Forgive me for reminding everyone that I still have Plato's inscription
No-one enters here without Geometry above the door of my drawing-teaching
studio. I take it to mean that without an understanding of geometry, the
process of drawing will be that much more problematic. I still fondly assume
that those leaving the studio will have at least recognised the usefulness
of geometry of all types to their visualising in drawing form aspects of
their experiences.
My first proposed problem is in two parts:
1 How to teach drawing as a process of transformation from the primary
geometry of the scene to the secondary geometry of the drawing itself.
2 How to raise students' awareness of the multiplicity of geometries that
have been used across cultures to realise, to make visible, aspects of those
cultures' belief structures.
My second proposed problem comes in bits, too. The general theme is to do
with students' expectations and criteria of evaluation:
1 How best can we elicit fine arts students' expectations of a course in
drawing?
2 What should we be evaluating when we assess students' drawings produced on
an undergraduate fine arts course?
3 Can the answers to question 2 be made compatible with students'
expectations?
4 Assuming that one of the answers to question 2 will be an expansion in the
students' awareness of their own and others' ontological constructs, and how
those constructs affect the ways in which we visualise and draw our
perceptual, emotional and imaginational experiences, what method is best
suited to the evaluation of such expansion? Of course, Likert sets, semantic
differentials, and tools such as Kelly's Role Construct Repertory Test may
elicit useful data, but shouldn't we be developing a method of analysing the
drawings themselves for evidence of such expansion?(My money's on a
systemic-functional semiotic model, such as that elaborated by Michael
O'Toole in his 1994 The Language of Displayed Art London, Pinter Press.)
Dr Howard Riley PhD MA(RCA)
Coordinator for Postgraduate Research
School of Art & Design
Swansea Institute
Townhill Road
Swansea SA2 0UT
UK
Phone +01792 481285
Fax +01792 205305
email [log in to unmask]
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