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Drawing: Towards an Intelligence of Seeing

This publication forms part of a research inquiry into the question of how to nurture drawing practice as a means of developing an intelligence of seeing in art and design undergraduates. It is based on the belief that such an intelligence of seeing can inform practices across all visual art disciplines in all media. A review of philosophical bases underpinning drawing pedagogy precedes five premises for a revised approach. The theoretical basis for such a curriculum is introduced as an original adaptation of Michael Halliday’s systemic-functional semiotic model for the analysis of language. The systemic-functional semiotic model for drawing has been developed and refined through a series of conference presentations, including the refereed paper ‘Enhancing Visual Delight’ in HOUGHTON, N.(ed.) 2008 Enhancing Curricula: 4th International Conference of the CLTAD. London: CLTAD. pp215-227 ISBN 978-0-9560382-0-3, which in turn was extended into the article ‘Towards a Syntax of Visual Delight’ published in Tracey: The Online Journal of Contemporary Drawing Research ISSN 1742 3570. Available at: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ac/tracey//edu/riley.html.

The widespread distribution of these publications led to an invitation to contribute the catalogue essay ‘Perception-Surface-Contrast: Howard Taylor’ in SHEERER, D. (ed.) 2010 Howard Taylor: An Extensive Exhibition of Three-Dimensional Works, and Associated Paintings and Drawings. Perth, WA: Galerie Dusseldorf, available at: http://www.galeriedusseldorf.com.au, and also an invitation to co-select along with Professor Deanna Petherbridge, material for the exhibition Drawing in the Expanded Field, a USA-wide show held at the Clara Hatton Gallery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, available at: http://hatton.colostate.edu/drawing-in-the-expanded-field.

In addition to these indicators of social impact, the research has also driven the author’s practice, exhibited in the public domain as drawings in the Opus group exhibitions On Drawing, November 2008, Elysium Gallery, Swansea; What Will Be Seen, May-June 2010, BayArt Gallery, Cardiff; and VEND, December 2010, Elysium Gallery, Swansea. Available at: http://opusartists.wordpress.com, and http://howardrileysblog.blogspot.com