Drawing Across x Along x Between x University Borders by DRAWinU

CONFERENCE, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO. October 16, 17, 18th, 2024 :: Drawing Across :: Along :: Between University Borders considers the epistemological and transformative potential of drawing research to connect divergent areas in the university today. The conference focuses on drawing-based collaborations between art, science and society to tackle artistic, educational and societal challenges. We invite artists, scientists, educators, students, university policymakers and persons interested in inter-transdisciplinary practices across academia, research, and society to contribute and join the discussion in three possible directions: ACROSS - In what ways are drawing practitioners challenging the disciplinary strictures that often constrain thinking and acting across divergent areas in the university? ALONG - How can drawing activities be an ally of STEM education in the university, and how can STEM practices be an ally of drawing education? BETWEEN - How can drawing-based practices and STEM disciplines collaborate to address the urgency of societal challenges?

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The Drawing Relevance to Future Education

Maria Raquel Pelayo, i2ADS / Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto

This article aims to reframe the human ability to draw within the framework of the current challenges of education in a digital and artificial intelligence society by posing the question: To what extent can drawing contribute to the challenges of 21st-century education? One departs from the assumption that drawing is a primitive and innate human ability that consists of codifying and fixing information outside the body in graphic registers able to be decoded by human vision, and education is understood not as a means of passing on knowledge to future generations, but rather as a means of transforming human beings and the world through the development of the skills needed for a fulfilled adult life, both individually and societally.

The method adopted to address such a complex issue consists of conceptually simplifying both the drawing paradigm used and that of future education in order to deal with concepts that are sufficiently delimited and clear, yet also comprehensive and current, to avoid the fallacies of idiosyncratic, nebulous and ultimately useless discourse. Thus, we adopt for drawing the framework proposed by Seymour Simmons in 'The Value of Drawing Instruction in the Visual Arts and Across Curricula - Historical and Philosophical Arguments for Drawing in the Digital Age' (2021), while for future education, we adopt the goals proposed by Edgar Morin in 'Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future' (1999).

The adoption of the system proposed by Simmons for drawing is justified not only by the comprehensiveness of its typology but also because it indicates for each type of drawing, the intelligence mobilized based on Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, H. 1983, 1999) and also the privileged links that each type has historically developed with other areas of knowledge. 1 - Drawing as Design (rationalism and logical-mathematical intelligence); 2 - Drawing as Seeing (empiricism and spatial intelligence); 3 - Drawing as Experiment (pragmatism and motor intelligence); 4 - Drawing as Expression (existentialism and Intrapersonal and Interpersonal intelligence) and 5 - Drawing as Language (semiotics and linguistic and musical intelligence). The adoption of Morin's goals or crucial paths for the development of humanity in 21st-century education, proposed by UNESCO at the end of the millennia, is justified by the fact that these factors stem from the need we face today to confront humanity's major environmental, societal, and technological problems in the future, which jeopardize the survival of life on Earth. They are 1 - The cultivation of critical thinking; 2 - The cultivation of context and the links between the whole and the parts; 3 - The cultivation of interdisciplinarity as a way of embracing the whole of being; 4 - The cultivation of an earthly identity, other than the local, national or continental; 5 - The cultivation of principles and strategies that prepare for confronting the unexpected and the uncertain of the future; 6 - The cultivation of understanding through the reform of mentalities; 7 - The cultivation of a global ethic that considers both the individual and the species.

The article addresses the seven educational goals by identifying the fields of knowledge involved and reflecting upon the educational relevance of the different types of drawing practice in each case.

Conclusions consider drawing as a privileged primary link between the action of the body and the human mind and provide insightful arguments that support the relevance of learning to draw to future education, considering its potential to develop the ability to deal with complexity as well as other cognitive skills that will prove to be crucial for responding to the challenges, however uncertain, of the future, such as creativity, co-operation, critical thinking, problem-solving, empathy, emotional stability, and ethics, regardless of the area of knowledge specialization.

Keywords: Drawing, future education, multiple intelligences, competency-based learning, visualcy

Biography
Raquel Pelayo (Portugal) is an Auxiliary Professor of Drawing in the master's in Architecture at the Faculty of Architecture of Oporto University (FAUP). She has a degree in Fine Arts - Painting (FBAUP), a master's degree in Art History (FLUP), and a Ph.D. in Education (FPCEUP). She is an Integrated Researcher at the Research Institute for Art Design and Society (i2ADS) at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. She researches drawing, drawing and cognition, art education, and art history, has published three books, and is working on a new book on drawing.

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DRAWinU - Drawing Across x Along x Between x University Borders - 2024