THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE

(Jeff_L) #1

130 TEACHERs COLLEGE COLUmbIA UNIvERsITy


material Thinking: Drawing to Record, Understand and Respond


Initially a structure was produced for each
speaker, then a time lapse developed, given the
differential speeds of verbal communication from
the speakers and the speed of hand-knitting. I had
reached a level of confidence and understanding of
the task, whereby I worked with these transitions to
the point that the work started to take on it’s own
pace and identity.
The time constraints and the intense activ-
ity required a high level of attention in listening,
assimilating, reflecting and producing. Each pre-
senter offered different presentation approaches. I
became more focused on each verbal communica-
tion because it was the constant, the continuum.
Phrases became triggers for informing the choice
of stitch, yarn and needle size. It also allowed me to
concurrently focus my eyes and hands on the co-
ordination of materials and tools in the making. I
was becoming increasingly aware of the distinct
activities and my co-ordination of them and the
need for their interdependence and synchronicity.
I was unable to annotate key words from each
presentation or my reflections during the activity
of making. I tested out the feasibility of this in the
first piece of knitting but it disrupted the motiva-
tion to make. I realized very quickly that the task
demanded that I engage with the content in a differ-
ent way from usual. The intention to capture words
or phrases and then use these to inform the making
seemed a logical sequence. In reality it slowed down
the process of decision making and creating. I was
following the learnt behaviour of taking written
notes during a presentation and then using this to
plan and inform the making. Using written words to


record and distill the presentations and then medi-
ate between them and the act of making was in effect
avoiding a more immediate, spontaneous and prag-
matic approach. It was essential to establish within
minutes of each presentation a strategy for making
and to start making. It was possible to concurrently
adjust techniques and materials in response to the
presentation as it unfolded. Each piece evolved dur-
ing the making. Pauses in the proceedings allowed
me short periods of time to write words to capture
current thinking and reflections and this acted as a
useful reference after the symposium.
I was mindful of one participant’s poignant
remark of the developing work:

I understand your intention to create a 3D
drawing as opposed to replicating the 2
dimensional construct.

The conversation that ensued was sufficiently
searching to stimulate in me a more focused devel-
opment. It was at this point that the work started to
gather its own momentum and I started to capture,
through the structures, the broader themes devel-
oped in the symposium. The work became more
linear and less rectangular, more organic and sculp-
tural rather than plains of low relief textures and
tones. A deeper understanding of the task and an
awareness of the internal dialogue between thinking
and making was reached as I was monitoring the
emerging progress of the structures. Fayena-Tawil
et. al. (2011), in their protocol analysis of levels of
cognition through drawing, provide a coding cat-
egory for levels of cognition and meta-cognition.

Figure 3. ‘Evolving dialogues between surgeon and
drawing practitioner’


Figure 4. ‘Robotic drawing’
Free download pdf