A More Than Human World
Ecologies of Drawing Online Talks
22nd June, 11 – 12.30 BST
From an open call for papers, the Drawing Research Network at Loughborough University present a series of online talks under the theme Ecologies of Drawing. Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing .
Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/drawing-research-group-loughborough-university-42682731203
The final event of the DRN series 2022 ‘Drawing Ecologies’ presents the work of three artists including two PhD researchers from Loughborough University- Lucia Cunningham and Anka Makrzanowska along with Australian artist and academic Jan Hogan. Each of the artists will discuss the possibilities for exploring a more-than-human trace through a practice of drawing. This event will be chaired by Penny Davis, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is exploring autoethnography as an approach to drawing maternal embodiment.
How can drawing facilitate an ethical relationship with the land and its inhabitants? Dr Jan Hogan is an artist and academic exploring the interweaving of nature and culture in material traces of artistic practice. Her practice-led research explores the traces left in the land of past events intertwining deep geological time with historical events and the present moment. In this presentation she will be discussing her most recent work where her notion of drawing becomes a dialogue with the intertidal ecology of a bay in Tasmania.
How can the more than human shape our understanding of drawing? Artist, researcher and lecturer Lucia Cunningham explores how more than human traces define drawing through movement. Through field observations of snails, slugs, spiders, vegetation Cunningham considers the artfulness of the traces left by their drawing.
How can digital drawing trace the interdisciplinary and intersecting ecologies of a more-than-human world? Anka Makrzanowska is a Polish-British academic, artist and researcher. She introduces her concept of the ‘virtuallage’ – a process through which the artist employs transdisciplinary drawing techniques to explore the maternal relationships between trees and the human body.
The intersections between each artist’s approach presents a varied response to the concept of a more than human concept of drawing, but also promises a fascinating discussion afterwards on how dialogues between new materialism and post-humanism are being explored to extend our knowledge of expanded practices of drawing.
The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice – be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.
Other talks in the series are:
‘Living Environments and Human Culture’ 6th April 2022
DRAWING RESEARCH NETWORK
hosted by TRACEY at Loughborough University