Blindfolded Classroom: Getting Design Students to Use Mental Imagery

Due to its depictive nature mental imaging can handle spatial issues as good as sketching. Besides, imagery is a mental experience and is perhaps an ideal tool to synergistically work with the process of thinking — that too without the load of overt sensory-motor operations that the action of sketching demands. It is no wonder therefore that most designers talk about rich imagery experiences that they go through. Yet, mental imagery has not been used as a pedagogic tool in the design studio environment.