WEEK 10:Vision and Modernity: Machine and the Eye

With the increasing sway of digital intervention upon our graphic response to our surroundings, it could be suggested that the act of drawing is gradually being dissolved by digitally enhanced methodologies. The cultural impact of photography and a host of related image enhanced devices have historically relinquished the human eyesposition as the most sanctioned and perceptive mode for interpreting the visible world. Digital and technological advances are continuously altering the faith we place in our methods of personal graphic response and interpretation of the visible world.

BRIEF: In this exercise each student has the option of creating either a 2D drawing/collage, film, projection or 3D form that conveys a point of collision between the hand drawn and some form of scientific or digital intervention. The scientific reference may come from early historical drawing aids such as the camera obscura, the stereoscope, the slide projector or something as fundamental as the lens. Alternatively students can use a contemporary digital device that alters or reconfigures a series of nature-­‐based drawings as a means of exploring the relationships between science and nature.

A suggested approach could be tochoose a form from nature and complete a study or series of studies in any medium. These initial works could then be documented, photoshopped and reinterpreted in another medium. The point of ‘collision’ between the hand drawn and technology relies entirely upon student’s imaginative interpretation.

Mediums may include drawing, printmaking, rubbings, sculpture, film or ephemeral performance pieces etc. For the practicalities of thestudio-­‐based lesson it is advised that students keep their use of digital media to lap tops, mobile phones or other fundamental mechanisms.

The outcome for this project may be presented as a hybrid form of collage, drawings, assemblages, film or digital based works that establish and challenge new means of visual representation. Ultimately it is for each student to negotiate their own measure and degree of intervention between technology and their personal graphic response.