Lines of Thought

Francis Crick, DNA double helix diagram, 1953

In the summer of 2015, BAK, together with artist, researcher, and lecturer Klaas Hoek, hosts a presentation of some of the results from the interdisciplinary research project Lines of Thought on the role of the act of drawing in the (scientific) creative process.

On 2 February, Hoek already introduces the eponymous symposium Lines of Thought,

“This symposium is part of an interdisciplinary research project that explores and discusses the key role of drawing in the creative process. Aristotle considered thought to be impossible without an image. Drawing is a mode and a manifestation of thinking. Visual imagery plays and has played a defining role in scientific creativity.

A fine example of a visualization that aided understanding is Watson and Crick’s use of media usually associated with artistic practices in their quest to reveal the structure of DNA. If artists and scientists were to share methodologies, they might be able to establish a common ground in the creative process: they could share knowledge at fundamental levels to generate new knowledge. Does this imply the possiblity of a ‘Call for drawings’?”

Participants:

Klaas Hoek (MaHKU, Utrecht and Slade School of Fine Art at UCL) – Introduction
Arthur Miller (Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at UCL) – Art, science and the creative imagination
Mel Gooding (writer and art critic) – Drawing is human

This symposium is being organised by the Society of Arts (Akademie van Kunsten) in cooperation with BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, and the Slade School of Fine Art at UCL.

In collaboration with

Suggestions from the archive

Learning

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

Complaint Making: Setting Up Conflict-Positive Spaces for Community Building Praxis

Vishnu would like to share feminist governance tools (FGT) focused on three of many tiers in community building praxis. FGT is based on the values of equity with an emphasis on creating psychologically safe environments, drawing on the use of consent. Decision-making processes, setting up conflict-positive spaces, and complaint-making as diversity work will form the body of this three-day training. Rooted in Vishnu’s autho-ethnographic practice, this work will explore the power dynamics that impact decision-making processes.

Community Portal

Performative

10 May, 12.00–12 May, 18.00 2023

The Diamond Mind II

In this dance training, the people will use a one-minute film of their own movement as material for a booklet—a sixteen page signature—that distributes their presence, their gesture, as an act of EQ. 

Community Portal

Learning

3 May, 12.00–4 May, 18.00 2023

Too Late To Say Sorry? 

A bad apology can ruin a friendship, destroy a community, or end a career. In this workshop, we will investigate the impact of apologies on our relationships and our worlds. Why and how do we make apologies? What can giving and receiving apologies teach us about values and integrity? Should you apologize for something you don’t really feel sorry for? We will explore conflict and how we like to be in conflict with others. We will dive into our own boundaries. We will seek to understand how honoring limits becomes an act of building (or freeing) better worlds capable of holding so many, many more of us.

Community Portal

Learning

28 April, 12.00–29 April, 18.00 2023

Huisje, Boompje, Beestje (D.A.F.O.N.T.)

In this rare masterclass, retired teacher and artist Glenda Martinus teaches participants a thing or two about painting with Microsoft Word. Martinus shares tips, tricks, and secrets on how to use this software to its unexpected potential as a drawing tool. Participants learn how to draw three basic objects—a house, a tree, and an animal—in a seemingly innocent exercise that perhaps contains more layered social commentary. Drawing the worlds we desire does not require expensive tools or education, simply a curiosity to understand how the monster’s tools can topple the house of the master.

Community Portal