This
thesis starts from the presumption that one of the most important
sites for understanding the relation between perception, creativity
and skill lies in inscriptive practices. The practice of understanding
by making marks is common to the disciplines of anthropology, fine
art and architecture. This thesis holds that the written word is not
the only means by which theory can be produced. Indeed, it is appropriate
to the theorising of fields such as architecture and art that it should
use the tools of the discipline at hand. In this thesis I demonstrate
that this is so, by way of a series of drawing projects and experiments
in notation. These projects and experiments were developed in parallel
with the text of the thesis, each responding to the other in the manner
of a long conversation. Sometimes a drawing might illustrate or elaborate
an argument established in the text, or vice-versa. Three key inscriptive
practices are identified: notation, drawing and diagrams.
The prevalence
of inscriptive practices in modern Western societies allows them to
become deeply ingrained as ways of thinking. This brings me to the
second component in the title of the thesis, namely the idea of the
‘thinking tool.’ By that I mean the manner in which a
set of codes for drawing becomes a way of organising and understanding
phenomena. For example, an architect’s section drawing becomes
a tool by which volume can be explored, whilst the plan drawing is
a tool for understanding spatial relations on a more organisational
level.
Key to
this is an understanding of Bergson’s notion of duration and
Deleuze’s work on locating the diagram within the paintings
of Francis Bacon. This is augmented by Ricoeur’s regard for
metaphor and interpretation as the means by which a work is continually
being made and re-made by each observer.
The inscriptive
practice is not primarily a form of representation or mimêsis,
but rather a way of articulating the world, not an expression of a
pre-existing thought, but a thought process in itself. As such, the
actual practice of making the mark is of utmost importance anthropologically,
as it is the way in which the mark is made that organises our thoughts
rather than the completed artefact. In this way, the drawing, diagram
or notation is a form of thought, a way of making sense of the world.
