Drawing
Taking a collegiate, open and inclusive approach to researching the practice and theory of drawing within an expanded field.
The focus is on what drawing does, rather than what drawing is. Our core aim is to continue to facilitate an internationally recognised collaborative and supportive space for the generation and dissemination of drawing research.
We maintain and publish TRACEY, the international peer-reviewed electronic open access journal and we host and direct the Drawing Research Network (DRN). The Drawing Research Group membership includes staff and research students at Loughborough University who have a shared interest in the use of drawing in practice-led and theoretical research.
At present key areas of interest include drawing in an expanded field, drawing and phenomenology, drawing knowledge and pedagogy. Research activities, which encompass these areas of interest, have informed and stimulated methods of practice, challenged traditions and extended discourse beyond academia and across the globe.
Key projects
The research practices of individual members cover a wide range of approaches where drawing forms the core of the investigation. Collectively, we host events and exhibitions to bring together international audiences to explore the breadth of drawing practices across a diverse range of disciplines and to highlight the significance of drawing as a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary research tool.
The The Drawing Research Group Chair is Deborah Harty. Research Group members include: Festus Adeyemi, Nick Aikman, Marion Arnold, John Atkin, James Bowen, Jane Cook, Lucia Cunningham, Penny Davis, Daniel Fountain, Martin Lewis, Eleanor Morgan, Yonat Nitzan-Green, Tamarin Norwood, Kiera O’Toole, Kavitha Ravikumar, Phil Sawdon, Serena Smith, Karen Sung, and Lorraine Young.
Completed PhD theses
- Brandon, Positive Incapabilities: productive inefficiencies in painting and poetry practice dialogues (2021)
- Mokhtar, The Development of a Self-help Toolkit: A Hybrid Approach of Person-centred Therapy and Visual Journalling for Prolonged Grief Disorder (2019)
- O’Donnell, Drawing Vignettes: ... perpetual becoming(s) (2016)
- Graham, Recording the stream of consciousness: a practice-led study of serial drawing (2015)
- Fava, Understanding drawing: a cognitive account of observational process (2014)
- Al Hajri, Promoting Creativity in Omani Graphic Design Education; Dajanev, Social benefits of ICT and Creative Commons; Harty, Drawing//experience: a process of translation (2010)
- Whale, An Investigation of Spatial Strategy in Observational Drawing (2006)
- Wilson, Mimesis and the Somantic of Drawing (2005)
- Saorsa, Drawing as a method of exploring and interpreting ordinary verbal interaction an investigation through contemporary practice (2004)
