This panel invites Daniel Coombes, Ann McDonald and Uri Wegman to present papers on the role of drawing in mapping environments. This event will be chaired by Kiera O’Toole, a practice-led PhD student at Loughborough University who is investigating the research question, “Can the process of Drawing in-Space record the ‘emotional vibrations’ of atmospheres to the extent the atmosphere is co-present in the drawing? “

Daniel Coombes is a PhD candidate in landscape architecture at Te Herenga Waka at Victoria University of Wellington. His research focuses on the aesthetics of more-than-human designing in the Anthropocene. Ann McDonald is an Associate Professor of Design at Northeastern University in Boston, where she teaches design research methods and Notational Systems for Experience. Her current work investigates how close observation of the built environment, traces of human activity, and physical communications created by inhabitants of various environments offer clues about changing conditions and cultures. The Truant School initiative is led by architects, artists and educators including architect, Uri Wegman. It wishes to generate multidirectional formats of knowledge, teaching and action. Founded in 2020, its first act, ‘Visions of Clouds’, was performed at the Bermuda ateliers near Geneva and exhibited in the virtual Italian pavilion of the 17th Venice Biennale. Using A.I. vision tools and software, Wegman’s presents a new approach for observing and drawing clouds.

The Drawing Research Network Ecology of Drawing Events have been organised by staff and PhD researchers from the Drawing Research Group at Loughborough University, chaired by Deborah Harty. This series aims to explore Ecologies of Drawing and how they might act as agents of change. Scientifically concerned with the interrelationships of organisms and environments in the context of drawing the term ecology might be understood generously to include: environments of dynamic exchange and metastable equilibrium; inter-relational sites of spatial and temporal encounter; the complex systems and patterns of material and virtual worlds; social, political, and economic ecologies; self-sustaining microcosms within spheres of containment; and fragile interdependencies. In the light of the analogous and entwined conditions of drawing and ecology, we are curious to learn how the agency of drawing operates as an ecological practice - be it in graphite trails, sonic traces, and waves of light, or events and encounters that activate diverse thought and conversation.

Speakers for each of the events have been selected to offer differing perspectives of themes emerging in response to the call for papers around the notion of Ecologies of Drawing . Other events in the series include:

'Living Environments and Human Culture' 6th April 2022

'Intersecting Ecologies' 27th April

'A More Than Human World' 22nd June 2022

The event will take place via Microsoft Teams. A notification with the link will be sent 30 minutes before the start of the event.

Image credit: Daniel Coombes