DRAWING IN AND OUT

“…the mind that imagines follows the opposite path of the mind that observes.”

Bachelard, (p151 The Poetics of Space), proposes that observation is opposite to imagining. He is saying that the working of our minds is opposite when we are observing and when we are imagining.  180 degrees of separation.

Opposite is the key word here. Is it true that the observation of an object is opposite to the imagining of an object?

Can we extrapolate this thought in our realm as problem solving designers? Can we say that the act of sketching a vase is opposite to the act of designing a vase?

One simplistic way to think about this is that observation is drawing in. That is to say, the act of observing requires that you see, for example, the iPhone on your desk.  Then you draw the iPhone.   You then draw in to your memory.

Now pretend that the iPhone does not exist. As you design and problem solve, you draw out. When you are creating, you can’t draw if you don’t imagine.  When you create, you are drawing something that does not exist.  When you create, you draw out.  You draw out from your imagination.  Your drawing then is of something that does not exist.

Drawing is almost like breathing. We draw in. We draw out. We draw into our memory by observation.  And we draw out from our imagination.  And it starts with observation and imagination as opposites.