Drawing without seeing at the Intellectual Forum
Is beauty in an object, or in a concept? Materials have the ability to seduce or distract us from the truth, and beautiful things often mask ugly realities.
In this talk on 13 October, artist Melissa Pierce Murray shared examples from her own practice of interdisciplinary interactions to explore the meanings and roles we ascribe beauty and aesthetics in art, literature, and science.
If we concentrate on the presentation, she argued, we might miss the realities of material production (limited resources and waste products), of context (slave labour and inequality), and of politics (maintaining and reinforcing power or control). In the absence of absolute values, truth and beauty of concept become apt solutions to arbitrary sets of rules which we have ourselves constructed.
The talk was followed by a very enjoyable hands-on workshop exploring the question 'What is drawing?'
We used experimental drawing techniques to explore questions of perception, cognition, value, and intent.
