Drawing laboratory: Research workshops and outcomes

This article examines the development and running of a pilot scheme called ‘Drawing Laboratory’, a series of 5 workshops devised at Central Saint Martins in 2015, to explore associations between the physical act of drawing, and the encoding and retrieval processes of human memory. The project informally piloted a co-curricular space where drawing extends beyond traditional expectations and is used as a research tool for developing thinking, improving concentration and enhancing memory. The workshops aimed to identify a series of mnemonic devices to record and recall information from episodic memory and use them to develop a tool for use in Art and Design learning environments.