Abstract
Surrogate Drawing
During the days prior to the opening of the BoK 2019 Exhibition Thinking Rooms/Enacting Knowledges, four architectural and art practitioners will engage a drawing process seeking empathic interaction. Surrogate Drawing is a collaboration that explores questions of embodiment and “aesthetic incunabulum” through the medium of drawing. The collaboration looks to displace authorial control and create a feedback loop between multiple bodies in space, connected through the intuitive process of drawing. The outcome of this collaboration is less about the work itself, than interconnectedness of bodies in space, in which the drawing is a connecting medium.
Recent research in neuroscience has established the inherent relationship between bodily movement and brain activity with a number of studies that have been done in the space of dance and choreography. Currently, there has not been a large amount of work done in regard to how these connections can be related to the process of drawing, and particularly collaborative drawing processes, involving more than one participant. Experimental drawing in this space opens onto neurological studies in the broad space of empathy, which explore the relationship between behaviour and its “mirroring”. This research suggests that the witnessing or sensation of an act is decoded and recorded through a response and that drawing is a medium that can enact and record this process.
The exhibit establishes a physical framework to elucidate and prompt a cognitive one. The first participant will relay drawings, via projection, onto a larger surface. These marks can be traced, elaborated, and responded to by one or more additional drawers over time. Another participant records and disrupts the interaction, creating a third perspective in the loop through written observations. The three bodies communicate through the physical act of drawing, entering into a non-verbal communication of which the drawing is the residual artefact.
During the days prior to the opening of the BoK 2019 Exhibition Thinking Rooms/Enacting Knowledges, four architectural and art practitioners will engage a drawing process seeking empathic interaction. Surrogate Drawing is a collaboration that explores questions of embodiment and “aesthetic incunabulum” through the medium of drawing. The collaboration looks to displace authorial control and create a feedback loop between multiple bodies in space, connected through the intuitive process of drawing. The outcome of this collaboration is less about the work itself, than interconnectedness of bodies in space, in which the drawing is a connecting medium.
Recent research in neuroscience has established the inherent relationship between bodily movement and brain activity with a number of studies that have been done in the space of dance and choreography. Currently, there has not been a large amount of work done in regard to how these connections can be related to the process of drawing, and particularly collaborative drawing processes, involving more than one participant. Experimental drawing in this space opens onto neurological studies in the broad space of empathy, which explore the relationship between behaviour and its “mirroring”. This research suggests that the witnessing or sensation of an act is decoded and recorded through a response and that drawing is a medium that can enact and record this process.
The exhibit establishes a physical framework to elucidate and prompt a cognitive one. The first participant will relay drawings, via projection, onto a larger surface. These marks can be traced, elaborated, and responded to by one or more additional drawers over time. Another participant records and disrupts the interaction, creating a third perspective in the loop through written observations. The three bodies communicate through the physical act of drawing, entering into a non-verbal communication of which the drawing is the residual artefact.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Deakin University |
| Publication status | Published - 27 Jun 2019 |
| Event | Body of Knowledge: Art and Embodied Cognition - Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia Duration: 27 Jun 2019 → 29 Jun 2019 https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/bok2019/ |