Hi Alma,
Thank you for your message and explanation of your insights.
In what I wrote, I was also suggesting/hinting that there is also no fundamental difference between mathematical equations and sketches in terms of human use of them for problem solving.
This is because, at heart, even the most apparently realistic sketch is fundamentally an unreal abstraction in the same way as the most complex mathematical equation. And as humans we process them similarly.
You could argue much the same about written words, and the early history of written language is a history of the use of glyphs. The difficulty would be identifying the history of using glyphs to solve problems as in design rather than simply to communicate.
Best wishes,
Terry
==
Dr Terence Love
Director
Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
Perth, Western Australia
[log in to unmask]
www.designoutcrime.org
+61 (0)4 3497 5848
==
ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alma Hoffmann
Sent: Wednesday, 17 January 2018 4:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Help needed: question about the history of sketching?
Dear Terence,
WOW! Thank you! This is interesting.
I am interested in precisely this:
There is a major difference between this 'sketching for problem solving' as the basis for design that became mathematics, and the parallel history of cave paintings (parietal art). Sketching for problem solving as mathematics has strong evidence that its role was for problem solving and design of solutions, whereas the cave art does not have such clear evidence of that role.
So, I am trying to piece that together.
I came across this concept today: free body diagrams from Physics. Free body diagrams are sketches made out of points and vector lines which, in turn, are abstractions of a physical reality. Specifically, they are a visual sketch of the forces that are operating on an object. They need to have a set of coordinates chosen by the investigator. My husband is a physicist and I just questioned him on why he had not mentioned this before. He showed me Young and Freedman's book. On on page 122 (Sears and Zemansky’s University Physics with Modern Physics, 14th edition) there is a picture of a tire on which three boys are pulling. And next to it, it shows the vector line graph we are used to seeing in math and physics.
But here is the thing: they are called sketches, they are abstractions, and they are intended to communicate the forces on an object which is receiving an action, they are intended to keep track of those forces in a visual form, they are abstractions based on points and lines (reminds me of Kandinsky), and they are intended to keep a record of said object on which forces are operating. So, they are a functional problem solving visual and/or graphic tool. Which in a way confirms what you were saying: that math and science have indeed used graphical and visual sketches to problem solve.
I become like a kid when I make a discovery like this so I am very excited to have come across this bit of knowledge. Also dance notation has a long history of visual and symbolic recording trying to translate movement into data, which I find fascinating!
Thank you for your help and references! I will make use of them!
Alma
Alma Hoffmann
Assistant Professor
VAB 348
501 North University Blvd
Department of Visual Arts
University of South Alabama
Mobile, AL 36688
p. 251-461-1437
> On Jan 11, 2018, at 7:35 PM, Terence Love <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear Alma,
>
> It is interesting to focus on the problem solving aspect of sketching
> - with a sketch as an abstract representation. It is this that takes
> things into a long and well established history of human development
> that more recently (500BC) became known as mathematics, and more
> recently became hidden in design within computers and software (Design
> activity and problem solving remains highly dependent on mathematics
> with its abstract sketching - its just now designers mostly no longer
> need to be able to do maths as it is done for them by automated
> intelligence in computers operating the abstract sketches)
>
> The earliest use of sketching in solving problems that I know of is the Ishanga bone from 20,000 BC (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IshangoBone.html) This uses craft methods of sketching (carving) to make abstract representations.
>
> From that point onward there exists large body of development of formal methods of 'sketching for human problem solving' and it is this that became called mathematics around 500BC. The history passes through ancient Mesopotamia, Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, China, India, Greece and other countries of the near, middle and far east.
>
> It is from this mathematics (and particularly the work of the ancient geometers) from which much of our other cultural theories and concepts derive or are closely codeveloped. This provided the foundation of our current language of culture, humanities and arts, and later, theories of art and design.
>
> There is a major difference between this 'sketching for problem solving' as the basis for design that became mathematics, and the parallel history of cave paintings (parietal art). Sketching for problem solving as mathematics has strong evidence that its role was for problem solving and design of solutions, whereas the cave art does not have such clear evidence of that role.
>
> The most accessible sources for many aspects of this are via
> Wikipedia, but there are some serious discrepancies, e.g. in the role
> of Pythagoras (see, for example, the analysis of his role in
> https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pythagoras/ )
>
> One reason for suggesting Wikipedia is the histories of mathematical
> development are challenging to follow. The ways that what is now
> called mathematics provided foundational concepts of many
> non-mathematical cultural fields is somewhat hidden by the somewhat
> one-eyed obsession of historians of mathematics in the mathematical
> theories as seen in the field today, and their ignoring of anything
> else!. (e.g.
> http://www.tau.ac.il/~corry/teaching/toldot/download/Unguru%201979.pdf
> and Smith, D.E. 1958, History of Mathematics, Courier) A more
> accessible but lighter access to the cultural linking is via Lancelot
> Hogben's Mathematics for the Millions (1936) and Mathematics in the
> Making (1960)
>
> Best wishes,
> Terry
>
> ==
> Dr Terence Love
> Director
> Design Out Crime & CPTED Centre
> Perth, Western Australia
> [log in to unmask]
> www.designoutcrime.org
> +61 (0)4 3497 5848
> ==
> ORCID 0000-0002-2436-7566
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alma Hoffmann
> Sent: Friday, 12 January 2018 12:33 AM
> To: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and
> related research in Design <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Help needed: question about the history of sketching?
>
> Dear all,
>
> I have a question I was wondering if any of you can help me.
>
> I need help finding sources, articles, books, references, or anything to help me with understanding of how sketching came to be the ideation process before committing to a final design solution.
>
> I realize we define sketching in different ways and we use sketchbooks for a range of things: from idea brainstorming or thinking, doodling, drawing studies, sketch notes, notes, idle thoughts, communicate or externalize thoughts, etc.. But how, in the history of design, did we start using sketches as the preliminary step to solve a problem? Or as an utilitarian tool of the design process?
>
> From what I understand and from what I have studied in the past about the history of dance, the study of drawing and dance were part of the education of a child during and after the Renaissance (until we eliminated it from education in schools). And drawing was also considered a method of teaching observational skills— unless you were studying to be painter or were a painter or an artist, where drawing was much more than observational skills.
>
> So, how do we go from drawing to observe and understand the world to sketching as a tool to generate ideas for a solution and as tool that other designers can use to finalize or replicate a project solution?
>
> I have been thinking about this and I think it has to do with building boats and other machinery but I wanted to see if anybody here had some thoughts as to where to look for more information?
>
> Thank you in advance!
>
> Alma
>
>
> Alma Hoffmann
>
> Assistant Professor
> VAB 348
> 501 North University Blvd
> Department of Visual Arts
> University of South Alabama
> Mobile, AL 36688
>
> p. 251-461-1437
>
>
>
>
>
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