The drawing of bodies and things - Embodiment, observation, and representation

Abstract

The Drawing of Bodies and Things documents practical and theoretical investigations into the languages and processes of observational drawing. The practical investigations have utilised traditional drawing media and extended the drawing process into three dimensions using motion capture technology and 3D printing. A series of participatory drawing exercises create collaborative works that question the inherent meaning—or lack thereof—in mark making, authorship of work, and the value of the experience of creation over the value of the object. The body of work questions the heavily codified nature of western representational drawing and how fragile or constructed the standard methods of illusionistic representation may be. The investigation focuses on the sensory experience of observational drawing, and the viewing of representational images and drawings produced through observational drawing processes. More specifically, The Drawing of Bodies and Things details the relationship between drawing and the visual, tactile, haptic, and proprioceptive senses, as well as the interactions and exchanges between these senses. The investigation addresses the readability and codification of representative marks in traditional and contemporary drawing practices, specifically observational and figurative drawing techniques. The written thesis addresses relevant theoretical, historical, and conceptual readings of representational and observational drawing as described by Deanne Petherbridge and John Berger; phenomenological concepts of self, perception, embodiment, and being as described by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and expanded upon by David Michael Levin; and recent neuroscientific understandings and neurophilosophical concepts of the transparent self-model and internal simulated world-model as described by Thomas Metzinger. These readings are presented in dialogue with the practical body of work as well as analysis of other contemporary artists addressing embodiment, observational drawing, and representational mark making.