Sensorial Drawing Syllabus
Spring 2021
1 Credit group independent study at Milton Field
Reid Farnsworth, Madeline Smith, Theodore Teichman
Overview:
To draw is to capture the essence of a subject, to translate from visual perception through a physical action, resulting in a new visual product that is also its own tangible object. In this independent study we ask how might the bounds of the action of drawing on site be expanded through an attention to the sensual process of movement involved with drawing. We propose that through this attention to the sensuality of movement and sensing (visually and non-visually) embodied in the actions of drawing, that drawing becomes--rather than a transcription of an objectified Other--a intimate intersubjective experience. This experience places the drawer now outside the bastion of the self looking upon the landscape and instead views that which is drawn and the drawer from a mutual outside that can then be shared. This study asks then, how this attention can develop a drawing praxis as engagement and as criticism that confronts the dominant land ideology of the Capitalocene. Often in the field we approach drawing as an extractive mode of site analysis, taken out for it’s refinement in studio or for its clarity of communication. Instead we look towards the act of drawing in and of itself as a methodology to prototype more honest, authentic, and empathetic ways of engaging with site. Drawing, in our proposition, allows for small sites of resistance through small entanglements of joy that help to redefine our narrative relationship with a site. In this way--rather than merely being an extractive implement of site analysis and surveying--drawing becomes a tool for empathy, knowing, and care that then we can then uniquely mobilize as a tool in the arts for living (and thriving) on a dying planet.
Learning objectives:
Structure:
Drawing exercises will be done such that each prompt/genre is given two weeks (two sessions) to allow for initial exploration the first week and an extension/refinement the next week.
There will be 5 exercises and the final four sessions will allow students to select a format from the past weeks or an additional format to develop depth over 4 sessions.
We will gather together on Saturday Mornings at 10 am at Milton Field and go out to a predetermined transect together where we will spend an hour and a half drawing together in the same place follow that week’s given framework. The focus will be on slow drawing and deep drawing as a way of knowing, not looking to the drawing to tell us something but instead as a way to engage with site authentically.
Sample weekly exercises*:
*a more detailed “score” including transect medium and approach will be provided for each of these exercises
Reference list:
Catherine Dee
Dee, Catherine. "To Draw." Journal of Landscape Architecture 11, no. 2 (2016): 42-53.
Sarah Newton
https://www.sarahmnewton.com/
Bryan Cantley
https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/bryan-cantley-dirty-geometries-mechanical-imperfections
Paul Klee
Klee, Paul, and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. Pedagogical sketchbook. London: Faber & Faber, 1953.
Lara Gastinger
https://www.laracallgastinger.com/
Lawrence Halprin
Halprin, Lawrence. Notebooks, 1959-1971. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.
Alice Tangerini
https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/margaret-mee-portraits-of-plants/essays-interviews-resources/tangerini-interview
Garrett Eckbo
Treib, Marc, Garrett Eckbo, Dorothée Imbert, and Hubert C. Schmidt. Garrett Eckbo: modern landscapes for living. Univ of California Press, 1997.
1 Credit group independent study at Milton Field
Reid Farnsworth, Madeline Smith, Theodore Teichman
Overview:
To draw is to capture the essence of a subject, to translate from visual perception through a physical action, resulting in a new visual product that is also its own tangible object. In this independent study we ask how might the bounds of the action of drawing on site be expanded through an attention to the sensual process of movement involved with drawing. We propose that through this attention to the sensuality of movement and sensing (visually and non-visually) embodied in the actions of drawing, that drawing becomes--rather than a transcription of an objectified Other--a intimate intersubjective experience. This experience places the drawer now outside the bastion of the self looking upon the landscape and instead views that which is drawn and the drawer from a mutual outside that can then be shared. This study asks then, how this attention can develop a drawing praxis as engagement and as criticism that confronts the dominant land ideology of the Capitalocene. Often in the field we approach drawing as an extractive mode of site analysis, taken out for it’s refinement in studio or for its clarity of communication. Instead we look towards the act of drawing in and of itself as a methodology to prototype more honest, authentic, and empathetic ways of engaging with site. Drawing, in our proposition, allows for small sites of resistance through small entanglements of joy that help to redefine our narrative relationship with a site. In this way--rather than merely being an extractive implement of site analysis and surveying--drawing becomes a tool for empathy, knowing, and care that then we can then uniquely mobilize as a tool in the arts for living (and thriving) on a dying planet.
Learning objectives:
- Become more precise drawers
- Develop skills with drawing in the landscape to show force, gravity, tension, motion, and different timescales through the use of line
- Develop skills to approach drawing analytically and moreover critically as a landscape practice.
- Understand and gain a sensuality of/in/through drawing
- Understand drawing beyond mere notetaking or analysis
- Develop a personal and evocative style for drawing on site
- Develop skills of discernment for editing the landscape into a drawing
Structure:
Drawing exercises will be done such that each prompt/genre is given two weeks (two sessions) to allow for initial exploration the first week and an extension/refinement the next week.
There will be 5 exercises and the final four sessions will allow students to select a format from the past weeks or an additional format to develop depth over 4 sessions.
We will gather together on Saturday Mornings at 10 am at Milton Field and go out to a predetermined transect together where we will spend an hour and a half drawing together in the same place follow that week’s given framework. The focus will be on slow drawing and deep drawing as a way of knowing, not looking to the drawing to tell us something but instead as a way to engage with site authentically.
Sample weekly exercises*:
- Botanical drawing (micro scale)
- Grain focused line-drawing drawing or etching (meso scale)
- Copy Sarah Newton’s method of detail/resolution and editing (meso scale)
- Taking a line on a walk a la Paul Klee single line drawing (meso/macro scale)
- Working with color (micro scale/macro scale)
- Draw based on other senses (maybe drawing with eyes closed based on sounds, smells, feelings, etc) (scale distortions)
- “Imperfect” technical drawing (scale distortions)
*a more detailed “score” including transect medium and approach will be provided for each of these exercises
Reference list:
Catherine Dee
Dee, Catherine. "To Draw." Journal of Landscape Architecture 11, no. 2 (2016): 42-53.
Sarah Newton
https://www.sarahmnewton.com/
Bryan Cantley
https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/bryan-cantley-dirty-geometries-mechanical-imperfections
Paul Klee
Klee, Paul, and Sibyl Moholy-Nagy. Pedagogical sketchbook. London: Faber & Faber, 1953.
Lara Gastinger
https://www.laracallgastinger.com/
Lawrence Halprin
Halprin, Lawrence. Notebooks, 1959-1971. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1972.
Alice Tangerini
https://www.doaks.org/resources/online-exhibits/margaret-mee-portraits-of-plants/essays-interviews-resources/tangerini-interview
Garrett Eckbo
Treib, Marc, Garrett Eckbo, Dorothée Imbert, and Hubert C. Schmidt. Garrett Eckbo: modern landscapes for living. Univ of California Press, 1997.