WOVEN DRAWING
What is woven drawing? This is where you draw the form as if it is woven. Typically, a weaving is a matrix of linear elements that, by overlapping each other as they cross, form and structure are created simultaneously. Weaving, of course, surrounds us, and has been with us since the Paleolithic Era. What we put onto our bodies is woven. The structure of fiberglass is a woven fabric. Steel reinforcing elements inside concrete is more or less woven.
Woven Drawing came to me as I was ruminating about my recent visit to Rabbit Goody’s weaving studio in Cherry Valley. Thistle Hill Weavers produces woven fabric using looms that are 100 years old. The control of the weaving pattern is analogue. Although their Jacquard loom employs a series of punch cards, which closely resemble computer data cards, for control. So when you are in this heavily mechanized, glorious analogue environment, you can’t help but think about weaving.
We have been kicking around the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. So I thought I would knowledge this piece by drawing as if weaving: imagine broad bands of cloth which weave the form. And the drawing at the top is the result.
Now you might say, really, Woven Drawing? But what about contour drawing; how did that gain such a dominance in the drawing continuum? How did that gain such prominence? We have been weaving since the beginning. We have been drawing since the beginning. Why did we not approach drawing in terms of weaving? Why contour drawing and not woven drawing?
So, the Alte Nationalgalerie as a weaving? That makes sense within the context of Transparent Drawing. Or, to say this another way, the knowledge of form that Woven Drawing provides is greater with transparency. So we add Woven Drawing to other Transparent Drawing modes, some of which are Transparent Contour Drawing, One Line One Wash, Two Wash, etc.
The reason for making the distinction between weaving and plaiting concerns some “tech” efforts to take over the role of “construction.” Since you are a techniphobe, you’ll dislike this, but take a look at https://mamou-mani.com/project/the-polibot/. The architecture firm, Mamou-Mani, has produced a prototype “cable construction robot.” As a recent article in Dezeen points out, “No longer will architectural designs always be mediated through the building construction industry.” Alas, a hand-drawn drawing (in your case) will have to be translated into code for the robot to print out the structure. I don’t see this as a problem as a 3-D building printer is simply a tool for the architect that eliminates the role of a builder in the conventional sense. The practice of architecture will chance under this model and become closer to the craft of building itself.