Studio Playdate

Emerging educational research in STEAM education has increasingly demonstrated the efficacy of Design Sprint methodologies in promoting critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, and decision-making as learning outcomes for students. Design Sprints are intense bursts of creative activity that unfold in short periods of time, from a few days to one week, where students are tasked to work collaboratively in teams to understand a design problem, brainstorm solutions, prototype solutions, and among these prototypes, decide the most effective solution. Studio Playdate seeks to apply the fundamental principles of Design Sprint towards the unique challenges that artists face as members of transdisciplinary teams in professional settings.

On transdisciplinary teams, artists are often tasked with approaching higher-order concerns such as fittingness (is the design appropriate in its social context?), aesthetics (how does the design conform to or challenge normative beauty standards?), and ethics (does the design support or challenge the status quo, how, and why?). Studio Playdate aims to get participants closer to this higher-order thinking through a weekend-long Design Sprint workshop with challenges and games that create the conditions for generative play. Studio Playdate’s emphasis on peer learning and project-based learning aims to foster lasting, meaningful relationships between workshop participants, while offering valuable leadership experience to project team leaders and workshop facilitators.