The Use of Drawing as an Interdisciplinary Research Method

This paper will discuss and advocate for the use of drawing as a mediating tool between object and thing that serves to generate meaning. The act of drawing transforms the experience of looking, as both John Ruskin (1857) and John Berger (1953) observed in their time. In my experience as a practitioner, educator, and curator, I have observed that there is a marked difference between looking and seeing, since one can look, but still not really see (Mida 2017). By slowing down to draw a thing, and in recording the path of the eyes through the action of the hand, drawing becomes a mediating practice that facilitates seeing and a deeper level of engagement with the artwork or thing, and often this creates the sensation of having touched that thing, making the experience highly memorable. I suggest that drawing can be used as a research method within a variety of disciplines. This presentation will offer examples from the author’s interdisciplinary practice as both an art historian and as a curator. This includes the replication of drawings of other artists from Thomas Gainsborough to Marcel Duchamp to better understand the nuances, speed and weight of their gestures as well as the drawing of artifacts from the Museum of London Archeology and other museums to understand details construction and nuances of use and wear. Drawing becomes a tool of inquiry as well as a means to document research.