Further to this, many learners I worked with were increasingly getting the majority of their instruction from online sources: scripted, pre-recorded, static classes that did well to address a discrete topic, but often did little to encourage iterative learning. As I worked closer with more online and tutorial learners, I discovered many of them had not discovered how to transfer their learning beyond the discrete topic.

Creative learners were assembling their personal workflow habits from hundreds of detached, often conflicting sources. Instant access to a seemingly infinite supply of simplified, single-serving online tutorials meant that individual workflows were less likely to be designed cohesively. Instead they had been assembled by layering discrete, disjointed techniques progressively until a task had been completed.

Rather than attempt to dismantle everything they had learned, I focused instead on helping students construct a more cohesive workflow that seamlessly integrated all the disparate techniques they had learned. To do this, I needed to interrelate all their discrete approaches into a unifying principle. I needed to learn how to better encourage iterative learning.

Based on my successes (and failures!) facilitating these sessions, I started to believe it was possible to encourage deeper reflection and promote natural curiosity through the mechanical techniques of creative visual media practises. Incorporating all of this into a fluid, modular learning framework, students were exploring the underlying principles of visually imaginative creativity, deriving unique interpretations of how to interrelate these insights with discrete, seemingly disconnected applications. They began to question assumptions rather than using information to pad out their biases. I was using the art of visual thinking to refocus learners away from seeking answers, towards helping them learn how to ask better questions.

Through the application of physical, mechanical processes, Engine's fluid, flexible framework enabled me to more deeply investigate the conceptual principles of visual imagination and creativity. Interrelating these discrete ecologies, students began to condition what Paul Strand referred to as 'a free way of living' - a refined capacity to discover your own interpretation of the world, disentangling it from others feelings and established ideas. Strand believed this could not be taught or given to us, however I was slowly watching it develop in students as we explored lesson content, session by session. It was this quality, Strand felt, that fused with mastery of ones craft, to produce an object or an idea with a life of its own.

Through classes designed to refine the techniques and processes of graphically communicating the notional, students began to independently connect their findings to more than simply the task at hand. Iterative learning was being organically promoted, and I found that students were effectively learning how to learn better. Through teaching creative graphic media workshops, I discovered the power of using artistic techniques and principles to promote innovative, lifelong learning.