Drawing Analogies
Diagrams in Art, Theory and Practice
Published on 6. February 2025
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-1-350-33473-1 (ISBN)
Description
By exploring diagrams, diagramming and the diagrammatic across a range of disciplines and arts-led practices, this open access book addresses the gap between diagrams as a widely valued mode of visual representation and their under-examined status within arts and art education
Informed by Charles Sanders Peirce's understanding of a diagram as an analogy of relations, Drawing Analogies draws on its authors' creative use of diagrams as artists, educators and arts researchers, and on fields of inquiry that bring the arts into alignment with other disciplines - most notably anthropology, critical theory, pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, semiotics and the physical and life sciences. This range of disciplines is evident in the artists and writers discussed, such as Gregory Bateson, Black Quantum Futurism, Salvador Dali, Phillipe Descola, Aristotle, Hilma af Klint, Rosalind E. Krauss, Yayoi Kusama, Louis Hjelmslev, Susanne Leeb, Jacques Lacan, Pauline Oliveros, and George Widener.
While the authors approach diagramming as both a technical and poetic activity, their emphasis is on creative, embodied and exploratory modes of diagramming practices, which are capable of engendering new forms, thoughts and experiences. By taking an artistic approach to diagrams and diagramming, by incorporating diagramming as a method of enquiry within chapters, and by exploring their interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival potentials, Drawing Analogies proposes giving new life to the art of diagramming and widening the arena of artistic practice and creative research.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by University College London.
Informed by Charles Sanders Peirce's understanding of a diagram as an analogy of relations, Drawing Analogies draws on its authors' creative use of diagrams as artists, educators and arts researchers, and on fields of inquiry that bring the arts into alignment with other disciplines - most notably anthropology, critical theory, pedagogy, philosophy, psychology, semiotics and the physical and life sciences. This range of disciplines is evident in the artists and writers discussed, such as Gregory Bateson, Black Quantum Futurism, Salvador Dali, Phillipe Descola, Aristotle, Hilma af Klint, Rosalind E. Krauss, Yayoi Kusama, Louis Hjelmslev, Susanne Leeb, Jacques Lacan, Pauline Oliveros, and George Widener.
While the authors approach diagramming as both a technical and poetic activity, their emphasis is on creative, embodied and exploratory modes of diagramming practices, which are capable of engendering new forms, thoughts and experiences. By taking an artistic approach to diagrams and diagramming, by incorporating diagramming as a method of enquiry within chapters, and by exploring their interdisciplinary and multi-perspectival potentials, Drawing Analogies proposes giving new life to the art of diagramming and widening the arena of artistic practice and creative research.
The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by University College London.
Reviews / Votes
Drawing together interdisciplinary ideas and collective thoughts on the aesthetics/practice of diagramming, the authors of this book make clear that diagrams are necessary, and needed more than ever, to process our contemporary experience of reality and its surface representations. * Geoff Cox, Professor of Art & Computational Culture, London South Bank University, UK * A book about diagrams that performs its content, Drawing Analogies is both an account of diagramming practices and an experiment in one. This timely and experimental book includes compelling and original essays by some of the key figures in UK Fine Art Higher Education. It will be useful for students, researchers, artists and all those interested in transdisciplinary practices and 'practice as research'. * Simon O'Sullivan, Goldsmiths, UK *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Illustrations
50 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-33473-1 (9781350334731)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
David Burrows is an artist, writer and Professor of Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, UK. He has published and exhibited widely and is a member of the London-based art and performance collective producing the collaboration Plastique Fantastique.
John Cussans is an artist, writer and researcher. He is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, course leader for BA Fine Art and BA Fine Art with Psychology and director of studies for practice-led PhD projects in Fine Art at the University of Worcester, UK.
Dean Kenning is an artist and writer based in London. He is Research Fellow in the department of Fine Art and PhD supervisor at Kingston University, UK. He also teaches Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, UAL, UK and is the 2020-21 winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Prize.
Mary Yacoob is an artist based in London, UK. She is Assistant Lecturer in Fine Art at London Metropolitan University, UK. She exhibits widely and was the recipient of an Arts Council England award for Schema (2020), an exhibition and publication.
John Cussans is an artist, writer and researcher. He is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, course leader for BA Fine Art and BA Fine Art with Psychology and director of studies for practice-led PhD projects in Fine Art at the University of Worcester, UK.
Dean Kenning is an artist and writer based in London. He is Research Fellow in the department of Fine Art and PhD supervisor at Kingston University, UK. He also teaches Fine Art at Central Saint Martins, UAL, UK and is the 2020-21 winner of the Mark Tanner Sculpture Prize.
Mary Yacoob is an artist based in London, UK. She is Assistant Lecturer in Fine Art at London Metropolitan University, UK. She exhibits widely and was the recipient of an Arts Council England award for Schema (2020), an exhibition and publication.
Content
List of Figures
Introduction
Part 1: Ontologies and Epistemes
1. Invisible Machines: Psychoanalytic Imaginaries and Paranoid Critical Theory
2. The Diagrammatic Works of Hilma af Klint
3. Cosmo-Diagrams: Beyond the Bubble
4. Deleuze's Living Diagram Pt. 1: From Structural to Intensive Relations (The Biological Idea)
Part 2: Diagrams in Use
5. Deleuze's Living Diagram Pt. 2: From Structural to Nervous Analogy (Francis Bacon)
6. Intersections Between Art, Diagrams, Time and Technology
7. This is Not a Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy
8. Auraltechnics: Towards Audio Diagrams
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index: Names
Index: Concepts
Introduction
Part 1: Ontologies and Epistemes
1. Invisible Machines: Psychoanalytic Imaginaries and Paranoid Critical Theory
2. The Diagrammatic Works of Hilma af Klint
3. Cosmo-Diagrams: Beyond the Bubble
4. Deleuze's Living Diagram Pt. 1: From Structural to Intensive Relations (The Biological Idea)
Part 2: Diagrams in Use
5. Deleuze's Living Diagram Pt. 2: From Structural to Nervous Analogy (Francis Bacon)
6. Intersections Between Art, Diagrams, Time and Technology
7. This is Not a Diagram: Applying General Semantics to Contemporary Arts Pedagogy
8. Auraltechnics: Towards Audio Diagrams
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index: Names
Index: Concepts