VIRTUAL New Schools of Thought

Abstract

As educators, we observed interior design visuals stripped of narrative and identity in the undergraduate design studio, which we attribute to technological determinism amongst students. To proactively encourage students to rethink technology’s role as a tool in visualising interiors and restoring students’ agency, a project was launched in 2020 in a second-year communication technology module. This project formed the basis of a continuous action research project, currently in its fifth cycle. The project set out to restore effective practices, highlighting students’ ‘designerly’ identity in their visuals. The students engaged in an introspective exercise, answering a self-discovery questionnaire that prompted the investigation into their ‘designerly’ identities. The textual responses were used to guide a visual manifestation of the self. We observe this to be a complex process that students struggled with in the preceding cycles of the project. To assist students in identifying core themes, Open AI’s ChatGPT was introduced as a tool for data analysis. Students were introduced to the foundation principles of thematic analysis and coded their responses to the self-discovery questions. Facilitators actively supported students in developing good-quality prompts. Students were exposed to the basics of data analysis and the rigour required for maintaining an ethical and transparent research practice. In this fifth cycle, the researchers reflect on two data sources: the student’s prompts and engagement with ChatGPT and the findings from a focus group to explore how the AI thematic coding process guides students in moving from a textual narrative to a visual expression of the self.