KNOWLEDGE DRAWING

Drawings used to be vessels of knowledge.

Yet the trajectory of vision has led to detachment.  Instead of a body centered experience, the distancing, as we have seen, promotes the nihilistic attitude that pervades our culture.

The Renaissance created the concept of the individual.  The cartesian picture plane was a key component of this individualization.

The one and two point Renaissance perspective projection systems were, at the time, wonderful inventions.  Yet the one point perspective has become a symbol for the detachment that pervades our daily cultural experience.

And this is all because of knowledge.  Our drawings used to be a vessel of knowledge.

Paintings on the walls of French caves are so compelling to us because we are captivated by the knowledge that the drawings contain.

The less knowledge a drawing contains, the more vacuous and irrelevant it is.  Our daily acceptance of drawings and images without knowledge pervades our culture.

To remedy, we need to demand that knowledge be put back into drawings.   Designers need to reject drawings that are simply pretty pictures.

That’s why Transparent Drawing is about putting knowledge back into drawings.  Transparent Drawing is at least one, albiet modest, tool to put the relevancy back into drawing.

The only criteria for drawing evaluation is knowledge.  The inclusion of knowledge has nothing to do with technique.  You might have great technique, but if your drawing does not contain much knowledge, then it is not very relevant.

That’s why we like cave drawings so much.  They are solely about the containment, summary and communication of knowledge.

That should be the only reason that we draw.