Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency

This article explores the relationship between drawing, technology and contingency in three artists' work since the late 1950s, to engage the relationship between forms of artistic labour, the autonomy of the studio, and the internalization of the techniques and tempos of the contemporary life...

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Main Author: Ed Krčma
Format: Article
Language:Portuguese
Published: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) 2017-06-01
Series:O Que Nos Faz Pensar
Online Access:http://www.oquenosfazpensar.fil.puc-rio.br/index.php/oqnfp/article/view/559
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author Ed Krčma
author_facet Ed Krčma
author_sort Ed Krčma
collection DOAJ
description This article explores the relationship between drawing, technology and contingency in three artists' work since the late 1950s, to engage the relationship between forms of artistic labour, the autonomy of the studio, and the internalization of the techniques and tempos of the contemporary life world more broadly. Each artist hybridizes drawing with more modern technological modes: in his solvent transfer method Robert Rauschenberg brought drawing to the condition of collage and into direct contact with the contemporary printed mass media; William Kentridge’s ‘Drawings for Projection’ and his more recent ‘flip-book films’ engage with increasingly obsolete forms of visual communication to explore both the fraught recent history of South Africa and the potentials articulated in physical acts of making; and in her Motion Capture Drawings British artist Susan Morris employs biometric digital technology to generate lines directly from the unconscious movements of the body, measured over extended durations, in a contemporary form of surrealist automatism. While not wishing to propose too close an alignment between these three practices, this article explores the ways in which in each case automatic, contingent, non-conscious, or otherwise ‘dark’ aspects of drawing are brought into focus as drawing is aligned with other more recent technological forms. The implications of this contingent aspect – or fortuna – are examined in the context of the growing power of measurement, quantification and control to structure contemporary life more broadly.
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spelling doaj.art-fee3a42592c64fe4bb34ffed8f8787be2022-12-21T18:38:56ZporPontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio)O Que Nos Faz Pensar0104-66752017-06-012640135166559Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, ContingencyEd Krčma0University of East Anglia / UKThis article explores the relationship between drawing, technology and contingency in three artists' work since the late 1950s, to engage the relationship between forms of artistic labour, the autonomy of the studio, and the internalization of the techniques and tempos of the contemporary life world more broadly. Each artist hybridizes drawing with more modern technological modes: in his solvent transfer method Robert Rauschenberg brought drawing to the condition of collage and into direct contact with the contemporary printed mass media; William Kentridge’s ‘Drawings for Projection’ and his more recent ‘flip-book films’ engage with increasingly obsolete forms of visual communication to explore both the fraught recent history of South Africa and the potentials articulated in physical acts of making; and in her Motion Capture Drawings British artist Susan Morris employs biometric digital technology to generate lines directly from the unconscious movements of the body, measured over extended durations, in a contemporary form of surrealist automatism. While not wishing to propose too close an alignment between these three practices, this article explores the ways in which in each case automatic, contingent, non-conscious, or otherwise ‘dark’ aspects of drawing are brought into focus as drawing is aligned with other more recent technological forms. The implications of this contingent aspect – or fortuna – are examined in the context of the growing power of measurement, quantification and control to structure contemporary life more broadly.http://www.oquenosfazpensar.fil.puc-rio.br/index.php/oqnfp/article/view/559
spellingShingle Ed Krčma
Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
O Que Nos Faz Pensar
title Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
title_full Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
title_fullStr Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
title_full_unstemmed Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
title_short Fortuna: Drawing, Technology, Contingency
title_sort fortuna drawing technology contingency
url http://www.oquenosfazpensar.fil.puc-rio.br/index.php/oqnfp/article/view/559
work_keys_str_mv AT edkrcma fortunadrawingtechnologycontingency