meet the requirements of the elderly, the less abled, women, men, kids, youth, teenagers, and so on. It has to help avert crime and foster peace. It has to simplify and humanize technology. It has to convey all this and much more.” In this respect, design education is different and more challenging. It has to cover both breadth and profundity; it has to give a grasping power and the wisdom that enables the student to extract the most appropriate solution for the given problem. It has to incorporate systems thinking and a more than ordinary understanding and concern for the living beings, and all of nature, their emotions and well being.

While on the topic Design evolution, a small digression on a passing thought may not be too much out of place. Design, like Science, penetrates very deeply into our lives. It is at the very core of human subsistence. Yet, because of various factors including its subjective nature and lack of explicit foundational basis, Design is a complex discipline. Design education is even more so. Hence, the mental set-up and skill set required of a designer is very much different from that of a design educator. A designer may not be equipped or interested in the development and evolution of design pedagogy and design as a body of knowledge, especially the generation and evolution of design foundations and formative principles –the design equivalents of the theorems and theories of the sciences. While a designer has to be more application oriented, a design educator has to be more academic and pedagogic and yet have application propensity and capability. In that sense design educator is a designer plus a mentor and has to be a super set of the two. Bauhaus faculty, Johannes Itten said as early as the 1960s [9], “There is no field of human activity in which talent plays so decisive a role as in education. Only the talented educator, that is a person with a flair for education, will respect and protect in a child the indescribable miracle of his or her humanity. Respect for the human being is the beginning and end of all education. Education is a bold venture – particularly in the arts, because it involves the creative spirit of man. Knowledge of human nature – intuitive knowledge of human nature – appears to me to be a gift essential to the true educator, who needs to recognize and be able to develop the natural talents and temperaments of those in his charge.” Physiologically, s/he must have the requisite neural connections and the panache to impart in such a way that it generates analogous neural wiring and brain activity in the taught. That probably sets at rest the possible debate on whether a design educator has to be a practitioner only, or only an academic or a bit of both. Hence, to bring about

more focus and better concentration of efforts and thereby a more systematic and methodical development of Design as a discipline in its pure and applied forms, would it not be more beneficial to have a distinct pure design and applied design branches manned by, coining new terminology, ‘designtists’ and ‘designeers’ respectively with roles akin to what scientists and engineers have in the field of science and technology? The ‘designtists’ becoming the design knowledge and wisdom creators and imparters and the ‘designeers’ becoming the application wizards and generators and imparters of best practices and application processes and methods. Needless to mention, this distinction is only for the purposes of focus and both must talk to each other and both are responsible for the Design community at large. Of course, occasional role reversals and overlaps may happen and are welcome, but by and large this differentiation may help a more effective and efficient growth for the Design discipline. The utility of such demarcation has been amply demonstrated by the example of the sciences.

Ingredients of Design Education:

Design, Science and Technology, Management and Art are some of the most important disciplines affecting our lives every moment of every day. All seem to be very different in approach, method and what they do, but effectively all seem to have the same quest –that of improving the quality of life. While Design and Art may be termed ‘soft’ disciplines driven by human emotions and feelings and associative thinking (primarily EQ), Science and technology may be termed the ‘hard’ type driven purely by logic and linear thinking (mainly IQ). Management is in between the hard and soft (ideally EQ-IQ) tending towards soft (as it should!). Design is often supplemented and enhanced by drawing from the convergence of the rest.

It is important to define a discipline to be able to better understand it and the constituents necessary for imparting the same. But it is difficult to define design. There can be as many definitions of Design as the total number of designers. Probably the other way of getting clarity about any discipline is by looking at what it does. What does each do? Science explains the causes of the observed phenomenon and develops the cause and effect relationships. Management enables achievement of any goals most effectively and efficiently. Art is about insightful and emotion evoking self expression. What does design do? Design synergistically synthesizes and integrates all relevant (for the given design problem) knowledge/wisdom in order to ‘optimize’, ‘contextualize’, ‘systematize’, ‘harmonize’, ‘humanize’, ‘emotionalize’, ‘sensualize’, ‘intuitivise’, and ‘intimatize’ as intended (by the designer), the production and the use/consumption and experiencing (by the consumer) of any product, service or any design. Socio-culturally and economically, if design has to play an emancipative and transcendental role then the word ‘spiritualize’ could also be added to the above list. Here spiritualize means to influence a more ethical and responsible behaviour. In fact, design collates and converges all the learning of the various disciplines into a synthesized and integrated holistic whole so as to encompass all the possible perspectives to bring about a solution that is most simplified and common-sensory to almost all.

Design is more often seen as material skills based discipline, much like the arts and crafts. However, there should be, preferably, a balance of proficiency between the mind and the hands, the tangible and the intangible, more so in the present context, when it is increasingly becoming a strategic and thought led discipline. Especially, that’s how the business world would like to accept design. Most design schools do a very good job of distinctively imparting the corporeal aspects but the ethereal ones are either missed or passed on indirectly or very subtly, often left to the students to pick them up. Modern understanding of learning emphasizes that the ‘mind’ skills are more important for a better and efficient grasping of ‘hand’ skills. And this same thought is reverberated, albeit in different words, by Itten in the past [10], “Imagination and creative ability must first of all be liberated and strengthened. Once this has been achieved, technical and practical demands and finally commercial considerations may be introduced. Young people who begin with market research and practical and technical work seldom feel encouraged to search for something new. If new ideas are to assume artistic form, physical, sensual, spiritual, and intellectual forces and abilities must all be equally available and act in concert. This realization largely determined the subjects and methods of my teaching at Bauhaus. It was essential to build up the individual student as a well integrated creative person.” Even when teaching is done at the tangible and conscious levels, the real learning is happening unconsciously and intangibly at the neuro-physiologic planes. As per recent research [11], almost 95% of all cognition is unconscious. This adds to the complexity of teaching and therefore a need for education methodology that directly addresses the 95% unconscious, and, therefore, this proposed neurophysiologic model. For example, one way to learn singing is to practice till full expertise is achieved. Essentially, what the practice is indirectly achieving is control on breathing, abdominal, vocal chord and other related muscles and body parts. If the control of these muscles and body parts could be directly achieved beforehand, through specific breathing exercises, etc., then the singing can be learnt much faster and more effectively. This applies to drawing, too. Activating the fine motor neuron and perception areas of the brain makes learning drawing speedier and effectual. Same is valid for all learning, specifically design, as is being showcased here.

Based on the concepts presented so far from the latest literature in the field and based on the author’s empirical studies as explained later in this paper, the key intangible ingredients of Design education can be listed as Heightened Sensitivity and Perceptibility, Highly evolved Sensibilities, Systems, Associative and Unitive thinking (IQ, IQ+EQ, SQ), Multiple Perspectives and Cognitive Flexibility, Creativity (spontaneous creativity and creative spontaneity), Very good Visual (in fact all sensory- Multi-sensory) Imagination, Objective subjectivity (ability to objectively evaluate their own ideas without falling into ‘my baby syndrome’), Discriminative and decisional abilities, Intuitive insight and foresight, Multi-layering and Multi-tasking ability, Teaming skills, ability to deal with ambiguity and self-reliance and self initiative. Some of these are inter-related. Modern neuro-physiological research has been able to identify some characteristic brain goings-on necessary for each of these and also how those could be activated or optimized, transferred and taught.

Most of the above ‘skills’ are what need to be manifestly and explicitly imparted but they are rarely offered directly, perhaps due to lack of unambiguous methodology and need perception for the same, and it is often picked up (or otherwise and hence all students going through the same course do not become equally talented) by the

student while going through the courses and structured ‘education’. And since they are ‘picked up’ indirectly, even a person without a formal education can ‘pick’ them up. This explains the increased incidences of great designers and creative professionals not being formally trained. In effect, these people have learned to learn, and they are not bound and limited by the ‘rules’ of structured education. They have achieved the right sensitivities and sensibilities to make sense of the things on their own.

Creativity is considered to be a very important ingredient for Design. Designers call themselves ‘creative’ but worldwide there are hardly any design schools that specifically offer a course on creativity as a part of their regular curriculum. Same is the case with Sensitivity, Sensibilities, Perceptibility and Associative and Unitive thinking, et al. Often drawing skills are equated as visual imagination and visualization skills, but they are actually only visual representation skills. It does not develop imagination; it can help represent it only. Same with the modern technologies like Virtual Reality, etc. And in any case in today’s context it has to be not only visual imagination, it has to be full Multi-sensory and Cross-sensory imagination.

Is it at all possible to impart all of this? Well, yes. If some people have acquired this then definitely it can be attained by others. Factually, what these people have achieved is the relevant and requisite neural wiring and brain activation. And this can be transferred and taught, but the approach and the process has to be different, and therefore this paper that tries to propose a neurophysiology based model for education. In today’s highly informed world, any information is just a click away and in that context just the present ways of instruction will not suffice. The above necessitates that the nature and the way in which design education is imparted has to be special. It is because of this, then, the need to invoke the neurophysiology and the modern understanding of the brain, so that the education can be made more effective and efficient. This demands developing newer methods of teaching design that help build up the desired neural connections as per the key ingredients needed, like some mentioned later. This pedagogy is extremely relevant for all education, but that will be out of context for the intent of this paper. While in most other disciplines, education is all about conveying the conclusions and convictions of the teacher to the taught, design education is about instilling the very processes and methodology of arriving at those or similar conclusions and convictions. This is so because in design and to some extent in management, the tasks, problems and areas of work keep changing from project to project unlike elsewhere, like a cardiologist will keep working with the heart for the rest of the life, a civil engineer keep doing civil engineering and so on. Physiologically, it is about activating similar brain structures and neural connections in the taught so that they are rendered capable to suitably respond to any situation, pre-identifiable or otherwise. Of course, it should be made clear here that this similarity does not lead to all students becoming a carbon copy of the teacher or clones of each other, leaving no room for individual creative expression. What are being transferred are the experience and the abilities to respond to situations and not the responses themselves. Thereby, help generate spontaneous creativity and intuition.

Neuro-physiology of Design Education:

Presented here is the brain physiology pertinent for the above key ingredients derived and partially validated from experiments and empirical research carried out by the author and supported by written evidence [12] and some extrapolative speculation. These are offered without getting into the technicalities and detailed explanations that could be obtained from the references. Design is primarily and idyllically a whole brain activity. A designer with full brain activity is guaranteed for full success.

Direct imparting of the key ingredients can be achieved by aiming to affect the related brain activity and neural connections in the taught. Systems, associative and unitive thinking can be achieved by having more associative neural connections (EQ) along with as much possible of simultaneous firing (SQ) of different neural networks and regions. For example, often, design educators might have experienced, that students excel in each of the individual courses like color, ergonomics, product graphics, form, etc. but when it comes to integrated application of all of them in a complete design project for a particular product, they are not able to do well. This happens as all the individual courses have developed sufficient serial connections separately for each of them, but at the time of undergoing the courses because the simultaneity of neural firing was missing the relevant associative neural connections were not made. And, in fact, habit also plays an important role here. Most of the schools at 10+2 level all over the world only cater to developing serial neural connections (IQ) and hardly ever any noticeably associative or synchronistic ones. So the students even when in a design school continue to connect linearly, by the force of their twelve year old habit. The neuro-physiologic way to overcome this is to keep making the relevant associations at each stage.

Creativity, creative spontaneity and sensibilities can be achieved by building synchronistic neural connections [13] and an optimally active frontal cortex and temporal lobes in the brain [12]. Multiple Perspectives and Cognitive Flexibility come from optimal activity in the Cingulate system as also the ability to cooperate and team up. Ability to deal with ambiguity and uncertainty and the discriminative and decisional facility comes from the entire prefrontal cortex. Intuitive insight and foresight, systems thinking, evolved sensibilities and ethics, creating values, amplified awareness, etc. comes from increased capability for synchronistic oscillations and associative connections (SQ+EQ) and basal ganglia activity. As per the pioneer of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman, [14] “Gut feeling, in fact, has gained new scientific respect because of recent discoveries about implicit learning – that is, the lessons in life we pick up without being aware that we are learning them”. In fact intuition is not hunch. All the varied knowledge known to a person is stored in different parts of that person’s brain. Generally, it is difficult to access all the different areas of the brain at one time if they had not been associatively or synchronistically fired at the time of data entry. Therefore, this calls for developing special methods for teaching and retrieving the same, such that associative and synchronistic neural firing is achieved. However, SQ allows simultaneously accessing all the various locations of knowledge storage, irrespective of the way data was stored and processing it in parallel generates an output that seems like a hunch. But, actually it is based on full but unconscious process and dispensation. Multi-sensory imagination and visualization is accomplished through parietal lobe along with limbic activation and the fullness of whole cortical activation including the temporal lobes. Self reliance, self-monitoring and supervision and initiative are very important for any education but all the more so for design and creative studies. These come from optimal

activation of the pre-frontal cortex and the basal ganglia structures in the brain. Progressive relaxation and meditation has been found to be highly useful for activating the frontal lobes and the parietal lobes. These methods also help in developing the multitasking, multi-layering and analytical skills through inducing a state of relaxed alertness leading to a high level of presence of mind and creativity. The latest scientific evidence suggests that our brains are plastic at any age and that the above neurophysiologic modifications and hence the learning can be achieved at any time provided appropriate steps are taken to bring about the desired changes. This again highlights the need for considering the neurophysiologic approach in education.The study:

This paper is based on the many empirical studies undertaken over the period of last one year or so. However, as mentioned before, they have been carried out with some aspects of the full research methodology, like meticulous documentation, control group, etc. either lacking or not strictly adhered to. Nonetheless they can act as indicative and pilot studies. Ideally, this study would be more emphatic if done using non invasive active brain imaging techniques like the fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or fDOT (Functional Diffuse Optical Tomography) and the like. Another cheaper but less effective technique is to use RFI ((Resonant Frequency Imaging). In the absence of the access to the above, to study brain and behaviour alterations, a brain structure activity depicting questionnaire developed by Dr. Daniel Amen [12] based on thousands of SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) studies carried out by him was used. Some of the questions as also the mode of administering and evaluating were modified, after suitable validation. Since this questionnaire is based on the direct correlation with SPECT imaging, it can act as an approximate replacement for brain imaging. Volunteers, mainly design students from various disciplines at the National Institute of Design, India, ranging in group strengths from 5-10 were selected using random sampling. The classmates and batch-mates not participating formed what could be considered the control group. The duration of testing varied from 7 days to a few months depending on the availability and willingness to continue practicing the prescribed interventions. One group of seven is being monitored for the last ten months. The volunteers were made to respond to the above mentioned questionnaire at the start of the study and then at the end and the differences in the two responses were noted based on which the success or otherwise of the given intervention was established. The outcome was also correlated with the performance of the volunteers in their regular academic courses and the perceptions of the students themselves and their peers and faculty.

The key ingredients of Design education have been obtained by following definite empirical and experimental methodologies carried out over the period of 6-8 years and as many batches of design students. These included, in depth interviews of students and practicing designers and academicians, observing the qualities of students who performed consistently well in their studies and that of those who did not, as also testing certain qualities, like for e.g. visual/multi-sensory imagination, intuition, etc. by giving specific exercises to be completed in specific time limits and then evaluating the outcomes and from there extract the abilities, or the lack thereof, that led to the particular type of outputs. Besides, techniques those help dig out the unconscious mind and potentials like the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMAT) [11] and similar others with appropriate remodelling were also used.

The neurophysiology altering mediations were administered in form of theory as well as practical and experimental formats. Most interventions were based on teaching methods that achieved more neuron impacting while some of them were proprietarily developed specific procedures based on the combination of the modern technologies like sound/light and multi-sensory Entrainment and Resonance and the ancient Indian yogic techniques of breathing, sound resonance and other brain stimulation practices. According to modern neuro-physiological understanding every psychology (or neuro-psychology) has a distinct physiology in the brain [12]. Further, the interventions used here are based on the latest technological discoveries coupled with the ancient and traditional know-how. This, then, takes care of the possible requirement that neuro-physiological learning must be a structural coupling of neuronal-psychical learning and social-technological learning. In fact there are techniques that can produce almost 90%-95% brain activation and up to 100% brain wave synchronization. This awareness of the relevance of such activities for design education cannot be claimed to be new as it was practiced at Bauhaus as early as the 1919-20, but this does not mean that the present approach is re-inventing the wheel. This paper mentions the Bauhaus to really appreciate the vision and clarity that existed even then regarding this kind of method for design education, and which seems to have been forgotten now, and give due respect for the same but a careful observation will show that this paper presents an approach that is more conscious and tangible, more repeatable and measurable and is based on the latest findings of how brain learns and how it can be made to learn. To quote Itten [15], “The training of the body as an instrument of the mind is of great importance to a creative person. How can a hand express a characteristic feeling in a line, when hand and arm are cramped? The fingers, the hand, the arm, the whole body, can be prepared for the task by exercises of relaxation, strengthening and sensitization. The body can be relaxed in three ways…. The third way of relaxing, balancing, and harmonizing the body consists in the use of sound vibrations. The students had to first practice sound production –they had to learn to feel where the sounds vibrated in the body. The hummed note must be intense even if its volume is low. A sound filled with the powers of the heart can work wonders. Besides relaxation, breathing is of great importance. As we breathe, so we think and conduct the rhythm of our daily routine. People who have achieved great success in their lives always breathe quietly, slowly, and deeply. Those who are short of breath are hasty and greedy in their thoughts and actions.” Obviously, the techniques used in the present study are much more advanced and to a large extent validated by the latest brain imaging equipment. Discussing the specifics of each method may be out of context here.

Some examples and findings:

One tool often used for Design education, as also in management, is case studies. While case studies are useful for convincing purpose, they are not very good for generating experience that can build lasting neural connections. They are much like the fairy tales -beginning with “Once upon a time…” and ending with lived happily ever after or not with some tragedy in between. The student involvement and neural learning is minimal. Often neither the presenter nor the presented are aware of all the factors implicated for the outcome. Instead, new methods were devised like simulation studies, experiential studies, sensibility studies, and perception labs. The former two simulate the real situation with full understanding and manipulation

ability of all the variables associated with the end result, giving the students more direct experience, and thereby stronger allied neural connectivity, of the situation in quest. The latter two are useful for creating the necessary sensitization and perceptibility regarding the topic pursued.

For example, as a part of perception lab, ten volunteers were recently taken to a deep forest inhabited by nocturnally active wild animals like bears (70-80 were there in the region) and spotted leopards (7-8 in number) and reptiles like the white and king cobras. Nobody had seen the place before. They were taken to the place at night and so the daytime view was not possible and the space seemed more dangerous. At around midnight on a dark moonless sky, they were taken into the thick interiors near a water body (increasing the chances of animal activity) and were each told to walk up and back around 200 steps all alone, with a few stones as the only weaponry and support. They were also taught specific techniques and perception theory. About 10 days (at the time of first draft) have passed since then and all the volunteers are being closely monitored. Needless to say the impact was so powerful that they were sensitized in just one night. What remains to be seen is how long this effect lasts and whether a follow up is needed and, if so, of what kind. So far, this particular group has been found to have become highly perceptive and their fine motor skills show improvement. [About 50 days have passed (at the time of this writing) since then and all the volunteers are still being closely monitored. Of the ten volunteers, six continue to demonstrate the noticeably positive effects observed earlier and also show continual improvement in terms of heightened sensitivity and seem to show increased EQ. More tests are being conducted].

Using entrainment/resonance based techniques, brain activity alteration was reported in as less as 15 days of daily practice in all the cases of another batch of 9 volunteers. In three cases, full brain activity alteration was achieved in the same duration. Definite brain structure activation in order to acquire a particular skill, like systems thinking, visual imagination, etc. is also reported in all the cases that practiced the specially given interventions regularly. Regularity of the practice has been found to be very important for the intended modification to be accrued. Though not specifically aimed for, one overwhelming development was observed as a result of certain breathing exercises done in conjunction with sound resonance techniques. Normally, if the hands are bent from the elbow and rotated in front of the chest, it will be possible for anyone to rotate both of them in the same direction. But it is difficult to simultaneously rotate both in the opposite directions. This could be learned with practice but here this ability was achieved without any training for the same, and it was possible to do the same not only with hands but with all left-right body parts –shoulders, legs, fingers, toes, etc. The full connotation of this is being studied, but it seems to suggest an ability to control the involuntary reflexes, meaning thereby increased concentration ability and more full brain utilization and control over the whole body and indicating an improved prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia activity.

It was found, through the questionnaire, that most (almost 90% of the sample) designers had enlarged limbic activity. This explains the predominantly emotional temperament and the characteristic drives and behaviour of most designers. This explains why designers are more emotion led and therefore more hands driven than the ‘mind’ oriented. Therefore, the mode of design education has to be relevantly

altered. Higher cortical activation along with the limbic activity can bring the desired whole brain type of neural learning giving rise to a new breed called ‘strategic’ designers, as should be the case ideally, than the traditional predominantly right brained, artistic ones. Among volunteers who practiced regularly, impulse control and a reasonable degree of overpowering of the genetic, nature and nurture driven predispositions has been evident. All groups, irrespective of the time duration of intervention, report a distinct enhancement in multi-sensory imagination, spontaneous creativity, intuition, awareness and presence of mind. Also, their overall increase in design grasping, can be called ‘design intelligence’ (DQ), based on perked up observation, sensation and perception, heightened sensitivity, etc., has been indicated.

Conclusions:

This paper discusses the neurophysiology of education and learning by drawing from the various latest findings in the field and applying that to design education. It argues that the Neurophysiologic model of design education seems to offer more tangible and measurable mode of transference. The latest accomplishments in the field of neurophysiology were discussed and how this knowledge can be used to alter the neural connections to achieve the desired physiology required for a specific mastery. And how that is relevant to design education and more importantly how this approach could help in imparting awareness and learning that is more tangibly and measurably transferred and hence is more uniform across all the students in terms of grasping and retention and retrieval. This re-looking at the design education is especially important as the demands of and on the designers are changing in today’s socio-economical context. Further, through some experiments and empirical studies, the paper illustrates that by developing new methods of delivery even the so called ‘mental’ skills can be taught effectively and quantifiably. This paper was more of preliminary study and a lot more emphatic evaluative research in the same with the help of functional brain imaging support needs to be taken up. Welcome onboard.

References:

1. Schrödinger, Erwin. (1992). What is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches , 1, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

2. Watson, James. (2004). DNA: The Secret of Life, 34-5, 77, Arrow books, London3. Dudai, Yadin. (2003). The Neurobiology of Memory: Concepts, Findings, Trends, 5-6, Oxford

University Press, USA4. Mehta, Krishnesh. S. (2003). Designing for and with Senses and Sensibilities, 180, In

Proceedings of the 1st International Meeting of Science and Technology of Design: Senses and Sensibility in Technology, IADE, Lisbon, Portugal

5. Roberts, Kevin. (2004). Lovemarks: the future beyond brands, Powerhouse books, NY, USA6. Anderson, Donald. (1960). Elements of Design, 44-45, Holt, Rinehart & Winson, NY, USA 7. Schwartz, Evan. (2004). Juice: the creative fuel that drives world-class inventors, 81, Harvard

Business School Press, Boston, USA8. Mehta, Krishnesh. S. (2003). Designing for and with Senses and Sensibilities, 179, In

Proceedings of the 1st International Meeting of Science and Technology of Design: Senses and Sensibility in Technology, IADE, Lisbon, Portugal

9. Itten, Johannes. (1963, 1975). Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, 6, Thames and Hudson, London, UK.

10. Itten, Johannes. (1963, 1975). Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, 8, Thames and Hudson, London, UK.

11. Zaltman, Gerald. (2003). How Customers Think: Essential insights into the mind of the market, Harvard Business School Press, USA

12. Amen, Daniel. (1998). Change your Brain Change your Life, Times Books, USA and Amen, Daniel. (2002). Healing the Hardware of the Soul, The Free Press, USA

13. Zohar, Danah and Marshall, I. N. (2001). Spiritual Intelligence: the ultimate intelligence, Bloomsbury, USA

14. Goleman, Daniel, Boyatzis, Richard, Mckee, Annie. (2002). The New Leaders: transforming the art of leadership into the science of results, 44, Little, Brown, Time Warner Books, UK

15. Itten, Johannes. (1963, 1975). Design and Form: The Basic Course at the Bauhaus, 9, Thames and Hudson, London, UK.

NB: Most of the Neurophysiologic concepts have been drawn and derived from references, 3, 12 and 13 and some of the material from the books mentioned in the bibliography.

Bibliography:

Calvert, Gemma, Spencer, Charles and Stein, Barry, eds, Handbook of Multi-sensory Processes, Bradford Books, MIT Press, USA, 2004.

Carter, Rita, Mapping the Mind, Berkeley, CA, University of California Press, 1998. Reader’s Digest, Making the Most of Your Brain, Duncan Baird Publishers, London, 2002. Schacter, Daniel, How the Mind Forgets and Remembers: the seven sins of memory, Souvenir

Press Ltd., UK, 2003. Schiffmann, Richard, Sensation and Perception: an integrated approach, Wiley, USA, 2001. Spitza, Manfred, Mind within the net: models of learning, thinking and acting, Bradford

Books, MIT Press, USA, 1999.

Biographical Sketch:

Krishnesh Mehta has been working on the synergetic convergence of Design, Science and Technology and Management for over a decade. He has done Masters in Physics followed by an Advanced Diploma in Space Sciences. He is a chartered lighting engineer with specialization in Reality SFX. He is certified in alternative therapies and medicines. He has also done MBA and has been actively involved in researching on Senses and Sensibilities, Perceiving Perception, and the Neurophysiology of Creativity, Leadership and Systems thinking. He has also done extensive work on combining the best of the modern and the ancient sciences like yoga for achieving desired alteration in the brain functioning. Based on the above convergence he has developed the concept of Multi-sensory (48 plus sensors) and Cross Sensory Design, Perceptual and Intuitive User Interfaces and has been holding regular workshops on the same. He has been a member of the Faculty in the area of Design Science and Strategic Design Management at the National Institute of Design, India, for the last 11 years. He has also been an active player in the setting up of the Country’s first Design Business Incubator.

Contact Information:Krishnesh MehtaDesign Science and Design Management, Faculty of Industrial Design, National Institute of Design, Paldi, Ahmedabad – 380 007, Gujarat, India.E-mail: krishnesh@nid.edu