Event overview
The first annual Disegni network lecture on drawing, a collaboration between KU Leuven and Goldsmiths Art and Computing 'Drawing for Humans and Machines'.
Abstract: The project of this lecture is to outline issues central to the development of a philosophy of drawing. It begins by looking – albeit briefly - at the way drawing is treated by philosophers and theorists such as Alain Badiou, Catherine de Zegher and Jacques Derrida. The question of drawing is haunted by the problem of definition. Within drawings there are lines and marks. Drawing also has a relation to collage. Given the critique of essentialism, it is perhaps impossible to pose the question - what is drawing? And yet, the term drawing is used. What however does it describe?
A philosophy of drawing has to begin with the recognition of the difficulties inherent in the name ‘drawing’. There has to be engagement with these difficulties, otherwise interpretation maybe no more than sophisticated forms of description. Part of the argument to be developed is that drawing always occurs within a network of relations. For example, drawing has to be understood in its relation to but differentiation from painting. Equally, drawing has to be situated in relation to more general art historical terms such as 'figure' and 'abstraction'. Examples will include drawings by Rubens and Eva Hesse. Any approach to a philosophy of drawing therefore has to think through the inherently relational nature of the particularity of drawing.
Bio: Andrew Benjamin has held academic positions in philosophy at the University of Warwick and Kingston in the UK and Monash University in Australia. He is currently an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. His books include Towards a Relational Ontology (2015), Art's Philosophical Work (2015), Working with Walter Benjamin (2013), Style and Time: Essays on the Politics of Appearance (2006), Architectural Philosophy: Repetition, Function and Alterity (2000), and What is Abstraction (1996). He is currently completing a book entitled Placing Biopolitics and has a book forthcoming on gesture.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Apr 2024 | 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Accessibility
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