Z-depth buffer

Research started in 2011 focuses on the relationship between movement and drawing; it aims to identify an emerging field of drawing, looking at recording technologies such as motion capture within the historical context of tools that aid artistic representation and exploring methods for materially translating captured data. The work acknowledges the legacy of artists attempting to communicate movement from Etienne-Jules Marey through Marcel Duchamp to contemporary artists such as Susan Morris whose recent prints record her movement in the activity of making her plumb line drawings.

By specifically recording the gestures we make during speech or conversation, the research engages with writing on gesture and spontaneous hand movements by David McNeill and Geoffrey Beattie. It further considers the potential for democratisation in terms of drawing: drawing activity can become inhibited beyond childhood whereas our spontaneous gestures are not – if movement is essential to drawing, can the lines of movement of non-drawers identify as drawing?

A first experiment in motion capture (October 2011) allowed me to record an unscripted monologue. Describing a previous body of work without recourse to images forced precise description. My recorded gestures were translated into vector lines and made material through vinyl cutting. I used the vinyl in new ways by combining it with gestural paint marks or by pulling lines away from the wall to create a low-relief object that began to communicate the sense of 3D space.

Drawings were shown in Z-depth buffer, a 2-person show with Maxine Bristow, (reader in Fine Art, University of Chester) at Five Years, London. The project was supported by a small grant from MIRIAD to facilitate teaching cover.