Multi-Display Learning Spaces (MD-LS) comprise technologies to allow the
viewing of multiple simultaneous visual materials, modes of learning which
encourage critical reflection upon these materials, and spatial configurations
which afford interaction between learners and the materials in orchestrated
ways. In this paper we provide an argument for the benefits of Multi-Display
Learning Spaces in supporting complex, disciplinary reasoning within
learning, focussing upon our experiences within postgraduate visual arts
education. The importance of considering the affordances of the physical
environment within education has been acknowledged by the recent attention
given to Learning Spaces, yet within visual art disciplines the perception of
visual material within a given space has long been seen as a key
methodological consideration with implications for the identity of the
discipline itself. We analyse the methodological, technological and spatial
affordances of MD-LS to support learning, and discuss comparative viewing
as a disciplinary method to structure visual analysis within the space which
benefits from the simultaneous display of multiple partitions of visual
evidence. We offer an analysis of the role of the teacher in authoring and
orchestration and conclude by proposing a more general structure for what
we term ‘multiple perspective learning’, in which the presentation of multiple
pieces of visual evidence creates the conditions for complex argumentation
within Higher Education