Drawing Research Network

Drawing in STEAM

Peter Simcoe — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:30:54 +0000

You can find out more about the Thinking through Drawing 2012: Drawing in STEAM event by visiting the International Drawing And Cognition website. Deadline for abstracts: 20 June 2012

Summary

Following from last year’s interdisciplinary symposium, we are happy to announce Thinking through Drawing 2012. The event will bring together artists, educators, scientists, medical practitioners, philosophers, engineers, computer scientists, and more, to examine the uses of drawing across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths.

How is drawing used within and between these disciplines? What is the relationship between drawing in the Arts and STEM subjects? What is our current understanding of drawing, cognition and learning, and how is it contributing to curriculum development and instructional design in these areas?

Thinking through Drawing 2012 will address these issues, exploring learning and teaching practices and new research directions. The symposium will be an active discursive platform in which we consider the place of drawing across disciplines and professions.

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Digital 2 Analogue pt1

Peter Simcoe — Fri, 04 May 2012 15:51:05 +0000

Digital video could be described as a ‘brutal’ medium for conveying a series of moving pictures, in the same way that analogue tape has been replaced by the more ‘brutal’ digital tape or hard disc recording. When I use the term ‘brutal’ I mean that there’s a more rigid set of mechanics when capturing data – edges and shadows are more harshly represented, audio sounds, when pushed to the limit, are clipped in a far less acceptable manner to the ear [some early recordings from Led Zeppelin feature an overdriven sound as part of the recording process but this is a softer overdrive that could easily pass for part of the process and has been allowed to make it to the CD re-masters, whereas digital overdrive or distortion would be much less generous]. Analogue film [chemical based media] used in the movies or even in an iron oxide cassette provides more flexible, softer overdrive characteristics as it peaks or overexposes – this provides a warmer, softer, more organic feel to the recording. Digital media is less forgiving and it is only now that digital cameras and their 1′s and 0′s are really able to get close to emulating the same generosity in the capture of light and contrast provided by high quality chemical based film.

Where am I going with all this,….well, if we take the hand drawn sketch with a pencil or crayon – its completely organic, it is completely analogue – the only processing that occurs is within the artists mind. No computers. No CAD. No harsh clipping in execution. So, is there any way we can take a piece of digital video with its harsh edges and emulate the hand drawn feel of a sketch using pencil, chalk or crayon? Well, I tried it using some video I took last year when I visited Los Angeles. I took a few snapshots of my activity throughout the day and converted them to a hand drawn sketch using Adobe After Effects.

Follow @simcoemedia

The Process

Essentially the process involved the following:

Adobe After Effects CS5.5

Sketch [Effect from VideoHive] [$10]

Some interesting video clips created at HD quality [720p or 1080p]

Adobe After Effects is essentially breaking down each clip into three areas using the Tri-Colour matte. These three colours represent areas of light, mid and dark video. After Effects then applies some basic Edge effects to the lightest areas with some cross-hatching effects to the mid and a dark ‘scribble’ area to the shadow with extra dark options to create additional depth to the image.

Improvements and Further Experiments

My next experiment with this tool will be to create a music video from one of my tracks at www.audio-echo.co.uk. The effect seems to work best under the following conditions:

Small areas of detailed movement with two-thirds of the image flat or slight tone variation. The skateboarding scenes were particularly successful in the example show. The densely packed scene with musicians playing on the harbour front was more difficult to make out.
Familiar objects in the scene for the eye to easily identify.
Balanced lighting conditions – bright lights and harsh shadows increase the chances of too much dark ‘scribble’ – though the effect can be adjusted to a degree.

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Experiences of Ageing

Lucy L — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 10:05:23 +0000

Medical Museion is pleased to invite you to:

Experiences of Ageing
Drawings by Lucy Lyons (UK) April 27th – October 21st 2012
Friday April 27th 2012 Exhibition opening 4-6pm
MUSE seminar with Lucy Lyons 3-4pm (in English)
Thursday 26th April Artists’ workshop 7-9 pm

Ageing is not a disease. It is a natural occurrence that is often ignored. Elements of ageing are so commonplace they are not thought to be interesting or have aesthetic value. They almost become invisible.

Look Again… Exploring Medical Objects Through Art
Thursday April 26th, 7-9pm (in English)
Artists: Lucy Lyons, Mette Bersang, and Joanna Sperryn Jones
Tickets: 50 kr. On sale at Politiken Billet, includes a drink.

Location

Medical Museion
Bredgade 62
DK-1260 Copenhagen K
www.museion.ku.dk
www.museion.ku.dk/whats-on/exhibitions/experiences-of-ageing/
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Exhibition Summary

In our everyday lives we are surrounded by hundreds of medical objects, from pill bottles to crutches, from pacemakers to bandages. These objects shape our lives, but they often disappear into the background. In this interactive event we invite you to join artists in using drawing, photography, and other lenses to look again – to uncover the beauty of everyday medical things. The hands-on workshop will be followed by a discussion with the artists, over some beautiful refreshments.

This event accompanies a new exhibition at Medical Museion displaying artist and researcher Lucy Lyon’s explorations of experiences of ageing and the overlooked aesthetics of the devices that support us as we age; rollators, walking sticks, false teeth, hip replacements, hearing aids… Photos and drawings from the event will be added to the exhibition’s online gallery.

Artist’s Biographies

Lucy Lyons

BA (Hons), MA, PhD, MMAA, RMIP

I am a London based artist and researcher. I have been engaged in artistic research since 2004 during which time I have investigated how the role of drawing as a phenomenological activity that evidences experience, can lead to greater insight and communicate knowledge within medical science. I was a tutor in fine art painting and drawing research for eight years at City & Guilds of London Art School and Postdoctoral fellow at Medical Museion, Faculty of Health Sciences, Center for Healthy Aging at University of Copenhagen where I ran investigation workshops for my research project ‘Now I see it!’ and conceived and organised the Sensuous Object two-day workshop in September 2011. I am currently actively involved with the Artistic Research group in Nordiskt Sommeruniversitet.

Joanna Sperryn Jones

I am near completing a PhD in sculpture at Norwich University College of the Arts and I coordinate the Sculpture Department for City Lit, London. Through processes of making and breaking in sculpture and writing I explore experiences and perceptions of breaking. My research simultaneously explores and draws parallels between personal experiences in life, such as breaking bones, with those of making/breaking sculpture, Derrida’s concept of the break and breaking as a methodology.

Mette Bersang

MA, Visual Culture, University of Copenhagen, 2007.
BA (hons.) Photography, The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, England, 2003.

My main interest is the photographic space and the overlooked inbetween spaces of our homes as well as public spaces. My projects are motivated by the idea of making a cut in the surface of the photograph, and play on the notion that such a photographic cut can also cut open our everyday space. My works often border on the absolutely abstract, but I leave parts of everyday objects such as a tree, a table, or a radiator sticking into the photographs, as an element of reality for the viewer to relate to and to make the space recognizable.

http://www.museion.ku.dk/whats-on/events/look-again-exploring-medical-objects-through-art/

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Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012 Call for Entries

JerwoodDrawingPrize — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:30:46 +0000

The Selectors

Stephen Coppel, Curator of the Modern Collection, Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum; Kate Macfarlane, Co-Director of The Drawing Room, London; and Lisa Milroy, Artist and Head of Graduate Painting, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL will create an exhibition that explores and celebrates the diversity, excellence and range of current drawing practice in the UK.

About The Prize

The Jerwood Drawing Prize is the largest and longest running annual open exhibition for drawing in the UK. Judged by an independent panel of selectors, the Prize is open to all UK based artists, from student to established, working with drawing. From an anticipated submission of well over 2,000 entries, the selectors will bring together between 50 and 70 drawings for an exhibition at JVA at Jerwood Space, London from 12 September – 28 October 2012. The exhibition will then tour to venues across the UK including to the new Jerwood Gallery, Hastings.

The total prize fund has risen from £11,000 to £17,000, an increase of 55%. The prizes, which will be awarded to the winning artists at a ceremony on Tuesday 11 September 2012, are a first prize of £8,000, second prize of £5,000 and two student awards of £2,000 each.

Registration

Registration for artists entering the Jerwood Drawing Prize 2012 opens on Monday 2 April 2012 and will close at 5pm on Monday 18 June 2012. Once registered, artists are invited to submit their works through one of eight regional collection centres in Cardiff, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Falmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle and Norwich, ending in London on Saturday 30 June 2012.

Deadline for online registration: Monday 18 June 2012, 5pm. For further details and to register online please visit the JVA website: www.jerwoodvisualarts.org. For all enquiries please contact project managers Parker Harris:

Tel: 01372 462190
Email: jdp@parkerharris.co.uk
Twitter: #JDP12 @JerwoodJVA

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Working Drawings Exhibition

Peter Simcoe — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:30:21 +0000

Whether a pictogram that transcends words, a visualisation of topography, an emotional response to language or as a formal means of communication, the drawings gathered offer a rare insight into the various stages of the visual communication process and an opportunity to analyse how the influence of drawing practice has historically informed design practitioners.

Exhibition Private View

Thursday 22 March 2012, 5 – 8pm

Gallery Talk

Tuesday 03 April, 1 – 2pm
Naomi Games, daughter of internationally renowned designer Abram Games, discusses his preliminary sketches included in the exhibition; offering an insight into his working methods and how he progressed initial ideas to final images.

Venue

London Gallery West,
University of Westminster,
Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP
T: +44 (0)20 7911 5970 E: a.leeman@westminster.ac.uk
www.westminster.ac.uk/london-gallery-west

Opening Times

Daily 9am – 5pm | 23 MARCH – 06 MAY 2012
Northwick Park, Metropolitan line
Car parking available

Download the Working Drawings Information »

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Sketchbook Therapy Blog

marco_costa — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:30:56 +0000

Marco has been an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts in his Department since 2003/2004, teaching Communication and Graphic Design, Composition, Drawing and Aesthetics in the Education High School [ESEB] of Bragança Polytechnic Institute [IPB], Portugal.

The every day experience on drawing for an healthy life is, some how, the main concept to the pleasure that drawing what we see every day as an experimentation, is given to us - Marco António Costa

He is also a researcher member on Instituto de Investigação em Arte, Design e Sociedade [I2ADS], he studied at Fine Arts School of the University of Porto [FBAUP] – Portugal, where he obtained an BA degree in Communication Design/Graphic Arts, in 2003. In 2007 he finished his MA in Multimedia Arts at FBAUP and at the moment, he is undertaking a PhD in Art & Design at FBAUP.

Find out more about Marco’s work and see his sketchbooks in his blog and Facebook.

http://sketchbooktherapy.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/sketchbooktherapy

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New Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London: “Built”

julia midgley — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 10:30:03 +0000

The Olympic Stadium, Tate Modern, Eden Project, Art & Design Academy in Liverpool and Glasgow’s new Riverside museum have all had Artists on site to observe and respond to the construction process. “Built” showcases the work of four prominent British artists who have made drawings paintings and sculpture recording, depicting and responding to the construction of signature buildings in the UK. The artists are:

Anthony Eyton R.A., Artist in residence at the Eden project over a 10 year period and invited artist at Millbank during construction of Tate modern;
Jeanette Barnes past Jerwood Drawing prize winner and Hunting Prize award winner who has been recording the construction of seminal buildings in the city of London and most recently, the Olympic arenas;
Julia Midgley R.E. Reader Documentary Drawing, and past winner of both the Rainford Trust and Printmaking Today Awards who was project Artist in Residence during the construction of Liverpool John Moores University’s Art & Design Academy designed by Rick Mather.
Patricia Cain who is curating this exhibition was on-site over a period of three years during the construction of Hadid’s acclaimed Riverside Transport Museum in Glasgow for which she was winner of last year’s Threadneedle and Aspect Prizes. She is currently resident on site at Hydro arena at Glasgow’s SECC.

Various artist’s talks and discussion events about the response of the artist to the built environment are planned. Details to follow.

Mon 25 June – Sat 7 July 2012, Daily 10am-5pm
For more information follow these links:

The Mall Galleries Website
London Festival of Architecture Website
Facebook Public Event Summary

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Drawing (on) Riverside

Peter Simcoe — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 10:30:00 +0000

Drawing (on) Riverside Exhibition by Patricia Cain
By Appointment Only – 020 7247 1816 | info@elevenspitalfields.com
Private View | Thursday 8th March 2012 | 18.30 to 20.30
9th March – 29th April 2012

Eleven Spitalfields Gallery ✦ 11 Princelet Street ✦ Spitalfields ✦ London E1 6QH020 7247 1816 ✦
www.elevenspitalfields.com

About the Exhibition

Threadneedle Prize winner Patricia Cain’s Drawing (on) Riverside takes its cue from Glasgow’s new Riverside Museum, which took shape over four years on the site of the former Pointhouse shipyard on the River Clyde. Designed by architectural ‘superstar’ Zaha Hadid, the Riverside opened to the public in June, 2011, as Hadid’s first major public building in the UK.

Over four years, former lawyer Patricia Cain immersed herself in the Riverside’s unique and intricate structure. She won 2 major awards, the Aspect Prize and the Threadneedle Prize, for her forensic studies of the building under construction. Cain describes the process of working on the exhibition as being similar to the collaborations involved in all construction – and deconstruction.

I found myself really drawn to the past. There is so much history surrounding the Clyde. The making of these vast ships and buildings, many of which no longer exist, did not happen without extensive collaboration between all sorts of individuals. It was these processes rather than the building as an artefact that become the focus of the work
- Patricia Cain

Arts writer Jan Patience comments; “The area around the Clyde has gone through massive changes in the last 50 years and Cain has explored this using the new transport museum as a starting point in a sensitive and thought-provoking way.”

Download the PDF version of Drawing (on) Riverside

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DRN Conference 2012

Peter Simcoe — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:30:02 +0000

The conference theme, of Drawing Knowledge, attempts to engage with the twin questions of what constitutes drawing and what constitutes knowledge; of how knowledge authenticates drawing acts and how drawing might be constructive of knowledge. The theme questions whether traditional epistemological schemes can be addressed through the agency of drawing or whether drawing challenges these schemes with a new vision of its own. The call suggests the following as starting points in the discussion, as possible themes, as prompts and as provocations:

Is drawing utilised sufficiently as a fundamental tool for thinking across disciplines? What cross-disciplinary case studies are there into the uses of drawing as a problem solving tool capable of generating and testing ideas?
What role can drawing play at each stage of the design process, and in enhancing design thinking?
How aware are we of conventions?
How is drawing as an experimental approach and attitude distinct from drawing as an outcome and discipline (e.g. Frayling’s Research through Art and Design or Research for Art and Design*)?
How has the practice of drawing in education changed, and how do we ensure its continued relevance in an increasingly digital age?
Is the teaching of drawing distinct from the teaching of art and design, and what current role does it play?

Forms of Submission

The conference invites a range of different forms of submission. We are calling for:

Drawn submissions addressing or challenging the conference theme
Full theoretical, historical, educational papers or reports on practice addressing the conference theme
Performative drawing submissions addressing or challenging the conference theme
Drawing pieces for inclusion in the DRN 2012 Juried ‘Digitally Projected’ virtual drawing exhibition (see the exhibition call attached below)

In the first instance proposals for submissions are invited to the Directors of the DRN by the 2nd of April 2012. All papers will be put through a peer review process. A selected sample of submissions will be published as part of a special edition of the journal TRACEY, or be included in the TRACEY | PROJECT space. All contributions that are accepted for the conference will be carried as part of the Conference Proceedings via the DRN website.

Sending Your Submissions

Physical

Physical submissions should be sent to:
c/o Simon Downs –
The School of the Arts
Loughborough University
Loughborough
LE11 3TU
UK

Electronic

Electronic submissions should be sent to:
s.t.downs@lboro.ac.uk or r.marshall@lboro.ac.uk

Important Inclusions

Both the electronic and physical submission should include the following information:

Author(s) / Artist(s)
Institutional Affiliation (if any)
300 word outline of proposed submission

Types of Submission

Drawn / Practice-based submissions
Theoretical, philosophical or contextual papers
Proposals for a performative piece
Drawn pieces for inclusion in the exhibition (see below)

* Frayling, Christopher., Research in Art & Design, Royal College of Art Research Papers, Vol 1, Number 1, 1993/4, ISBN 1874175551

ANNOUNCING

An Open Call for ‘Digitally Projected’ virtual drawing exhibition for the DRN, Drawing Research Network, Conference 2012 – DRAWING KNOWLEDGE
Theme ‘the real and the illusory’ – to be curated and selected by Sue Gollifer, University of Brighton, UK

This call is for an exhibition of ‘drawings’ that reveals the varied approaches to the medium of and its practice, in the light of digital enhanced applications. But with specific reference to work that builds on the idea of drawing as being a problem solving generational tool for creating new knowledge across all forms of art and design disciplines.

To be considered for this exhibition, please submit your works (up to 5) on this theme to Deborah Harty: d.j.harty@lboro.ac.uk. Please save them in the following sizes and file formats: JPG/TIFF/PDF – 120 dpi -1024/2 or 512 pixels wide, and 768/2 or 384 pixels high

Also to include in a separate word format document:

Name and affiliation
Email and www site
Titles of works
Brief bio max -100 words
Brief description – 50 words per image

Download the DRN Conference 2012 Details as a PDF

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The Algorithmic ‘Unconscious’

Dr Eugenia Fratzeskou — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 10:30:03 +0000

The focal point of this study is digital ‘memory’, as explored in relation to the Algebras of ‘Logic’, the notions of process paradigm, pre-representational pixel-grids and emergence. In this way the algorithmic ‘unconscious’ of digital visualisation technology – i.e. the inherent paradoxes and unknowns, the uncontrollable data flaws, the hidden inconsistencies, the exchanges and the potentialities of the system – is unveiled. New possibilities and ways of creating more than mere visual ‘phenomena’ emerge.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

It becomes clear that an in-depth systematic investigation of digital visualisation systems surpasses the limiting focus on imaging. Instances of data ‘currents’ can be visually “captured” as digital traces that have intrinsic types of in-formation. These “traces” are a product of the complex workings, inherent flaws and inconsistent data exchanges of digital visualisation systems. Consequently, these digital traces escape not only a sole frame of reference as providing a proper and full description of them, but also the outworn principles and aesthetics of a mere image production and processing, as well as the customary modes of simulation.

The theoretical and practical investigation of those digital traces enable us to unravel the workings of digital visualisation systems, and even the depths of the algorithm. An investigation like this is not limited to the observation of surface effects, but expands into the complexity and the half/by- products of the dynamic data interchange between the diverse computational levels and models of computer infrastructure.

Digital traces reveal a multitude of virtuality states that are implicit in various interacting potentiality fields. In extension to this condition, it may be argued that in the context of digital technology the notion of potentiality can be interpreted as the ‘gap’, e.g. lack of consistency, transparency and/or immediacy, that exists between user and machine, as well as between software and hardware, and between the various computational levels of the digital visualisation system. Although this ‘gap’ is supposed to have been remedied through the use of the appropriate programming languages, it still dominates the software engineering discourse.

An investigation of what may be defined as an intrinsic structure and geometry of the system prior to any kind of (re)presentational production poses an interesting challenge. It can be argued that pre-representational ‘grids’ may be operating in the highly unstable depths of digital visualisation systems.

DIGICULT is an Italian platform created to spread digital art and culture worldwide. It focuses on the impact of new technologies and modern sciences on art design culture and contemporary society. DIGICULT is the editor of the magazine DIGIMAG which focuses on cultural and artistic issues e.g. art & science software art design etc.

Please see Digimag online magazine for the full articles. There are two articles in this series. You can also see the Archives for Dr Eugenia Fratzeskou. Also available in Italian.

Visit SARCHA Associates for more research updates.

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