Place

I’m part-way through an interesting book by Marc Augé; (Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity) and I’d like to consider how some of his ideas play out in relation to my work.

In surveying the train journey from Marden to London, from the perspective of Augé I’m operating as a direct witness to the journey, observing and informing on the results. But Augé might say that the information I offer is less an accurate report or account of what took place and more something coloured by my own perceptions, thoughts, feelings and experiences about the journey or perhaps about a trip from my past.

After talking to Nicola Saunderson, I’m taking a step back to re-inject a higher level of fact into my project by surveying the entire journey using film. Hopefully, this will strengthen things and the possibilities will increase as I have no pre-conceptions as to where this will lead in terms of making art work.

Source: Marc Augé, Non-Places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, trans. John Howe, (London: Verso. 2008 [Non-Lieux, Introduction a une anthropologie de la surmodernite, 1992]), pp.8:9

I successfully applied new tactics yesterday to my train journey project, surveying the left hand side of the journey from Marden to London. Filming the other half of the trip was impossible as one journey pretty much exhausted the camera batteries. More power packs are essential!

I need to map the journey somehow to note where to shoot more footage. A drawn map feels impractical – I’ll probably have passed what I want to film before I can shoot it. An audio map might work, combining both left and right hand sides of the journey into one sound track to note points of interest just before they appear. Its flaw – it relies on trains running to schedule, but I can compensate for problems at each station.

I really noticed the effects of the motion of the train yesterday. I wonder if I can incorporate it into the footage by not using the window as a tripod and allowing the camera to move with the train?

I draw is a slippery term. In isolation it’s imprecise and needs context to confer meaning. It could be about air, attention, carriage, comparison, conclusion, curtains, game, gas, lots, liquid, money, move, picture, pull, reaction, smoke, talk, or weapons. It might be an idiom such as the battle lines are drawn or I draw breath. (1)

I enjoy this feeling of slipperiness!

I’m interested in the context of drawing a picture by making a mark on a surface. This could be made with chalk, charcoal, crayon, electronic drawing, erasers, ink, markers, silverpoint, pastels, pen or pencil. Can one draw with light? Is the cast of a shadow a drawing? Does a cut line constitute drawing?

Drawing is difficult to define and shifts with the times but one point of view is it delineates form with lines. (2) Since similar materials can be involved, whether something is a painting or a drawing seems to hinge on the nature of the marks made – linear verses a more saturated excess perhaps?

Another perspective is that a two-dimensional surface is marked permanently or impermanent by drawing – a small amount of material is deposited to leave a visible mark. (3) This rules out light and the cut line as drawing mediums. However, another stance indicates that artistic intention is key, with the result anything could potentially be considered drawing.

At the moment I’m clear I don’t make drawings. I briefly used a scalpel to delineate the curve of a face or angle of neck on the pictures of women in my collages. The cut was made instinctively in reaction to each image. This felt like it teetered on the borders of drawing, but then I moved away from the approach and the feeling dissipated.

Bibliography

1 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/learner/draw (1st September 2015)

2 http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/w/what-is-drawing/ (1st September 2015)

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawing (1st September 2015)