Seeing Through Drawing: Observation, Record and Representation in Art and Science
Friday 7th March 2025 - Thursday 24th April 2025 (extended)
Level 4 Gallery in Hartley Library
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Drawing is a distinct artistic tradition. Haptic, physical, intimate, it is a way of looking at and thinking about the world. And because of its immediacy and potential flexibility drawing is also used across many scientific disciplines. It is used to sketch out hypotheses as they come to fruition, to visualise data for more immediate comprehension, and to illustrate concepts for public outreach.
The focus of this project will be the use of drawing for observation and record. ‘Real life’ drawing; drawing live in the field and drawing in the laboratory. We will consider how drawing encourages longer periods of looking and heightened criticality, and how it is used to understand and develop knowledge. From interdisciplinary perspectives, this project expands what it means to see, and think, through drawing.
Experts from the fields of Marine Geology, Geography, Paleobiology and Taxonomy will highlight the use of drawing to aid seeing and facilitate understanding. Whilst the focus is observation, the aim is not necessarily pictorial realism. Practitioners might, for instance, use drawing to focus on particular features or details. This might be drawing on-site in the field, it might be drawing from life in the laboratory, or it might be looking through a device like a microscope to facilitate seeing on another level; drawing to make the invisible tangible.
Material from the National Oceanographic Archives will demonstrate how drawing was used historically within scientific exploration – before the invention of photography – for observation and record.
Across disciplines the act of representation through drawing is used to process and understand what is being seen. Drawing workshops with scientists and with visiting artist Flora Parrott (www.floraparrott.com) will ask students to draw using different approaches. This project can be seen through the lens of, and embedded within students’ existing studio practice, but it can also be approached in isolation, if it makes sense to do so.