{"id":519,"date":"2025-08-02T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/?p=519"},"modified":"2025-08-02T15:47:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T13:47:02","slug":"thinking-out-loud-v-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/2025\/08\/02\/thinking-out-loud-v-02\/","title":{"rendered":"Thinking out loud v.02"},"content":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of Making<\/em>[^1], Tim Ingold describes the act of drawing: "…drawing is not the visible shadow of a mental event; it is a process of thinking, not the projection of a thought<\/em>." (p.128, emphasis in original). He describes the interplay between the artist (both their skill and their intention), the tool (the pencil), the material (the paper) and how the drawing is an artifact that comes into being through the active interaction of these things. He makes a point of emphasizing that it is not the case that the artist conceives of the finished drawing, and then utilizes the available tools (the hand, the pencil, the paper) but rather that all the elements that go into making a drawing are necessary for the act of creation itself.<\/p>\n

While Ingold does not refer to 4E cognition directly, it is clear to me that this is what he is talking about \u2014 the interplay of the creative impulse, the skilled hand, the pencil, the paper are all part of the artists extended<\/em> mind, where all the elements go together to create the drawing. Furthermore, the act of creation is not the result of a singular moment of inspiration but rather a process where the artwork is in a state of becoming over time.<\/p>\n

Drawing, like all art \u2014 and indeed, most human activities \u2014 involves and engages the body (ie. the embodied<\/em> mind) through the senses. While one aspect of my research this fall will be to explore the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and our sensory experience of the world, I am also fascinated by the notion of perceptual learning<\/em>, as described by Kevin Connolly in his Perceptual Learning: the Flexibility of the Senses<\/em>.[^2]<\/p>\n

Connolly, following the research of Eleanor Gibson and others, defines perceptual learning as "…long-lasting changes in perception that result from practice or experience." In the case of drawing, this is relevant in that an experienced artist will feel the movements and pressure necessary to achieve the desired effects in the drawing in a completely different way than I \u2014 who can, at best, create the occasional doodle \u2014 will. The sense- and motor memory of the body has been attuned through practice and experience. The example used by Connelly (and attributed to William James) is that of the expert wine taster who through long practice and experience has trained her taste buds to identify the origin, the grape, the vintage of the wine with a precision that the wine-loving amateur cannot hope to match.<\/p>\n

Another element this brings to mind for me is Dewey: I have yet to read Art as Experience<\/em>, but have it on my reading list for the fall. Dewey’s ideas of experience in education are foundational for the programmes at the Norwegian Film School (and, I believe, for all education). The interplay between experience and reflection is essential for learning to become an artist. The viewer of a work of art has an experience that is both limited to the time which they are viewing the work, but also ongoing, where the impact of the work can be lasting and permanent.<\/p>\n

As much as the artist becomes altered through experience, through cognitive development, and through perceptual learning, so too the audience becomes altered through their experience of art. In film, we often talk about how the audience has developed different sensibilities. We talk about things like attention span, the tolerance for graphic scenes, the expectations of tempo and how these are different today than they were 20, 40, 60 years ago.<\/p>\n

Many stray thoughts in this one, but it will tie together in the end \u2014 I hope! And the end result should be a better understanding of how artists (and, indeed, all humans) learn and how we can design educational programmes that give emerging artists the tools to embark on long and successful careers.<\/p>\n

Footnotes<\/h1>\n

[^1]: Ingold, Tim. Making: Anthropology, Archaeology, Art and Architecture<\/em>. Routledge, 2013, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4324\/9780203559055<\/a>.
\n[^2]: Connolly, Kevin. Perceptual Learning: The Flexibility of the Senses<\/em>. Oxford University Press, 2019. academic.oup.com<\/em>, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780190662899.001.0001<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Towards the end of Making[^1], Tim Ingold describes the act of drawing: "…drawing is not the visible shadow of a mental event; it is a process of thinking, not the projection of a thought." (p.128, emphasis in original). He describes the interplay between the artist (both their skill and their intention), the tool (the pencil), … Continue reading “Thinking out loud v.02”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22,4,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-media","category-fine-arts-education","category-pedagogy","category-research"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":520,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519\/revisions\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmschoolteacher.info\/fredsnotes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}