Table Of ContentTHINKING THROUGH DRAWING:
PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE
Proceedings of an interdisciplinary symposium on
drawing, cognition and education
Edited by Andrea Kantrowitz, Angela Brew and Michelle Fava
THINKING THROUGH DRAWING:
PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE
Proceedings of an interdisciplinary symposium
on drawing, cognition and education
Edited by Andrea Kantrowitz, Angela Brew and Michelle Fava
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
Symposium:
28-29 October 2011
Exhibition
Macy Art Gallery
October 24 - November 4, 2011
This publication has been made possible through
the generous support of the Myers Foundations
Special thanks to:
Contents
Foreword ................................................................................................................................................1
Preface ....................................................................................................................................................3
Judith Burton
Editorial: Drawing Connections ...........................................................................................................7
Angela Brew, Michelle Fava, Andrea Kantrowitz
Curatorial Statement ...........................................................................................................................13
Andrea Kantrowitz
Obsessed by Lines ................................................................................................................................15
Barbara Tversky
Drawing Practice and Pedagogy 19
The Bigger Picture of Drawing ............................................................................................................21
Stephen Farthing
The Bigger Picture of Drawing: A New Curriculum, A New Pedagogy .............................................27
Simon Betts
Drawing Drawings ...........................................................................................................................35
Michael G. Moore
From the exhibition: Michael Moore ...............................................................................................................37
Philosophical Dimensions of Drawing Instruction ...........................................................................39
Seymour Simmons, III, Ed.D.
What We Illustrate When We Draw: Normative Visual Processing in Beginner Drawings,
and the Capacity to Observe Detail ....................................................................................................45
Tara Geer
From the exhibition: Tara Geer .......................................................................................................................51
Drawing and Cognition 53
All in the Timing: Using Embryological Principles to Understand Creative Thinking in Art .........55
Aaron Kozbelt
A Multi-Stage Attention Hypothesis of Drawing Ability ...................................................................61
Justin Ostrofsky, Aaron Kozbelt
Learning to Pause ................................................................................................................................67
Angela Brew
THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE iii
iv TEACHERs COLLEGE COLUmbIA UNIvERsITy
Visuomotor Atoms of Copy-Drawing .................................................................................................73
Ruben Coen-Cagli
Developing a Cognitive Model of Observational Drawing ................................................................79
Michelle Fava
From the exhibition: William Holton ..............................................................................................................86
From the exhibition: Margaret Neill ................................................................................................................89
From the exhibition: Sumru Tekin ...................................................................................................................91
Interdisciplinary Collaborations 93
The Perceptual Foundations of Drawing Ability ................................................................................95
Rebecca Chamberlain, Howard Riley, Chris McManus, Qona Rankin, Nicola Brunswick
Paul the Robot as a Naive Drawer .....................................................................................................103
Patrick Tresset, Frederic Fol Leymarie
Evolving Dialogues between Surgeon and Drawing Practitioner ....................................................109
Jenny Wright, Neil Shah
From the exhibition: J. Fiber with Jane Fine and James Esber .....................................................................114
Drawing Broadly / Thinking Broadly 117
Drawing: A Matter of Life and Death? ..............................................................................................119
Andrea Kantrowitz
Using Sketching: To Think, To Recognize, To Learn ........................................................................123
David Kirsh
Material Thinking: Drawing to Record, Understand and Respond .................................................127
Ian Mc Innes
Drawing Bodies: A Kinaesthetics of Attention .................................................................................135
Chris Moffett
Locating Empathy with Double-Blind Drawing and Bimanual Palpation ......................................141
Angela Hodgson-Teall
Drawing from Drawing .....................................................................................................................147
Doug Fitch
From the exhibition: Jeesoo Lee .....................................................................................................................151
From the exhibition: Mia Pearlman ..............................................................................................................152
Biographies 155
THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE v
vi TEACHERs COLLEGE COLUmbIA UNIvERsITy
Foreword
The symposium Thinking through Drawing:
Practice into Knowledge brought together artists,
neuroscientists, cognitive psychologists, medical
practitioners, designers, and educators from the
US and the UK, all with a shared interest in draw-
ing and cognition. This trans-disciplinary gathering
was held at Teachers College, Columbia University
in New York City in October 2011 and addressed a
broad range of concerns regarding contemporary
drawing practice, theoretical analysis and educa-
tion, in light of current scientific research.
THINKING THROUGH DRAWING: PRACTICE INTO KNOWLEDGE 1
