INFINITE PERSPECTIVES

The simultaneous multiple viewpoints represented by Cubism informs our work.  For example, this statement from an early French cubist painter in 1912 essentially describes the transparent drawing method;

“I see and represent an object, for example a box or a table.  I see it from one point of view.  But if I hold the box in my hands and turn it, or if I walk around the table my point of view changes, and to represent the object from each new viewpoint I must draw a new perspective of it.  The reality of the object, therefore is not exhausted by its representation in the three dimensions of one perspective.  To capture it completely, I must draw an infinite number of perspectives from the infinite points of view possible.”1

Here we have an artist telling us that to capture an object completely, to fully understand it, an infinite number of perspectives must be drawn.  But of course, this artist is not thinking in terms of transparent perspectives.  They are thinking in terms of opaque, representational Renaissance perspectives.

So to solve his task of drawing an infinite number of perspectives, how about one or two transparent drawings?   Is one transparent drawing worth an infinite number of perspectives?  Maybe not an infinite number, but one TD is worth quite a few.

So if you want to fully understand the object that you are designing, and you want to stay with representational techniques, then you better get started on your infinite perspectives.

Me?  I’ll take the easy way out.  One or two transparent drawings will get you most of the way there.

 1.  Kortan, Enis.  “Turkish Architecture and Urbanism Through the Eyes of L.C.”   Boyut Matbaacilik A.S.; Istanbul.  2013. p 25