Published in TRACEY | journal
Drawing Knowledge
May 2012
Drawing and Visualisation Research
THREE THOUGHTS ABOUT
WHAT AND WHERE DRAWING
IS TODAY
Maryclare Foá a
a
University of the Arts London, London Met: John Cass
Thoughts about where drawing is and what drawing might be today, how
drawing is perceived in society and education, and a review of an
exhibition of drawing in multidisciplinary practice.
www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/
sota/tracey/
tracey@lboro.ac.uk
TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
HOW ‘DRAWING KNOWLEDGE’ IS BEING ADDRESSED TODAY.
At the recent Drawing Out conference in London 1a number of cartographers spoke of their
ambivalence towards drawing. These quietly spoken yet I would argue insidious comments
went apparently unnoticed by the majority of the attendees. No other speakers or audience
members defended the essential role of drawing within our society- that everything
manufactured by humankind must first be drawn and designed before it can be formed is
(as Andrew Graham Dixon termed in the title of his 2006 BBC TV series) the secret of
drawing. Yet why should it remain a secret when dRawing by rights is surely (alongside
reading writing and arithmetic) the forth R. Our lives are directed (the design and
construction of the roads, vehicles and communication technology we employ) and
constructed (the buildings we live and work in, the tools we use, the clothes we wear)
through drawing. Is it the case that technology has separated the majority of professions
from using hand tools so that we forget the sudden gap between our learning processes at
our first school – where we were encouraged to draw as a process of learning and
developing our thinking and understanding, and secondary school where suddenly drawing
was seen as child’s play without value and time off from more serious work. These are no
doubt sweeping generalizations, yet still there is enough element of truth to make a valid
point. So how is drawing knowledge being addressed today? Evidently by those outside the
fine art practices – with a general blindness towards the essential presence and
fundamental influence of the process of drawing within our everyday lives. Yet there are
also problems within the Fine Art forum where drawing knowledge is being addressed with
an elitist attitude that is equally blind to everyday drawing processes- overall drawing
knowledge is being addressed today–without due care and consideration, and we are in
danger of losing a vital learning thread.
What drawing is today?
In 1972 artist and teacher Carl Plackman wrote a text describing what drawing is.
Published in Out of Line: Drawings from the Art Council Collection, Artist's Notes eloquently
contained Plackman's concepts of drawing practice at that time.
The first Drawing Out conference- organized by the Centre for Drawing at the University of the Arts London and Melbourne Institute of
Technology took place in Melbourne in 2010- this years Drawing Out 2012:The Drawn Out Network opened at the National Gallery
London, with two further conference days at UAL Chelsea College and Wimbledon College. Papers will be made available online at
http://thecentrefordrawingual.wordpress.com/drawing-out-2012/
1
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TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
'A drawing is the writing on the wall
A drawing makes sense out of nonsense and nonsense out of sense
A drawing contains more time than it takes to look at it
A drawing is a history of experience and its content is non-visual
A drawing is never non referential, a drawing is a way of thinking
A drawing is a means of searching for identity
A drawing is sometimes the catalyst sometimes assistant and sometimes the critic
A drawing’s space can be finite and it can be limitless
A drawing’s content is never wholly contained in the drawing
A drawing is always made by somebody'
Carl Plackman2 Artist’s Notes 19723
In the 1970's I attended an Art School where Life Drawing was compulsory three days a
week for the first year of study. 4 But Plackman's concepts widening the boundaries of
drawing and offering the possibility of exploration within that practice, did not reach me as
an undergraduate student. And although being immersed into observational drawing was a
worthwhile process for the development of my practice, in hindsight my understanding of
drawing was also limited to that observational methodology.
I propose that Plackman’s concerns for process content and intention within the
possibilities of 2 dimensional drawing are issues that still remain fundamental to drawing
practice in the 2010’s. However as current practice has shifted from the hand made
towards the conceptual (in some instances snagging drawing as an invalid method
between technology and conceptual practice), the processes of drawing in the 2010’s have
expanded. Building on and in response to Plackman's text, and considering the changed
technologies, bias towards conceptual thinking and possibility of collaborative practice,
that have occurred in the past thirty years, I have comprised a list of the elements that I
understand now exist in drawing practice today. These elements consider multidimensional
and multidisciplinary materials and methods, while also baring in mind the practitioner as a
number of people working together, and the audience as an element of the work (witness
to the performance).
21
http://www.gold.ac.uk/hallmark/staff/pdf/hallmark142.pdf (accessed 23rd June 2006)
3 Arts
Council Collection, Out of Line: drawings form the arts council collection, published on the occasion of Out of Line: Drawings from
the Arts Council Collection exhibition, toured by National touring exhibitions from the Hayward gallery, London, for the Arts Council
England, UK: Hayward Gallery 2001 p.31
4 The
City and Guilds of London Art School 1978-80 run by Roger de Grey.
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TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
DRAWING; A CONVERSATION WITH CARL PLACKMAN 2009
A drawing is an intentional evidence of presence,
A drawing leaves, lays down or hovers a mark,
A drawing can be physical, cerebral, sonic or virtual,
A drawing may include the present, the past and the brink of becoming,
A drawing can come and go and show the route it has taken,
A drawing is a thought brought into the world and open to change,
A drawing can be marked, formed, sounded, implied or suggested,
A drawing can be 2d, 3d, timed based or imagined,
A drawing can be seen by the eye, perceived in the mind's eye, or heard by the ear,
A drawing measures practitioner in relation to place and vice versa,
A drawing is a performative action, repeating that which it draws,
A drawing when witnessed is a performance drawing.
2. Where drawing is in education today ? Calling for the fourth R
‘The trouble with drawing researchers [is that], as a diverse community, we look for the
similarities to the exclusion of the differences. We could usefully celebrate the differences
in drawing and drawing research from various disciplines’5
Drawing is a democratic process, employed by activities of all disciplines, not exclusive to
any one discipline age or culture, nor adhering to any one system of application. Andrew
Graham - Dixon in his television series The Secret of Drawing (2006), visualised how
drawing underpins humankind’s industry, throughout different fields of research,
application and production. From medicine to music, fine art to flying, whether directive
diagrams, proposed concepts or designed solutions, the drawing process enquires,
narrates, designs and conceives everything that is made by humankind in the world.
Graham-Dixon’s series was not published in book form, although extracts from the series
can now be accessed on Youtube. There appears to be a dichotomy in the current
reception of drawing, on the one hand drawing is an elitist practice only deemed interesting
within the confines of Fine Arts, on the other drawing is a democratic process fundamental
to humankinds development and production in the world. I propose that dialog across
disciplines concerning processes, methods and applications, might significantly contribute
towards greater understanding of the multiple and essential purposes of drawing. Another
problematic issue related to drawing exists within school education. Our educational
system while understanding the value of literacy and numeracy (supporting learning
through words and numbers across disciplines), often discounts our third method of
learning through images, (supporting learning through observing and imagining the world
5 Stephen
Farthing, Anita Taylor, Avis Newman, Aileen Stackhouse, Phil Sawdon, Eileen Adams, Jayne Bingham, Steve Garner, Kelly
Chorpening, ‘Summary of Discussion by Group 5’, Steve Garner (chair), Maryclare Foa, James Faure Walker, Tanya Kovats, Marie-Claire
Isserman, Angela Rogers, Charlotte Hodes, Freya Smith, Paul Bowman, Rebecca Man, in Drawing: The Network, a one day forum on
drawing research. Wimbledon College of Arts University of the Arts London, Tuesday 20th March 2007, Chelsea Space: 2007, p. 61.
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TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
across disciplines).6 The term visual literacy-often used to describe a developed visual
awareness and ability, is confusing because in placing a description of reading and writing
alongside a reference to seeing, implies that visual awareness is fundamentally connected
to the ability to read and write – we know this is not the case. I propose a more appt term is
Visualcy (Visual awareness and perception), Visualcy describes seeing and perceiving as a
standalone facility, just as Numeracy describes understanding numbers and Literacy
describes understanding words. And in the same manner that those who see letters and
numbers require training to interpret the meaning of those signs, seeing the real world, the
documented world and the imagined world, requires training implicit in the process of
drawing to perceive, interpret, and or achieve visualacy (visual awareness and perception).
Clearly reception depends on the observers “point of view” and in our contemporary society
where in general a number of hours every day are seen digitally, back lit and imagined,
awareness of different “points of view” is a useful skill contributing to the sense of self and
understanding of the other. As philosophical and academic debate has long examined,
ways of looking and interpreting what it is we are seeing7 not only depends on the point of
view, but also impacts our society in relation to social behavior and creative practice. And
so (returning to a point I made earlier in this paper), there is a pressing need to establish
Visualcy within this country’s school system, as the essential fourth R. And perhaps we
even might claim that this fourth R is the most useful of the Rs, because without
understanding what we see, or realizing the relationship between what we see and
ourselves, we remain disconnected- even isolated from each other and from other learning
processes.
3) What and where drawing is in multidisciplinary practice today?
From a review for Studio International on The 43 Uses of Drawing: Curated by Paul Cureton
and Craig Staff, Rugby Art Gallery and Musuem 6 September - 30 October 2011 (Aka MK
Palomar)
Described as a ‘primacy’8 a ‘history of experience’ a ‘means of searching for identity’9, and
an ‘instinctive activity as fundamental to human life as eating and drinking’ 10, drawing
Dr Angela Rogers and Pauline Ridley have completed an important study at Brighton University on Visual learning in Higher education,
the four booklets they produced as a resource for staff and student on learning development titled Drawing to Learn, cover a broad range
of disciplines-Business, Education, Law, Management and Social Science - Science, technology, Engineering and Maths -Arts and
Humanities - Clinical Education Health and Social Care. www.brighton.ac.uk/ visuallearning. These booklets were published by The
Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Brighton in 2010.
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7 From
Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction 1955, through Guy Debord The Society of the Spectacle
1959, Maurice Merleau-Ponty The Visible and the Invisible 1964, John Berger Ways of Seeing 1972 and Jacque Lacan The Split between
the Eye and the Gaze 1973.
8 Petherbridge,
D. 2010. The Primacy of Drawing; histories and theories of practice, Yale University Press:
9 Carl
Plackman Artists Statement 1972-78
http://www.kirklees.gov.uk/community/leisure/galleries/huddersfield/carl_plackman_resource_pack.pdf
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TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
might perhaps be understood as humankind’s innate desire to mark or map evidence of
self in relation to the other. I am here, this is me thinking and making.
This instinctive process is as ‘old as song’ and can be described as a method of
‘discovery’11. Perhaps marking surfaces (the method of conventional drawing) began with
a toe pressed into sand, or a stick trail through mud for others to follow; today practitioners
expand the idea of drawing beyond a surface. Makers, thinkers and dreamers, now explore
time based media, sound and space as materials to draw with and through; and this
process is no longer confined to fine arts but occurs throughout all types of disciplines. Just
as drawing itself exists within many areas of humankind’s manufacture, curator and writer
on drawing Catherine de Zegher observes that definitions of the English word draw
‘seemingly permeate many aspects of life’.. To draw out (to extract … to outline), to draw
from (to abstract), to draw in (to entice), to draw down (to deplete), to draw up (to draft into
form) and so on’12. If we understand drawing as a method of intentionally marking or
moving through surface and or place, then the process of drawing is woven very deeply into
our lives within industry, language, memory, dreaming and so on and on and on.
Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s ‘The 43 Uses of Drawing,’ curated by the practitioners’
researchers and teachers Paul Cureton and Craig Staff, ‘explores the practice of drawing
beyond the paper surface, via the work of 43 practitioners working in a number of different
areas. A revived interest in drawing has brought the discipline to the forefront of
contemporary arts.’13 This revival (which has seen around a dozen publications over the
past decade in the UK alone 14 ), may or may not be a repercussion affected by the
10 Graham-Dixon,
A. 2006 The Secret of Drawing series of four TV programmes; 1) The Line of enquiry, 2) Storylines, 3) All in the Mind, 4)
Drawing by Design. BBC October. Storylines is available on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wig7xYANzu0
11 Berger,
J. 2007 Berger in Drawing, Occasional Press:. Cork, p. 3 &109.
12 Transcribed
by the author from notes and audio recordings made during the conference With A Single Mark, Tate Britain, 19 May
2006.
13 Extract
14 Craig
from Rugby Art Gallery and Museum’s Press release. http://the43usesofdrawing.blogspot.com/
Martin- M. 1995 Drawing the Line, South Bank Centre exhibition and catalogue:
Hopman, L. 2002. Drawing Now Eight Propositions, MoMA New York:
de Zegher C. and Newman, A. 2003 The Stage of Drawing Gesture and Act. Tate Publishing and The Drawing Centre
Dexter, E. 2005. Vitamin D New Perspectives in Drawing. Tate Modern
Graham- Dixon, A. 2006. The Secret of Drawing BBC TV 4 part series:
Darwent, C 2007.The Drawing Book: A survey of Drawing the Primary Means of Expression, ed Tania Kovats, Black Dog Publishing:
Dillon, B. 2009. The End of the Line: Attitudes in Drawing, Hayward Gallery:
Duff L. and. Sawden, P 2009 . Drawing the Purpose, Intellect Books:
de Zegher C. and. Butler, C. 2010 On Line: Drawing through the 20th Century, MoMA New York
Petherbridge, D. 2010. The Primacy of Drawing. Yale
Garner, S. 2011. Writing on Drawing: Essays on Drawing practice and Research. Intellect Books:
Maslen M. and Southern J.. 2011. Drawing Projects: an Exploration of the language of drawing. Black Dog
Paul Cureton and Craig Staff have curated the exhibition at the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum. 6th September 30 Oct 2011. The 43
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TRACEY | journal: Drawing Knowledge 2012
contemporary preference for concept over artefact, and digital over analogue. Yet debating
such topics is in danger of getting stuck when hooked on what has already become an old
chestnut, the haptic verses (computer) mouse value debate. It is more constructive to
appreciate that drawing has broken loose from its fine art confines and is now beginning to
be recognised as a valuable process with interesting cross and multi disciplinary
repercussions. As curators Cureton and Staff underline “The aim of the exhibition is to
ignite the debate and discussion by mapping the different practices and uses of drawing
across disciplines and beyond the boundaries of fine art.” There have been a number of
previous valiant stabs to redress this collective blindness towards the democracy of
drawing, notably Andrew Graham Dixon’s The Secret of Drawing BBC T.V series 2006 and
in 2010 a series of booklets for Visual Learning in Higher Education.15
Igniting debate by mapping different uses of drawing is exactly what this exhibition so
eloquently achieves, by-passing the screen verses handmade old chestnut by navigating
the uses of drawing through examples of excellent practice from very diverse disciplines.
There is Buckminster Fuller’s 1943 presentation of the Dymaxion Projection of the World
Map, Morgan O’Hara’s 2009 Line Transmissions; tracing the motion of hands conducting
and performing Mozart’s piano concerto in E flat major. Physicist (in change of trigger and
data acquisitions at C.E.R.N ) Sergio Cittolin’s Event Analysis (no date),Dr Tariq Ahmad’s
Drawings for Surgical Procedures 2007, Performance artist Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings
1997-2008, and Ben Fry’s Genome Vallance; Software Sketch Computer Visualisations
1999, to name a small handful of this fascinating collection of practitioners and their
works. And all the various disciplines exampled in this rich collection employ the necessary
process which enables us where ever we are and whatever our profession, to develop our
ideas and observations and put them into the world.
Uses of Drawing “explores the practice of drawing beyond the paper surface via the work of 43 practitioners working in a number of
different areas ...demonstrating both the breadth of drawing today and its continued relevance to contemporary art practice and the
wider creative industry”. Extract from online press release http://www.rugby.gov.uk/downloads/RAGM-programme-2011_web.pdf
accessed 30/08/11. Contributors are listed here http://mailzone.onetel.net.uk/imp/message.php?index=18716
15 Dr
Angela Rogers and Pauline Ridley have completed an important study at Brighton University on Visual learning in Higher education,
the four booklets they produced as a resource for staff and student on learning development titled Drawing to Learn, cover a broad range
of disciplines-Business, Education, Law, Management and Social Science - Science, technology, Engineering and Maths -Arts and
Humanities - Clinical Education Health and Social Care. www.brighton.ac.uk/
Visual learning. These booklets were published by The Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Brighton in 2010.
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