We currently inhabit a visually dominant environment, one in which the evolution of digital technologies have allowed architects and designers to work with highly sophisticated imagery in the process and communication of their work. These advancements in technology have made our planet appear smaller, more accessible, and globalisation is evident in every part of our lives. Is this a good thing or are we turning our backs on the principles that we not so long ago deeply valued; regionally, skill and longevity and replace these with speed, homogeny, expediency and globalisation? Is technology overload desensitising us, and as a result have the creative arts made a shift into the digital where a generic visual medium dominates at the expense of a multi-sensory outcome?
This paper explores this phenomenon and reports on an interdisciplinary course where the physical nature of space is explored through a series of sensual experiments using a mixed medium approach to recording and reporting. Students are challenged to move out of their comfort zones and seek different methods to research and explore ideas that may then go on to inform their work, be it architecture, sculpture or fine art. Can a more traditional 'hands on' process be re-engaged with to enrich the creative process and the final result where the physical and the digital complement each other?