Collecting drawings, drawing collectively

Academic summary

While the concept of drawing has existed for over 70,000 years, the ways in which drawings are produced, distributed, and understood are constantly in change. In recent decades, the volume of visual content being created and circulated has exploded. As image generators draw from enormous global archives in order to assemble new drawings, can we still speak of a single drawing as something on its own, or has it become inseparable from the mass of images it’s composed of?
As a starting point for my project, I will examine three examples where larger collections of drawings have been assembled; two historical and one contemporary. Hans Prinzhorn’s early 20th-century study of drawings by psychiatric patients and Rhoda Kellogg’s mid-century research on children’s drawings are both examples of collections that intersected with cultural tendencies of their time.
A contemporary parallel may be found in the work of Jolie Dessin, who collects drawings from DeviantArt, an internet platform where, among others, anthropomorphic and transhuman fantasies flourish through a forum-based logic far from the mainstream.
Using Prinzhorn and Kellogg’s research as analytical tools, I will explore ways of activating and discussing Jolie’s collection. Could the collection offer insight into how what Prinzhorn calls “the universal human urge for pictorial expression” finds its place within contemporary internet culture?
Another part of the project will center around a public notice board in Oslo, functioning as a small-scale publishing platform. In this venue, I will publish a one-panel comic. Documentation of the box will also be shared online, allowing it to function as a bridge between physical and digital space.
The comic will reflect on the ongoing research of the project, as well as its own format and role within public space. I envision the board gradually expanding its output to include contributions from student workshops, invited artists, and submissions gathered through both in-person and online encounters, aiming to cultivate a stream of collective authorship.