Derek Toomes

In all of my teaching, I stress the objective of perceptual and self-awareness as a vehicle for better understanding the integrated complexity of form in relation to function. I believe that students must be inquisitive about human behavior as a way of accessing and amplifying their own potential for creative visualization and methods for creative construction.

Over the past several semesters I have taught undergraduate courses between the IARc and Art Departments; these include: Concepts in Time Based Media; Image Sequencing, Introductory Web Design; and Second Semester, First-Year IARC Studio. In all of these courses, developing an interest in human behavior and cognition helps support and guide students to recognize the ways in which compelling spaces, interfaces, and technological expressions, are all idealized constructions governed by the human desire for innovation to fulfill and enable the capacity of increasingly nuanced behaviors.