Reflection as a becoming present (LUCA)

Goal of activity:

– Transcending one’s own (life)world – trying to explore possible connections with our world or new worlds

Context:

and

Aims:

Studio Illustration  – runs 12 weeks

The studio Illustration starts from the idea that drawing is a free and communicative medium/practice to explore the relationship between oneself and the world. Reading, writing and talking with words and images are elementary aspects. Hence, illustration is more than drawing. It is visualising a world (tangible and imaginable) a graphic and appropriate way.

Reflection method:

Reflection here does not mean that there is a source of knowledge or a truth that functions as a reference. There is no other reference than the practice of drawing, communicating and reading itself. It is in the act of drawing, communicating, and reading itself that one has to search for the truth. This implies that irrationality and rationality are in harmony, but most of all that the maker/student is present in the drawing. Hence, reflection here is not focused on acquiering more knowledge or skills (knowing more about perspective, colours, geometry, … or more about oneself – one’s emotions, psyche, …), but on an act of care. This refers to a different mode of reflection. Reflection as a form of self-transformation –  not to forget oneself but to work upon the self in order to get free of oneself so that one can become part of the artwork/the drawing. The actor and the drawing become one. Concerning this preparation the studio Illustration provides particular exercises in which concentration and attention for what is there forms the focal point.

Story from practice:

Process and steps:

Part 1

Each student receives three words: object / subject / timing – eg sustainability / table / spring

–          Do some research in encyclopedias, literature, music, scientific texts … and prepare a documentation file or archive.

–          Every day, draw a picture on the basis of these three words

Aim: transcending one’s own (life)world – trying to explore possible connections with other worlds

Part 2

After one month, an additional word is added: emotion

–          Create a story based on the four words in a chronological, not chronological, associative or not associative way. The only criterium is that the communication with the spectator must be traceable

Aim: exeriencing that new connections are only possible if they are communicable and thus readable by others. Readable here does not mean realistic or logic. It means that it is in accordance within itself: the rightness of fit (cf. Goodman 1978)

Several exercises are possible:

–          role play: look around, listen to music, read poetry in order to understand a particular character, movement, object, idea.  It must be possible to become a ‘still life’

–          Draw stones – draw them in different contexts and be attentive for the effect it generates in relation to what a stone is or could be.

–          Telling a story – everything in the story can be an object for drawing. It is impossible not to draw

Instructions

–          talk about what you see in the drawing, not about what you want to see or think/hope to see. Turn your work upside down in order to do so.

–          Why are you drawing this? What are the possibities of your picture? What do you want to tell? Why did you drawn this object? Why is it small? What is your story about? Does this correspond with what there is to see?