Stephen Farthing RA, Rootstein Hopkins Professor of Drawing at the University of the Arts London, will be one of the keynote speakers at the Crossing The Line Conference in Dubai, UAE, at the American University in Dubai, in early November, 2011. The Conference is a joint project of AUD and RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. In this brief interview, the artist gives us some initial thoughts on drawing and on his participation in Crossing The Line: Drawing in the Middle East - intersections of transdisciplinary practice and understanding
What is the role of drawing in your own art practice?
Stephen Farthing - I imagine while I’m actually drawing that I use drawing in two quite different ways, first to record, then to unravel problems, plan and strategize. When I sit back and think about my own art practice drawing probably has only one use – to help me see more clearly.
How do you see the role of drawing in your experience as an educator?
Stephen Farthing - In western culture the drawing class has I suspect been considered by most of its users part church, part gymnasium. During the latter half of the twentieth century most progressive western art schools replaced drawing with two new subjects , one was Art Theory and the other a craft related subject based on familiarizing students with the use of Lens/Scanner Based Technologies. Over time this shift in direction within the curriculum lead to a substantial decline in interest in things hand-made and personal, and it seems a surge in interest in Technological Interfaces and what I can best describe as Detached Randomness’s.
Today, driven less by a sense of disappointment with the new than a sense of physical and emotional loss we appear to be mid way through a process of re-acquaintance with both the strengths and weaknesses of our own hands and the strengths and weaknesses of new technology.
We have, it seems prioritized within drawing ways of making the past and the present, the digital and the manual work more effectively together . Today we teach drawing with a view towards improving our students ability to see, plan, remember, choose and communicate, just as we did in the past.
Stephen Farthing, Moko Map, 2007, water colour on paper, 29 x 42 cms
How do you see the future of drawing in the digital era?
Stephen Farthing - I see drawing as a lead subject in encouraging creativity and a seamless interaction between the digital and lens driven technology and the hand made.
What will be the subject of your presentation at the Crossing The Line Conference?
Stephen Farthing - An explanation of the bigger picture of drawing as a taxonomy.
What are you expectations about the conference?
Stephen Farthing - To confront new people and their ideas
links:
Stephen Farthing
Crossing The Line Conference
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