Wall Mural Project at VCC

Success in education requires a certain state of mind. A learner must be curious first and foremost. The need to understand what is not yet known drives the acting of learning itself.

In any space the goal of the design should be to create an environment that best supports the activity taking place within it. Artwork stimulates creativity, and it passively teaches us to reflect on and analyze our surroundings. When people connect with works of wonder they often wonder what is possible for themselves, and this catalyst can stimulate the learner to push through their own boundaries to find breakthroughs.

The passive benefits also assist active learning. Critical thinking and problem solving are developed as a learner advances on the path of educational enlightenment. Instruction and assessment of complex and demanding topics can induce fatigue and stress which can negatively affect a learning outcome if not mitigated.

By picturing a learning environment that is serene, engaging, and interesting, we can make art work to positively affect the learning experiences of students. This brings into focus the stress reducing, and visually refreshing qualities academic studies show are intrinsic to artwork.

Pictured throughout is a project Lifelightlens Photography did in partnership with Heritage Office Furnishings at a post secondary institution in Vancouver Canada. The client is a community college and the site is a dedicated study and presentation area.

We selected an image in consultation with the staff, and then printed it as a fibre based photographic wall mural which was key to the programs being taught in the space. Because the focus of the course material was sustainability, we sought out a specialty paper that was FSC and LEEDs certified for environmental accountability.

It is critical to help the client own the image they need to communicate, when teaching students about a field where buying in and being authentic is a central requirement.

It is fitting that in many ways this project resembled the balancing of an equation, to calculate the space planning solution our client was seeking to solve for. The Heritage furniture and Lifelightlens artwork add up to equal a learning space that is both functional and wonderful. When hypothesizing about the results we expect students to observe, our theory is that artwork is a variable we cannot leave out if we want to design a refreshing, and inspiring learning environment that checks out.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,

Damon Fraietta, Lifelightlens