Hi Peter,
Your reply has made me think a bit more about the ramifications of the
possibility of using less materials in working digitally.  Working on a
professional level as a designer would certainly be on a different level
of production. Sounds really cool to me. I am an art teacher at
secondary level and the amount of materials worked through in a single
day in my classroom is daunting.  For instance, it has occurred to me
how much water is wasted when the students was their plastic palettes
and so now I am encouraging them to put new paint on top of dry paint.

I hope my post was not seen as being anti-digital because I am not; I am
using a computer all day in my teaching job and am just becoming a bit
more aware of it's potential as an art tool.  My last drawing work used
a huge amount of Fabriano, the drawing is 5m x 1.4m and all the
pre-production planning was worked digitally from digital photos.  

I was thinking about the graduate exhibition I had just seen and a
considerable number of students who were using poor grade paper, small
size, slight exhibition characteristics which seemed to be an aesthetic
or deliberate decision to step away from the grand gestures ( which I
haven't done obviously) but thinking this might be a trend and that it
might be linked to those ideas I mentioned or it might reflect other
trends in art.

Regards
Julie

-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Thomas, Peter
Sent: Wednesday, 26 November 2008 1:39 a.m.
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: why has there been a swing back to drawing?

Hi Julie,

One of my motivations for going down the computer route was because of
the huge amount of paper, pens, inks and other materials I was going
through, not to mention the hassle and cost of storage. I am a designer
by profession and when I costed it all up, it was economically more
viable to run through hundreds of ideas and development stages
electronically rather than on cartridge paper and other materials.

I wasn't really considering the environment, but since the subject is
raised, I wonder which is the 'greener' medium. You could argue that
some of the polluting materials in my computer make my preferred medium
the loser but everyone on this network is using computers so I'd argue
that I am just finding more uses for the same thing everyone else is
using. The Bravia advert was planned, recorded digitally and edited with
computers so where was the benefit to the environment?

I am straying away from the primary purpose of this network but feel it
important to make the point that we can't just presume an environmental
benefit because we are using more 'natural' materials. Dioxin and loads
of organochlorines are toxic byproducts of the paper making industry
after all.

Regards,

Peter



-----Original Message-----
From: The UK drawing research network mailing list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of WOODWARD, Julie
Sent: 24 November 2008 20:03
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: why has there been a swing back to drawing?

Hi Paul,
Reading your post, I am so pleased to hear that the Sony Bravia ad with
the balls was real!  Those ads were better than a lot of programming on
tv last year- captivating colour, movement.
I agree with your idea that there is a reaction against the influence of
multinationals and an earlier comment that people are more sophisticated
in their understanding of the potentiality and openness of art making.
I think that the reaction against materialism and an'eco sensitivity'
may also be at play here.  Less cost, less toxic substances, less
materials used may be part of the interest in drawing.  Utilising
existing materials, making small things, focussing on the details - is
this a reaction to our current global economic meltdown?

Julie Woodward