Raymond Lucas
University of Edinburgh
Alternative Forms of Theory: Drawing as Understanding
This paper holds that the drawing or notation can be a valid alternative means by which to explore theory. Theoretical discussions are often held to be the exclusive domain of text discourse, but is it possible to draw an argument?
In my research towards an anthropology of inscriptive practices, I exploited my background in architecture to allow a parallel discourse to take place in the inscriptive practices of written text and alternatives such as notation, drawing and diagrams. What this draws our attention to is the manner in which such practices are forms of understanding in and of themselves. This might be contrasted with recording media such as photography, audio and film. Whilst useful records of events observed, the captured image does not offer an opportunity to understand or select the most salient points until the later stages of development and editing.
This profound difference in Bergsonian duration is one that is crucial to explore if we are to understand the qualities inherent to drawings, and the understanding that engaging in the practice of drawing actually offers. It is this temporality of inscription that allows us to move beyond a conception of the completed work, and shift to an engagement with the practices themselves.
The paper shall use examples of my own work, establishing that a drawing, notation or diagram have the potential of being theoretical investigations in their own right rather than mere recording methods or objects for study.
The research is drawn from my work with the AHRC Creativity & Practice Research Group, a collaboration between the department of anthropology at Aberdeen and the Duncan of Jordanstone school of fine art in Dundee. I shall also develop it with regard to my current research at Edinburgh university, ‘Inflecting Space’, a collaboration between architecture and music. This work further develops the problematic through the representation of non-visual material in order to interpret audio recordings of voices in public space.
