COGNITIVE PROCESSES OF DRAWING
Typology: Research
Work: Text & Drawings
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Date: 2015
The document presents an analysis of the cognitive processes involved in architectural drawing. The texts explore how knowledge can be acquired through drawing and how drawing-hand-thought is linked to our mental structures and, therefore, to knowledge.
TEXT EXTRACT ︎︎︎
It is not possible to speak of drawing without addressing the space and the body inherent to its practice. Drawing is the product of bodily activity in space, an action through which perception is recorded, translated, and represented. As such, drawing emerges from the continuous interaction between the sensing body and its spatial environment.
In the act of drawing, tracing, delineating, expressing, and understanding architecture, the body must be understood as an integral component of the space that defines architectural limits. The comprehension of architecture as a phenomenon of observation is inseparable from the recognition of the body as an organism whose existence is shaped by its encounter with the exterior world.
Architecture, therefore, constitutes a condition for enriching bodily experience in space, enabling the assimilation of information embedded in the environment. The body inevitably interacts with its surroundings, and architecture becomes a fundamental participant in this exchange, mediating perception and spatial awareness.
The interaction between the body and the body of architecture, between corporeal space and external space, establishes a reciprocity that sustains this relationship. The drawing of architecture requires the presence of external space in order to register what is perceived and to transform perception into understanding as part of the body’s lived experience.
Drawing, as an activity, depends on material supports for its execution, yet it also relies on an intuitive and introspective dimension that connects the external world with the internal realm of perception and cognition. If the body is to remain cohesive with space, it must also be self aware and capable of discerning what constitutes exteriority. Architecture, in this sense, forms part of that exterior condition. The body functions as a threshold between itself and architecture, delineating what becomes perceptible through conscious and interpretive frameworks.
Objects and bodies that exist beyond our immediate corporeal presence are translated into intelligible information through observation, and drawing enables this information to be organized and manipulated. Architecture thus becomes the external object of observation, a phenomenon that can be recorded, evaluated, and comprehended through the act of drawing.
The initial perceptual encounter that precedes drawing constitutes a dynamic process of exploration between thought and reality. Without this first sensory engagement, without an initial experience of observation, the construction of knowledge is compromised. In such cases, the act of drawing is interrupted, and the processes of information assimilation become ineffective.
Analyzing primary experiences through drawing facilitates the formation of interpretations that allow for the establishment of fundamental connections necessary for understanding what is being represented.
Ultimately, the body must be understood as the origin of spatial experience and as the medium through which sensitive faculties perceive external boundaries and sensory stimuli. Drawing, in this sense, becomes both a cognitive and corporeal practice, grounded in the body’s relationship with space.
Annik Keoseyan
Book Extract
2015