Inside the Dark Camera: Covid-19 Home Confinement as a Phenomenological Learning Experience Based on Observation

Abstract

We present a case study based on exercises developed by XXXX students confined in their homes during the COVID-19 alarm state one month after the start of the course. Restricted the available material and isolated, the students independently faced exercises based more on the observation of phenomena associated with the perception of the landscape and the qualities of natural light than on the learning and application of skills in graphic techniques. We show here the approaches of the exercises and results of the two proposed observation lines focused on the architectural use of the hollow in the enclosed wall: the gaze that is projected from the inside to the outside, going to the classic theme of the window as a landscape frame; and the one that transits from the exterior to the interior, focused on observing the effects of natural light on an interior space and the ways to modulate it. Aligned with the cognitive way that considers the action of drawing as a visual training, the students turned their rooms into laboratories or workshops where they could experience visual phenomena and sharpen their gaze. The exercises results show effective learning paths based on the observation of the phenomena and their registration.