Drawing in the university today

Abstract

Drawing is a process by which the mind commits itself to ideas that can only be expressed visually, but is also an embodied form of knowing, crossing distinct areas of inquiry and pedagogy — from arts to humanities and sciences. As this field becomes increasingly heterogeneous, claiming for a multimodal research landscape, stable areas of knowledge production are rare and crossover problems emerge. The renewed interest on drawing beyond those areas to which it is commonly associated – fine arts, architecture and design – is a symptom of its underlying presence in the various pedagogical, laboratorial and expository contexts: as notations, diagrams, illustrations, gestures, models, methodologies and traces standing for a researched idea or phenomenon. Nevertheless, its status and roles within the University today are still relatively overlooked, confined to the specific needs of departments, laboratories and classrooms, where its presence tends to go unnoticed. This invisibility is partially explained by drawing’s level of indeterminacy in dealing with ill-structured problems, the common ground of its communication processes and the apparent simplicity of its outcomes. In organizing this book, we identify the need to counter an analytical urge that only focuses on complex things in order to reduce them to simple equations. In drawing research, we must recognize that sometimes we need to reveal the hidden complexities that are the secret of drawing’s simplicity. The discrete but systematic use of drawing in such heterogeneous fields as computational sciences, simulating the sets for game programming; in biology and microbiology as illustrations and perceptive tool of direct and microscopic observations; in geography, as visualization of an experiential space; or in journalism as an alternative instrument of reportage – just to pinpoint the tip of the iceberg – is opening new lines of inquiry on its creative, cognitive and communicative aspects. But above all it shows drawing’s conceptual sophistication in problem solving, innovation, learning and expertise. We believe that the cognitive and expressive processes of drawing in the University can be defined more clearly within a framework that recognizes what all these territories have in common: by confronting its differences, we can also find its common ground.As a result, we noted the recurrence of frameworks and the emergence of core themes within the heterogeneity of contributions, and accordingly divided this book into six parts: 'Enhancing Education Through Drawin' concerns the impact of drawing as a learning methodology in artistic, design and scientific practice, through innovative strategies and alternative outcomes; 'Visual Imagery and Scientific Practice' analyses the production and use of sketches, diagrams and illustrations in the context of scientific work, as records of the process of knowledge production; 'Creativity, Cognition and Active Perception' focuses on the shared circuits between creative and perceptual processes and their instrumental role in discovery, mind shifting and experiential knowledge. 'Thinking Drawing in Research' establishes a critical and philosophical ground for discussing the role of drawing within the University, focusing on the relationship between research, practice and alternative modes of knowledge, based on subjective, emergent and interdisciplinary approaches. 'Modes of Conception: Reports on Practice' describes case studies in studio-based research, focusing in the process of invention through drawing and its relationship with concepts such as skill/deskill, know-how and experience. 'Acting Through Drawing' explores the complex relationships that exist between drawing, performance and performativity, reflecting on the role of drawing as an instruction, an instrument and a record of a performative action. Intertwined with the papers there are experimental contributions from independent artists and researchers, presented at the Drawing in the University Today Exhibition, curated by Pedro Maia, Cláudia Amandi and Natacha Antão, in the Faculty of Fine Arts and the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto. These works cover practice-led research on a wide range of topics, such as drawing machines, dialogical and collaborative practices, anthropology and cultural memory, medicine and pedagogy, the relationships between image and language, drawing as reportage or performance recording.