STELLA 3D:Introducing art and creativity in engineering graphics education

  1. Jorge de la Torre Cantero
  2. José Luis Saorín Pérez
  3. Dámari Melián Díaz
  4. Cecile Meier
Journal:
The International journal of engineering education

ISSN: 0949-149X

Year of publication: 2015

Volume: 31

Issue: 3

Pages: 805-813

Type: Article

More publications in: The International journal of engineering education

Abstract

The current higher education curriculum is designed based on the acquisition of skills. In engineering degrees at SpanishUniversities, the improvement of spatial skill is a basic competence to develop together with other general ones such as theability to make a decision, teamwork, creativity and so on. There is much research work related to the improvement ofspatial skills in engineering but the same does not happen with the incorporation of artistic and creative aspects, forinstance teaching methodology. In La Laguna University, all along the 2013/2014 academic year in the subject First YearEngineering Graphics Studies, a workshop on creative tridimensional modelling (Stella 3D) has been carried out. Itsobjective is to improve the spatial skill competence which uses traditional concepts of normalised views. The above-mentioned workshop starts from a pictorial work of art by Frank Stella that will be used as a normalised view from whichwe will be able to generate different tridimensional solutions. Before and after carrying out the experience, aspects such asspatial skill, knowledge about normalised views and students’ opinion about creativity in engineering are measured. Theobtained results show us that Stella 3D workshop may be a creative tool which does not only help to improve knowledgebut also develops competences such as spatial skill and creativity.