17 Apr 2017

SKETCHDAY+ at Glasgow School of Art

SKETCHDAY+

Glasgow School of Art, Reid Auditorium Thursday 27th April 6.30-9.30 pm

What is the role of the sketch in the work of architects, artists and designers?

An evening of talks, discussion and film showings, with international invited guest artists and designers who will speak about drawing and sketching in their work. In the era of the digital and the virtual hand held device can we, or should we still draw? And why? Or is there no room in our pockets for the sketchpad alongside the tablet and i-phone?

The medium of pen and paper may indeed be just an encumbrance in modern life. In such a routinized and utilitarian culture as that of the digital, which on the face of it might seem to offer us much more rigidly defined and formalised media, we wonder what is the role of the sketch, of the freehand type of drawing characterised by its immediacy and directness, its expressive intensity and versatility. What are the anthropological and creative consequences for any change in the role of such a vital design and artistic tool as the sketch drawing?

The discussion will take place between artists, anthropologists, designers and architects, and the film Drawing on Life (dir. Paul Clarke) will be shown.

An evening event open to the public it is free but ticketed –book on eventbrite
www.eventbrite.com/e/sketchday-tickets-33206623906

The main speakers will be:
Manuel Ramos Portuguese graphic artist and activist
Tim Ingold Social Anthropologist
Patricia Cain Artist and writer
Paul Clarke Architect and film maker

Manuel Ramos is a Portuguese graphic artist and activist. His ethnographic - and graphic - journals of Ethopia and his native Portugal are well known in Continental Europe and Africa, but little known in the Anglophone world. As a graphic artist, his rich and detailed journals of everyday observations, lived experience and encounters have come to define much of what we know as illustrative or graphic journalism, contributing to, and then challenging its established aesthetic. He is a significant pioneer of his field, whose first publication in English, scheduled for this year, will only extend and enhance his reputation and influence. He is making his first ever visit to Glasgow as a guest of The Drouth and Glasgow School of Art, so this presents a rare chance to gain insight into his work.

Tim Ingold is a major leading academic anthropologist, and Chair of Social Anthropology at the University of Aberdeen. His interests are wide ranging and his scholarly approach is individualistic. They include environmental perception, language, technology and skilled practice, art and architecture, creativity, theories of evolution in anthropology, human-animal relations, and ecological approaches in anthropology. Of particular interest for our Sketchday project is his 2007 Routledge publication Lines: A Brief History.

Patricia Cain is a Dumfries and Galloway-based artist, author and researcher who completed her PhD through the practice of drawing at Glasgow School of Art. Her practice (drawing, painting, sculpture and public art) is intimately connected to her interest in skill-lead art-making processes, the value of these as First Person research methodologies and the importance of teaching and encouraging skill in this era of concept-led Art Education. Her book Drawing: The Enactive Evolution of the Practitioner explores the relationship between drawing and enactive thinking and examines how art-making can actualize and visually make evident the emergent aspects of its own activity, allowing artists to become self-aware of their own thinking and learning processes.

Paul Clarke is an architect and academic teaching at the Belfast School of Architecture at Ulster University. He has produced a number of published works on sketching, and drawing, including Notebooks and Narratives. The Secret Laboratory of the Architect's sketchbook (2014) and has recently made a prize winning film on the architect's use of sketch -Drawing on Life.

This evening of talks and discussion is part of a two day programme sponsored by Glasgow School of Art, The Drouth , Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and the CCA.