This is an archive of the work produced for a drawing experiment. Rhinoceros is one experiment in an on-going drawing project organised by Janis Bowley and Paul Edwards.
Albrecht Durer had not seen a rhinoceros when he made his famous drawing based only on a written description. In order to visualise the unknown Durer drew on the world he knew - the artwork he produced is both inaccurate and authentic.
From Autumn 2011, about forty artists in various locations in eight countries around the world responded to an invitation to participate in this experiment. They produced drawings from a description of a room they'd never seen. After initial contact each artist exchanged a written description of a room, sent by email or post to their collaborator. Drawings were made based on the descriptions they received. In some cases people working together knew each other, but strangers were also paired by request. Some collaborators developed extensive correspondence to assist with the drawing (which became part of the artwork) while others made only brief contact. Not all the drawers are professional artists - anyone who had some experience of drawing was included. For many this website is the first time they'll see a photograph of the room they drew, and the drawing made from the room they described.
In this experiment the drawer didn't know and couldn't see what they were drawing and had to rely on the vision of a collaborator, while also being the agent for the person doing the seeing. The creative choices of the room, writing about it, the act of drawing and the materials used, shaped the process and are demonstrated in the outcomes. Participants have expressed frustration at their difficulty in 'seeing' the room they were trying to visualise. Some made creative choices that were uncharacteristic or surprising to their usual way of working. The written descriptions are in English however not all participants are native English speakers which added another aspect of translation. Comparing the photographs and drawings is a beguiling and amusing discovery however the drawing outcomes are more than just interpretations.
This experiment was devised from playful conversations we're having about drawing, particularly the act of drawing and the factors involved. We're interested in what happens when the drawer is disconnected, or connected in surprising ways, with the subject of the drawing. Although admittedly not a rigorous experiment, we suggest it might demonstrate 'the observer effect', defined as 'changes that the act of observation make on that being observed'. We can compare the room in the drawing with the room in the photograph and written description, and see the differences, the similarities – perception becomes cyclical and at each pause: drawing, photograph and writing, we sense changes. Therefore can we say there's no change to the room observed? Or that the room in the drawing does not exist? Indeed, does the chosen room now exist when it didn't before it was observed? One participant has created a room that exists only in our minds' eye, and there are drawings evoking a room that probably still doesn't exist. Several artists have drawn only the room's iconography and we see dramatically different outcomes, some drawings are tantalisingly 'accurate' yet they are also glaringly 'wrong'. Rhinoceros is another experiment that succeeds due to the clarity with which it fails – all the artists produced a viable room through the act of drawing, but none made a replication of the room described.
"A physicist is just an atom's way of looking at itself." Niels Bohr
We would like to thank everyone who was a part of this delightful and fascinating process – what emerges as the only constant is the diverse, complex, and unexpected results!
Janis Bowley, September 2012
