Travelling means moving through space. Moving offers new modes of experiencing and perceiving space. But how are these dynamic spaces inscribed into our bodily perception and thus constitute inner landscapes – and in reverse – how do these inner spaces organize and get inscribed again into shared (public) spaces? If we assume choreography to be the fundamental organisation and inscription of movements in time and space – how are maps of these forces which make matter (bodies, objects, etc.) move? What language, alphabet, and sign system have to be developed in order to articulate these elusive and situational in-between spaces?
How can our experiences be distilled into detailed body-mind maps, which are notations of what I would call psychoreographic mindscapes, blurring the boundaries between ego-graphy and geo-graphy? What happens when the map as the representation of space becomes a representative of its own? Where is here?
Rather than writing about drawing, I propose drawing on drawing as a specific practice of sense- making – to practise thinking with our hands. Thinking drawing. Drawing beyond. Drawing conclusions. To follow the lines of thought to the point where thought becomes matter and starts to matter. Here, finding not-(yet)-known modes of manoeuvering through space. Here, performing figures of searching and re-searching. Again and again. Drawing as a space shuttle. As a vehicle to ride. As a machine to question. As an organ to communicate with. Becoming space. Now!
ATLAS OF LINES I FIGURES OF RE-SEARCHING
1a) straight 1b) afferent 1c) linear 1d) directed 1e) reinforcing 2a) tentative 2b) attentive 2c) swarming 2d) radiant 2e) explosive 3a) cloudy 3b) abeyant 3c) foggy 3d) trickling 3e) pouring 4a) circling 4b) circulating 4c) spinning 4d) swaying 4e) spooky 5a) meandering 5b) winding 5c) twisted 5d) weird 5e) tangled
ATLAS OF LINES II FIGURES OF RE-SEARCHING
1a) serrated 1b) zigzag 1c) toothed 1d) starry 2a) systematic 2b) squared 2c) indexical 2d) meticulous 3a) crescive 3b) dendritic 3c) reticulate 3d) rhizomatic 4a) dynamic 4b) rotating 4c) turbulent 4d) cellular 5a) spiraling 5b) concentric 5c) twirling towards 5d) cyclonic
The Act of Drawing is the pivotal moment when lines of thought assume shape in space and then turn into figures of thought again. Here, drawing outlines the close connection between perception and thinking, mediating between reflection and cognition – like a map continuously shifting itself and in the course of its own making from presentation to re-presentation.
Artist NIKOLAUS GANSTERER (1974) is cofounder of the Institute for Transacoustic Research and currently guest professor at the Centre Research Focus at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria. He is internationally active in performances, exhibitions, and lectures tracing the speculative potential of diagrams, scores, and maps.
