Eastern and Western Paradigms in Drawing Education: Koranic Illumination Versus the Picture Plane

Julia Townsend

Koranic Illumination, or ‘tehzip’ can be studied in various universities, private classes, or government sponsored programs throughout the Muslim world, with close study with the masters lasting five years.  Training begins with simple copying of motifs, to achieve a fluid, confident-- not sketchy-- stroke. While the painting process of the illumination is beyond the realm of this paper, the study of composition, balance of space, and how the student finds originality in the footsteps of the great masters, will be contrasted with the Western concept of drawing.

Based mostly on my studies in a government ‘tehzip’ course at the Topkapi Palace from 2000-2002, and my own fine art training on the East Coast of the US and Europe, this paper will present the philosophical differences between the two approaches to drawing. Images will support the presentation, as well as material from related sources such as E.H. Gombrich’s The Sense of Order, and interviews with Rebecca Salter whose recent exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art presented a blend of her western background with Japanese aesthetic. 

 

Creating a form around a 'tugra,' the stamp of the sultan (created by a calligrapher)

 

Working out a skeleton- of the design to fill the space

Filling in the motifs on the skeleton

drawings by Julia Townsend

The Political Implications of Map Drawings on the Middle East

Dr. Ami J. Abou-bakr

King's College London

The political changes seen throughout the Middle East and North Africa this year have caused many academics and policy makers to reflect seriously on the primary geo-political, cultural, religious and ethnic drivers of conflict and unrest in the region. One of these underlying causes of tension derives from the way the States in the modern Middle East were mapped (drawn) in the early part of the 20th Century. This conference, with its title of "Crossing the Line" and its focus on drawing in the Middle East and cross-disciplinary understanding, offers a unique opportunity to explore how the (mis)drawing of lines on maps significantly contributed to much of the unrest in the modern Middle East.

This paper will briefly explore the drawing of the state of Iraq and the mapping of the state of Israel (including ongoing border disputes between the Israelis and the Palestinians) to highlight how a seemingly innocent two-dimensional drawing can have lasting multi-dimensional political consequences.

link:  Dr. Ami J. Abou-bakr

Sounding waves: Drawing into the mind's eye.

Maryclare Foa

                  In this paper I will propose that through a trans-disciplinary practice encompassing performance, sonar, mapping and the spoken word, it is possible that the invisible waves present in our environment might be revealed and interpreted as drawings. And that these drawings do indeed cross boundaries because they are free from any surface confined by no border, transient, in constant motion, and although sometimes visualised with technology, they are most often perceived in the mind's eye.

Firstly through text interspersed with moving and still images I will describe how I have come to understand sound as a method of drawing that maps, measures and reveals the condition of place. I will also define how place and practitioner interact through sonic reflection, and I will introduce my practice, in which I use sound as a drawing method to converse with the outside environment.

I will then go on to expand this concept encompassing a broader array of invisible yet distinguishable waves that exist in our environment. Tracking their routes with recorded material, the spoken word, and song, I will perform into the listeners' mind's eye, a lattice that exists through the environment comprising the routes of the wind, migratory flyways, and radio and satellite signals. I will also draw a sonic map of Dubai. And in so doing I will propose that; more than producing a vector [route or course] of thought, because performance employing sound can conjure those vectors into images (unbound by border or dimension) for the mind's eye, then the presentation in itself can be perceived as a method of performing a drawing.

link: Maryclare Foá

Back to the drawing board

Kelly Chorpening  

Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts, London

 

In ‘Back to the drawing board’ I will discuss the role contemporary drawing could have in today’s Middle East through a discussion informed by my own experience as an artist and researcher, and as a lecturer of drawing to artists and non-artists alike.

Background

Since 2006 I have run the BA Drawing course at Camberwell College of Arts. The course sits within the fine art programme of subjects, and as you might expect, involves life drawing, observational perspective and orthographic projection, but also provides forays into the ways disciplines such as dance, choreography, medicine, architecture, history and philosophy use and identify with drawing. Drawing does not belong to art— it’s a fundamentally human act— so its exemption from the struggle more archetypal subjects such as painting have with their own histories, enables a distinctly outward-looking approach to creativity. Drawing effectively provides a passport to explore its uses across a range of professions. Skills of analysis are developed as much through the translation of the real world into line, as the questioning of how the stakes of such activities have changed over time.

Back to the Drawing Board

‘Back to the drawing board’ is a phrase used when it’s time to start again. In this lecture I would like to free the drawing board from its associative endgame of failed achievement in order to describe its location at the edges of discipline— one could even describe it as a pre-disciplinary place— in order to celebrate it as a place for innovation, where thoughts and ideas are brought into existence. The drawing board is a set of conditions that enable practitioners from across cultures and professions alike to work together and share ideas.

In this context, the drawing board becomes a destination that enables the speculation of an idea, where the speculation is made valid through the inherent directness, accuracy and precision of the medium. Ideas are given substance, and are able to suggest convincing possibilities without the limiting preoccupation with their use-value. In a time when the primacy of vocational disciplinarity has had a negative impact on innovation, could drawing invigorate, and possibly create new modes of practice?

In fine art, a refreshing characteristic of contemporary drawing exhibitions is how they tend to disrupt art historical categories.

link: Kelly Chorpening

Beyond Visual

Brian Dougan

Associate Professor of Architecture at
The American University of Sharjah College of Architecture, Art, and Design

 

Once upon a time I was a prolific drawer. I drew for many reasons, but I drew mostly because time invested in drawing revealed something about the world that I did not know. Drawing is a dependable tool to decipher enigma. I have not misplaced the curiosity that persuaded me to be prolific. I am still a drawer. Drawing is my way to investigate, to scrutinize, and to simply think about those things of the world and those things not yet born to the world. I rely on drawing instruction when I am in need of information.

Despite conventional wisdom and excessive antidotal discourse, drawing is not a visual phenomenon. Drawing beyond the visual cliché is best understood in its relations to other activities. I will take this opportunity to draw a comparison between making pottery and making drawings. I will unwrap the following three ideas to illustrate the rapport.

centering

"Centering: that act which precedes all others on the potter's wheel. The bringing of the clay into a spinning, un-wobbling pivot, which will then be free to take innumerable shapes as potter and clay press against each other. The firm, tender, sensitive pressure which yields as much as it asserts. It is like a handclasp between two living hands, receiving the greeting at the very moment that they give it..."

from "Centering - In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person" by M.C. Richards

adventure

"I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened

awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience."

from "I and Thou" by Martin Buber

focus/seeing

I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen... from "Zen Seeing Zen Drawing" by Frederick Franck 

This world in which we reside is among other things, distracting. Its pace is not conducive to the sort of focus or temporal surrender that is necessary to see. Such an investment, especially among the youth is an exception to the way we usually manage our time. 

Franck loved to quote Zen master Hui Neng, "The meaning of life is to see."

 

artworks by Brian Dougan

link: Brian Dougan

“The Wave-Breaker” - a novel approach to computer aided design (CAD) representation.

Aurel von Richthofen

Assistant Professor for Architecture and Computer Aided Design

German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech)

 

wave-breaker, plan 1D, etching 25x17 cm

Abstract

Architectural drawings, such as design sketches, plans, sections, axonometrics and perspectives, underwent a dramatic shift since the advent of computer aided design (CAD) tools. While most CAD tools reproduce conventional drafting methods, they tend to be reductive in their programmatic rigidity. Users are forced into a linear and predefined design process and often frustrated by the lack of haptic feedback. The structural complexity of CAD programs often obscures the underlying generative methods.

In search for novel methods of CAD application - presented in the sketches, drawings and plans for the “Wave-breaker” project (Land Art / Installation Proposal, Muscat 2011) - I developed a series of methods and tools to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of standard CAD. Boundaries of drafting software are expanded by introducing scripting and coding. The expression of data (text and numbers) inside the drawing aims to re-introduce the haptic quality of conventional drawing. A procedural approach of layering graphic elements and data with a constant visual update empowers the designer/programmer to harness the computational power of CAD applications.

wave-breaker, plotted data 2D, etching 25x17 cm

The “Wave-breaker” project challenges conventional architectural drafting methods as it is a landart and landscape installation. The project narrates the story of seemingly abandoned industrial artifacts (the concrete precast wave-breakers) in a desert landscape. It combines the technical precision of construction documents with the poetry and fragility of landscape drawings. Plan nor section suffice, rather a map of layers of information – landscape, artifacts, data – form the new digital environment. The underlying code regulates distribution, arrangement and rotation of the objects. 

wave-breaker, virtual model, software Rhinoceros 3D

Aurel von Richthofen is an architect, researcher and teacher invested in parametric design and cybernetic urbanism. Aurel grew up in Berlin and Geneva. He studied architecture at ETH Zurich and at Princeton University. He is the principle of aurelVR registered architects in Berlin. Aurel von Richthofen was Visiting Assistant Professor at the Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio and lecturer at the FTH Berlin and TU Berlin. Since fall 2010 Aurel is Assistant Professor for Computer Aided Design and Architecture at the Department of Urban Planning and Architectural Design at the German University of Technology in Oman (GUtech).

link: Aurel VR architecture

Crossing the line by drawing the line out of the sphere of imagination

Aisan Kianmehr

Abstract 

    "From this detached imagination attached imagination derives."

Ibn Arabi, who has introduced imagination as the creative source of manifestation, the very cause of our existence and keeping in contact with the Infinite and the Absolute, explains that our power of imagining things, that is, our ability to conceive of their forms abstracted from their sensible bodies, belongs to "Attached imagination" (Khayal Muttasil). It is the imagining faculty functioning within a human psychological framework. It is referred to as "Attached" because it is an imagination conjoined to the imagining subject and inseparable from him.

"Detached imagination" (Khayal Munfasil) is Divine Imagination, God imagining the world and is the presence of the world in the divine Mind whereas "attached imagination' is human imagination and the forms conceived by it are extracted by the senses from natural forms which are part of the cosmic forms, which embody cosmic realities, man imagining the forms of existents brought into existence by the creative power of Divine imagination. Since human imagination has the power of participating in the world of potential existence, it is capable of composing an infinite number of various types of images.

That brings us to a question that is overwhelming the imagination of most artists and architects, Is it possible for us to think and form images of objects which in principle are impossible to construct?

The concept of impossible in the world of Architecture is specifically derived from the forces of gravity, an essential limit for architecture that rises up in a relationship of tension with the earth. This fact has always been motivating the architects to seek for approaches to be freed from this limitation and have repeatedly dreamed of flying buildings; the tendency which was commonly popular in the era of the French and Russian revolutions. Now architects who claim to be designers of Cyber-Architecture proclaim their freedom to design in a digital network space of zero gravity free from the constraints of gravity.

As cyber-space evolves to replace the actual space as a target for capital investment, it appears to be heading the direction where the meaning of the word Architecture is expanding to include the conformation of virtual space in computer displays and the architecture in practice has crossed the boundaries of Art and Science.

CROSSING THE LINE at Tashkeel

has the pleasure to invite you to the opening reception of

CROSSING THE LINE

Opening reception 7 pm, Tuesday 1st of November 2011

At Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba

Exhibition runs from 1st to 23rd November 2011

To complement Crossing the Line: Drawing in the Middle East conference

being held at the American University in Dubai

From 1st to 3 November 2011

يتشرف تشكيل بدعوتكم إلى افتتاح معرض

ما وراء الخط

مراسم الافتتاح يوم الثلاثاء ١ نوفمبر ٢٠١١ في الساعة السابعة مساء

في تشكيل، ند الشبا

يستمر المعرض من تاريخ ١ حتى ٢٣ نوفمبر ٢٠١١

بالتزامن مع "ما وراء الخط: مؤتمر الرسم في الشرق الأوسط يقام في الجامعة الأمريكية في دبي"

من ١ الى ٣ نوفمبر   

click map to enlarge

Tashkeel Location: Intersection street 5 and street 20, Nad Al Sheba 1, Dubai

المكان: تقاطع شارع 20، شارع 5 ندالشبا 1، دبي

CROSSING THE LINE

Opening reception 7 pm, Tuesday 1st of November 2011 At Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba

Tue, 1 November, 7pm – 10pm GMT+04:00

Tashkeel - Nad AL Sheba

Crossing The Line Conference

CROSSING THE LINE

01 AISAN KIANMEHR, VERITAS ARCHITECTS, KUALA LUMPUR CROSSING THE LINE BY DRAWING THE LINE OUT OF THE SPHERE OF IMAGINATION

02 ARASH SALEK URBAN IDENTITY OF MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES POST-STRUCTURAL CONCEPTS IN A TRADITIONAL REGION

03 BRIAN DOUGAN, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH, COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, ART & DESIGN BEYOND VISUAL DRAWING AS A TRANSDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE

04 MAZDAK MOJDEHI, KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, SUSTAINED INSTABILITY

05 AUREL VON RICHTHOFEN, GERMAN UNIVERSITY OF TECH. IN OMAN THE “WAVE-BREAKER”– A NOVEL APPROACH TO COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) REPRESENTATION

06 AZADEH MALEKI A STUDY OF THE SYMBOLISM IN IRANIAN PAINTINGS WITH AN ORIENTATION OF PROPHET’S ASCENSION

07 DR. AMI J. ABOU-BAKR, KING’S COLLEGE LONDON THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF MAP ‘DRAWINGS’ ON THE MIDDLE EAST

08 KELLY CHORPENING, CAMBERWELL COLLEGE OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON, BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

09 MARYCLARE FOA SOUNDING WAVES: DRAWING INTO THE MIND’S EYE.
DRAWING AS AN INTERSECTION

10 MARIAM MOJDEHI GRAFFITI & PUBLIC SPACE–3 CONTEMPORARY CASE STUDIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
DRAWING: A PORTRAIT AND LANDSCAPE, NOTATIONS OF OUR TIME

11 SUTAPA BISWAS, CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN, UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTS, LONDON DRAWING SUBJECTIVE PERSPECTIVES – TIME IN THE CONTEXT OF VISUAL BEING.

12 JULIA TOWNSEND, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN DUBAI EASTERN AND WESTERN PARADIGMS IN DRAWING: KORANIC ILLUMINATION VERSUS THE PICTURE PLANE

13 BRIAN DOUGAN     AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF SHARJAH  BEYOND VISUAL

14 CHRISTOS  HADJICHRISTOS       UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS  LAYERING IS NOT

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

PROFESSOR STEPHEN FARTHING UNIVERITY OF THE ARTS LONDON
NJA  MAHDOUAI TUNISIA
DR MARCELO GUIMARAES LIMA AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN DUBAI
DR IRENE BARBERIS RMIT UNIVERSITY MELBOURNE


CO  - CHAIRS

INTERNATIONAL CHAIR : DR IRENE BARBERIS
MIDDLE EASTERN CHAIR/S : DR MARCELO LIMA, PROFESSOR JULIA TOWNSEND

Crossing The Line Conference 

is a collaboration between

The American University in Dubai, UAE

and

RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

with the participation of 

Tashkeel, Dubai

Timings:

Begins daily at 9:30 (click schedule below for further details)

Location: 

C Buildng:  Conference Room C227, 1st floor, Student Center,
American University in Dubai, Exit 32, Sheik Zayed Road

Free Registration:
 

Please confirm your attendance to

CrossTheLine2011@gmail.com

Open publication - Free publishing - More conference

Crossing the Line schedule

Interview with Stephen Farthing

Stephen Farthing RA, Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London, will be one of the keynote speakers at the Crossing The Line Conference in Dubai, UAE, at the American University in Dubai, in early November, 2011. The Conference is a joint project of AUD and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. In this brief interview, the artist gives us some initial thoughts on drawing and on his participation in Crossing The Line: Drawing in the Middle East - intersections of transdisciplinary practice and understanding

What is the role of drawing in your own art practice?
.

Stephen Farthing - I use drawing in two quite different ways, first to record, then to unravel problems, plan and strategize.

How do you see the role of drawing in your experience as an educator?

Stephen Farthing - In western culture the drawing class has I suspect been considered by most of its users part church, part gymnasium. During the latter half of the twentieth century most progressive western art schools replaced drawing with two new subjects , one was Art Theory and the other a craft related subject based on familiarizing students with the use of Lens/Scanner Based Technologies. Over time this shift in direction within the curriculum lead to a substantial decline in interest in things hand-made and personal, and it seems a surge in interest in Technological Interfaces and what I can best describe as Detached Randomness’s.

read the complete interview in the Panoptikon (click)

Crossing The Line Conference: accomodation information

The Holiday Inn Al Barsha – located conveniently opposite the University and Media City (see map below) would like to extend to you the following offer for your accommodation in Dubai during the Crossing The Line Conference:

click image to enlarge

 Time line: This offer is extended until 10th October 2011.

VISA

The Hotel can assist in obtaining all the necessary visas.

Kindly note that all Citizens of the following countries do not require an entry visa as they will be issued a tourist visa at the airport while passing through immigration: GCC Countries, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Finland, Malta, Spain, Monaco, Vatican, Iceland, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. We strongly advise against travelling before a visa has been covered by Dubai Immigration for nationalities not mentioned above.

The visas would be processed by the hotel the guests would be booked at. Visa charge are AED500 and will requires around 4 to 7 working days with the exception of Fridays, Saturdays and Public Holidays. Visa charges are non-refundable in case of cancellation or rejection and valid for a single entry through Dubai International Airport only. Service Visas are valid for entry to Dubai for 14 days from the date of issue, and then for 14 days from the date of entry to Dubai. Service Visas are non extendable. Companies with credit facilities are required to guarantee for the visa and will bear the cost of the fine in case of an over stay. For companies with no credit facilities in place a deposit of AED 5000 will be required per requested visa (UAE Immigration restrictions apply) and the total amount will be refunded upon receipt of a copy of the exit stamp by email/fax. The refund process may take 3 to 4 weeks.

An additional AED 2000 security deposit is required for visitors from the following countries: Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania (subject to change by Immigration without notice).

In order to process visas within the above time frame, we require the following;
   

Visa application form duly filled in for each applicant.

Clear color scanned passport copy of each applicant with at least 6 months validity (maximum 40KB size).
Clear, color scanned photograph of each applicant (maximum 40KB size).
Credit Card Authorization Form duly filled and signed.
Clear scanned copy of the Credit Card, front and back portion.
Clear scanned photo ID of the credit card holder.
A confirmed reservation at Holiday Inn Al Barsha.

Your visa request can only be processed once all the above documents are received and approved. Kindly note that all visas are subject to Immigration’s approval and fees are non-refundable Please note that visas requested within less than three (3) working days prior to the guest arrival are not guaranteed to be ready on time. The Hotel will however do its best to assist with these requests.
The hotel reserves the right to change the visa fees without any prior notice, should the applicable rates from Dubai Immigration & Naturalization Department change.

Rouxshin Vajifdar
Assistant Director of Sales - Holiday Inn Dubai - Al Barsha
P. O. Box 115443 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Tel: 00971 4 3234333 Fax: 00971 4 3234334
Direct: 00971 4 7040754 - Direct Fax: 00971 4 7040876 - Mobile: 00971 55 2111589

rouxshin.vajifdar@hialbarsha.com
www.holidayinn.com

click map to enlarge

Crossing the Line Conference: Interview with Irene Barberis

Irene Barberis with one of her artworks
at Langford120 in Melbourne, Australia, 2011

How was the idea of the conference Crossing the Line conceived?

IRENE BARBERIS - I have been working in a global context with Drawing for many years – over the last four, my conversations have been, amongst others, with Professor Stephen Farthing from the University of the Arts London. In 2009 I brought Stephen to Australia through the Metasenta, to exhibit at its Gallery – The DrawingSpace, Melbourne which was situated in RMIT University, while I exhibited performative and more sculptural drawings in the UK, at the University of the Arts London and the Bury Museum and Art Gallery. In April 2010 RMIT hosted an international Drawing Conference ‘Drawing Out’ at which Stephen was one of the Keynotes and I was involved through the Steering Committee. When in Dubai in January of this year for an exhibition at Tashkeel Bastakia, it occurred to me/us through a dialogue with Dr Marcelo Lima and Associate Professor Julia Townsend, that a conference on Drawing in the Middle East would be of enormous benefit to the extended community, and would be a pivot for dialogue on the specificities of ‘Drawing’ – its transdisciplinary nature, the porosity of its context, its marvelous span of materiality, and the multi layered nature of its linage and character. Drawing is a continuum of idea and thought, process and manifestation; it has the capacity to ‘capture’ and be a doorway to most everything and is to my mind all-inclusive. This conference will stimulate and hopefully galvanize Drawing as a presence in the Middle East.


read the complete interview here: PANOPTIKON