You feel
You feel the word
Animating with a drawing tablet at a computer for hours on end can feel physically restrictive.
This morning I needed to move, and so headed out into the garden with pencil, paper, and Jack Ward’s 1955 Mawson diary.
I was interested to see if drawings made in response to his words would be different when made before and after a movement response.
Sitting on a bench, I read from his entry for January 27, 1955:
You feel the word lives for the first time, estranged as soon as it is spoken.
I noticed that I tended to break up the sentence into six parts, of single words and short phrases.
I made six drawings: You feel; the word; lives; for the first time; estranged; as soon as it is spoken. The first drawing made before moving embodies the general idea of ‘feeling’ in an abstract way – unassociated with any particular feeling. The line suggests pure feeling – neutral of quality, open for suggestion.
As I was sitting, reading and drawing I was enjoying the sequential nature of the experience, allowing myself to respond to each word as if hearing it for the first time.
After a physical warm up, I improvised to the complete sentence as a whole. I noticed how the movements and shapes arising through my body reflected the narrative sequence of the words, but were structured differently. Ideas became more linked, and overlapping. For example, the first drawing made after moving reflects how the word felt as a physical entity, described in space through my body.
Then I drew: You feel the word; lives for the first time; estranged as soon as it is spoken.
Drawings made before reading appeared and and felt like some kind of calligraphy – marks suggesting general meanings.
Drawings made after moving however became more specific – marks embodying a particular experience.
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How can Antarctic landscape changes connect with changes here?
Twelve extracts from Jack’s journal – one for each month of the year – can be married with changes observed here.
The twelve journal extracts will form the starting point for the Drawing through Moving study group.
I anticipate a range of responses to this text, including associations with other landscapes
experienced – internal and external.
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A friend directs me to John McNorton, who’s PhD at the Royal College of Arts was entitled “Choreography of Drawing – the consciousness of the body in the space of a drawing” (2003)
and reminds me about William Kentridge.
I find an interview between Kentridge and Lillian Tone, William Kentridge : stereoscope (1999).