Abstract

Based on a number of workshops delivered to BA fine art students across all years and two institutions, this paper examines a selection of experimental results from participants. It also includes a discussion on the workshop methodology of spatial mark making and how this can be used as a tool for exploring surfaces, drawn interventions, and participatory group works.
We ‘draw’ on surfaces but, by moving the ‘mark’ off that surface, and allowing it to be ‘seen’ in more than on space, there is a subtle (but noticeable) shift in the perceptual and conceptual analysis of these new marks. They exist in a ‘space’ between sculpture, installation and drawing. Their unfamiliar location offers an opportunity to look more closely – a state of ‘slow’ reading.
Using light from lo-fi, semi-redundant sources, including 35 mm and overhead projectors, these workshops examine methods of manifesting marks on multiple translucent screens, existing architecture, smoke, columns of steam, clouds of water and rapidly oscillating webs manipulated in real-time by workshop participants.
Many of the results experienced within the workshops are pseudo three-dimensional, creating marks, which appear to be solid and can be viewed from multiple angles. This raises questions about our perception of the ‘solid’ and the ‘flat mark’ as well as prompting discussions around validity of the process (particularly in fine art), the place of the spectacle in contemporary art practice and how much the tail is wagging the dog.