Drawing in the In-Between – ma, Intelligens and the Sketch&Draw Method
(2025)
author(s): Tanja K. Hess
published in: Research Catalogue
On drawing as a practice of the in-between in the sense of the Japanese concept ma. Using the Sketch&Draw method, it is shown that drawing is neither mere representation nor pure invention, but a dialogical process between perception, memory, hand, and world. Neuroscientific models such as Predictive Coding demonstrate that each line is a proposal by the brain of how the world might be, which is then fed back and refined in the process of drawing. The hand appears not as a mere tool, but as a thinking organ, tightly coupled with perception and memory.
Referring to Mihály Csíkszentmihályi’s theory of Flow, it is shown that the immediacy of hand drawing – in contrast to digital procedures – is decisive for entering a state in which perception and action seamlessly merge. Philosophical perspectives from Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Tim Ingold highlight that the line is not merely a boundary, but a resonance space in which the invisible can become manifest.
Drawing thus proves to be a process of knowledge, one that unfolds slowly, comparable to a species-rich meadow: unplannable, yet not random. In the in-between of world and subject, line and gaze, a form of knowledge emerges that can be understood as Intelligens – a creative third way beyond control and helplessness.
Home page JSS
(2025)
author(s): Journal of Sonic Studies
published in: Journal of Sonic Studies
Home page of the Journal of Sonic Studies
PUNCT-ing RC
(2025)
author(s): Julieanna Preston
published in: Research Catalogue
PUNCT-ing by Layne Waerea and Julieanna Preston
