Grade 11/12 Art - Day 3

Drawing: Lines and Invention Part 1

Here is an excerpt from our discussion today.

Lines are everywhere. The streets around us form lines. The buildings we live in are shaped by lines. But lines also serve our behaviour and our thoughts. Lines help us invent!

Invention: How do we think about things that do not exist? How do we invent? Here are two ways:

1) From the bottom-up
2) From the top down

Bottom up invention includes:
- altering, combining, rearranging existing things
- this is often easier because we have existing things to help us conceptualize
- evolution is a great example of bottom up creation.

Top- Down Creation includes:
- abstract thoughts
- start with goals, instances, principles
- allows for flights of fancy
- difficult because we may not know where to begin

Thinking! Thinking is hard. When thoughts overwhelm us, our minds send them out into the world! We talk. We gesture. We model. WE SKETCH!! The lines in our sketches enable thought, play, discovery, and invention!

Excerpts for this discussion taken from (and inspired by): "Obsessed by Lines", by Barbara Tversky, Stanford University.