Ecological Artist and Research Fellow at MIRIAD, David Haley shares his publication entitled ‘Draw Attention: Ecology As Art’, which was performed at an arts research conference in Bergen 2005. David maintains that ‘drawing is integral to perception and cognitive understanding’ and adds to the debate on ‘how do artists teach drawing’?
How do artists teach drawing?
David Haley shares his publication: Draw Attention: Art As Ecology
Some time ago I posted a paper on the (earlier) DRN website and I’ve attached it here. The paper, ‘Draw attention: Art As Ecology’, was performed at an arts research conference in Bergen in 2005 using a blackboard and chalks, a ball of string and the bodies of the audience, so the text is a little unconventional. But you should get some of the ideas and I still maintain that drawing is integral to perception and cognitive understanding.
As an artist engaged in ecological concerns, drawing (‘draughting’) the relationships is a way of visually rendering systems – making complexity manifest. And, personally, this discipline may be traced back to the Saturday morning classes, through Foundation to my Fine Art Painting course at Camberwell in the late 60s / early 70s. Of course, it actually goes back to when I was four years old and the drawings I did were valued – this was never educated out of me.
And so, as student demand increases for ‘Drawing on Life’, universities close such classes in favour of the remote, the digital and the virtual. While I support and embrace new technologies along side traditional techniques, I would adopt the old Musicians Union slogan, ‘Keep Art Live’.
David Haley
Research Fellow at MIRIAD (Manchester Institute for Research and Innovation in Art and Design)
Manchester Metropolitan University
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