The thin line

This semester I took a course called Sketching Techniques II at the Karlstad University. I liked the first sketching course last semester so much I decided to take this second course too.

The goal of the course is that the student will gain some understanding of the role of the image in the process of communication, and the importance of visual thinking for technological development. The course also wants to give the student ability to use sketching as a tool to visualize and to solve problems in a process. In the first course we for instance had an assignment where we should show a process and explain it in pictures.

We also did a lot of model-sketching: croquis. (That is drawing nude people - for those of you that doesn't know what it means). I like croquis a lot, but at the same time as it is fun and rewarding it is very hard work.

After a session you feel almost like you are psychically drained. You have to concentrate so hard because there is so little time - the model cannot stand still in one position for so long. It becomes very intense but it is great at the same time.




Another fascinating thing in the course is 'drawing without thinking' - Almost what you do when you are talking on the phone and just let your pencil flow over a piece of paper as you are talking. You don't think at all of what you are drawing, you just do it. Usually, when we draw, we have a tendency to stop and look at what we have drawn so far, and refer to what we think we want for instance an arm should look like. Then we adjust the sketch according to what we think instead of what we see. In that way we don't draw the reality, we draw a sketch of what we think it ought to look like.

Here are three sketches I did of my left hand without looking at the paper at all and it had to be done in a single line - not lifting the pen from the paper (although I cheated a little bit at the leftmost sketch):


All my life I have been drawing sketches. But it has been an on and off thing. Sometimes there has been a long hiatus and I haven't made a single drawing in a year. I don't really know why but I guess certain phases in life preoccupy you more than others. Then as suddenly as I stopped drawing I started doing it again.

In my younger years I drew a lot of comics and was even published in daily newspapers.

It was great but at the same time it brought with it some kind of 'doing it for the money'-feeling I didn't like. It became like a job. So there was my first long pause from drawing. It just became too much of a good thing.

As for most things I think it is for the best if we find the balance between things we 'must do' and 'want to do'. I mean, we need to stop and fill up our gas sometimes too, not just rush on.

To consume or not to consume

One of the first things President Bush told his people in his speech right after the 911 attacks was to go out and buy stuff. Hardly anyone was surprised.

A strong nation is a nation of consumers. A good citizen is a consuming citizen - all our life we have been told this.

We are constantly told that the last years model is no good. The whole concept of fashion comes down to this. To show everybody that you are a successful person you have to buy and own the latest model of everything - the latest cellphone, car, perfume, bag, tv, and so on. You have to have seen the latest movie and know what the latest burger variant tastes like.

Every commercial is pointing out this in different ways; you are no good if you're not able to consume. You are hardly not even existing if you don't consume enough.

In the short but intense information packed film - the story of stuff - Annie Leonard tells us her engaging story about the linear system draining our finite planet.

The bottom line of it all is that she wants us to change our ways. We should for once use our toxicated brains and question our destructive lifestyle.

Or else it means the end of civilization as we know it.

I have the feeling we all know this. Deep down we all have known this for a long time, but we don't even try to do anything about it. Isn't it depressing?

I guess I'll have to go out shopping to cheer up...

NOT!

Watching the detectives

This age of unlimited information has brought with it countless possibilities. It is now very easy to monitor anyone that can be monitored and to obtain any possible information about anyone's activities.
I think it is good to be open about what we do at work. In the article Snooping Bosses we are told about bosses snooping on their employees in several inventive ways.

Well, I think the employees have the same right to monitor their employer. It's equally important.

I for instance would not want to work for a company which has values I don't like. It would be good to hear what the boss says when he/she is having lunch or dinner with people from other companies, maybe discussing company policies and other interesting things concerning the future of the employees.

It would also be good for employees to know exactly what's said on company meetings. Everything from the economic status to who wants milk in their coffee.

It is quite often in recent years we have heard of company executives visiting porno clubs and paying for everything with company representation money. It would only benefit the overall morale at the workplace if the employees could monitor such meetings so the bosses don't get in unnecessary trouble. (As we know they afterwards often don't know really where they have been).

The representation meeting money should always be accounted for, and a listing of who paid what should be put up at a message board or something equivalent for everyone to read.

And if the bosses don't like to be monitored? Well, it's kind of funny. It seems that people keen on the idea of spying on other people don't like to be snooped on themselves at all.