David Haley
Research Fellow
SEA/MIRIAD Manchester Metropolitan University
Draw Attention: Ecology As Art
Delivered as a performed drawing, this presentation will include verbal, physical and visual elements, combined in a ‘live’ event.
Summary of main points and challenges
Last year I presented an action based research programme A Walk On The Wild Side, a project based on transformative reflective practice. That presentation included notions of ‘phenomenological drawing’ (a re-sensitisation of pattern recognition in our everyday experience and a means of valuing that which has drawn itself), the drawing of an ecosystem and ‘the way we depict space determines what we do with it’. This presentation will build on those ideas by adding my Drawing on Life and Fear of Drawing projects to develop further understanding of the language of drawing.
This will include the following main elements:
ETYMOLOGICAL ANALYSIS
The English words draft (draught), draw, drawing, drag, have many related meanings and diverse applications that bring richness and subtlety to what we as visual artists practice. In particular, notions of measurement, gathering, water and the trace or trajectory of objects that have their roots in Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Old High German. In some instances, finding similarity with the French word, design, or diagram and graphic from the Greek may help us further understand the complexities.
Observation: Cognition
Lakoff & Johnson’s notion of the embodied mind implies a complete integration of mental and physical activity. This may find resonance with the activity of drawing as a means of heightening cognition and even touch on human evolutionary development. This, in turn, suggests that drawing, through eye-hand coordination and stimulation of parts of the brain that construct language, may lead to understanding our embodied ecology, through drawing.
Structure: Materials
Today, drawing implies impermanence, partly derived from the shop bought media used in the activity of drawing. Charcoal, graphite, pastel, ink and wash lack the supposed longevity of tempera, oil and acrylic paint. Likewise, paper as a substrate appears fragile compared with canvas, stucco and board. But what of the mason’s guidelines, the furrow drawn by a millstone, or the principle of weighing a ship’s cargo?
Pattern: Form
Perhaps, there is greater understanding to be derived from the language of drawing and drawing as a metaphor – to draw upon, draw together and to draft a proposal? Maps, diagrams and the drawings of architects and engineers provide a utilitarian languages of science and technology, now appropriated by electronic and virtual data systems. And, of course, we must not forget the development of written forms themselves, derived from the hieroglyphs of ancient civilizations.
Process, iteration, performance & narrative
The activities of observation, enquiry and exploration have lent heavily on the practice of drawing and in many disciplines, like botany, still do – the iterative process demands that we notice more than the instant image of a photograph. The studies of Leonardo da Vinci still provide insights from an enquiring mind. Drawing as physical acts of engagement reveal verbs like pulling, pouring and drinking. Paul Klee took his line for a walk. Steiner, Einstein, Bezan and Beuys demonstrated, presented and performed through the act of drawing. When used by non-literate societies, drawing tells the story of the way we see things.
Reflection, time & transformation
Drawing takes time. Drawing makes time and brings about reflection. Time to understand differences and relationships. Time to question. Perhaps, it is in Michel De Certeau’s assertion, ” Pay attention to the flow … art is what attention makes with nature” [i], that we find the transformation from observation to proposal to poesies. Drawing becomes self reflexivity – and then engages the viewer so they have to consider their own position. Drawing the possibility of new art forms – tracing the transition from one state to another. To create new metaphors and make new knowledge. And when evolution ‘draws’ us into the future, we may understand climate change, the meaning and the potential of our embodied ecology.
