“The Substance of Drawing – a Guide to Visual Power” by Bjørn Laursen, Performance Design

Bjørn recently published the work “The Substance of Drawing – a Guide to Visual Power”, which helps guide the reader through the many wonders and difficulties of the craft and art of drawing. Beside the very instructive examples and Bjørn’s guidance, the book in itself is an aesthetic experience.

Reviews:

“This book is not a manual as it is normally meant. It is not just a technical guide to learning how to draw. It lets you understand the motivations and impulses that are at the origin of drawing and the processes that are activated when you draw. And drawing is intended not so much as a simple tool, more or less effective, to imitate reality, but as a means of knowledge and memory with respect to reality. What Bjørn Laursen lets us understand is how listening and the availability to be captured by what we have around are essential qualities for an artist, and how the act of drawing is not a passive recording of objects, but a discovering and imagining, discovering the present and its history, and imaging the future of the environment we live in.” Fabrizio Crisafulli

“This work is an eye opener – literally speaking. Bjørn Laursen leads his reader into a world of wonderful hand-drawn sketches that marvelously become alive as the author paves the way through the art of drawing, an art that sharpens our perception of the world. Not only the coordination of the hand and eye, but all of our senses get involved in reading this book: the author actually managed to make me grab pencils of different thickness and hardness to use them to outline light and shadow, shape and perspective. And, to do so, by showing me as a reader how to observe quite simple forms. It is a pleasure to follow Bjørn Laursens thoughts when he shows how light and shadow get shapes and objects to grow on the paper and also when he introduces his reader to the art of narrative drawing. The book itself is a pleasure as it is richly illustrated with Bjørn Laursens hand drawings. They are so beautiful that the aesthetic experience leads the reader into an almost timeless universe. Not least in the chapter with the authors drawings from Rome. I highly recommend this work, which gives the reader a chance to meet Bjørn Laursens thoughts and drawings and also to regain the joy of drawing especially so in the company of an outstanding artist and educator.” Sisse Siggaard Jensen

The Substance of Drawing can be bought here.

Maritime archeology: Inauguration 28/4 2017 at the Viking Ship museum Roskilde

Experience Lab researchers, our research assistant, and students from the HUM-TEK education have been actively involved with the design and development of a new exhibition about maritime archeology at the Viking Ship museum Roskilde. Not least, Steffens and Troel’s efforts have helped to realize the exhibition.

The exhibition soon opens to the public, and the coming opening is celebrated with an invitation to participants who have been actively involved with the development:  April 28, 2017. We look forward to take part in the celebration 😉

Experience Lab is now one of RUCs Research Centres, 2017

Hi,

We are so pleased to announce that late 2016 Experience Lab was acknowledged as one of Roskilde University’s Research Centres.

Image: This model visualises one of many visions and experiments that we work with in ExLab RUC; in this case: how could we combine interactive and immersive installations with performance theatre?

In the application to the university, we have defined the Experience Lab objectives in this way:

Experience Lab is a lab for experimental research investigating the interfaces between on the one hand interactive systems and design and on the other hand human knowledge, experience, and learning.

Through the activities of the lab we seek to emphasise and strengthen the inter-disciplinary approach to research and education as we work across disciplines from humanities, social sciences, computer science, and design.

On the basis of this approach, we carry out experimental activities to explore and innovate educational practices and to do so in collaboration with students and partners from outside the university, e.g. museums, libraries, development projects, etc.

Our collaboration with external partners is based on the idea that university research and education is enriched by exchanging knowledge, ideas, and experience with practitioners and practices in society and culture and this collaborative approach enables us to confront experimental research with the application hereof in different kinds of practices.

Overview of projects 2015-2016 (Danish)

Maritime Archeology Experience Cylinder (ExCyl) installation at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. 2016

Since 2013, participants of the ExLab RUC team have developed a maritime archeology installation in close cooperation with the Maritime Archeology Experimentarium at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde.

A copy of the ExLab RUC Experience Cylinder’s (ExCyl) digital and physical architecture has been developed in support of the difficult task of communicating maritime archeology. Based on the ExCyl installation interactive underwater scenarios have been developed.

  • A model of the planned maritime archeology exhibition at the museum:

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  • Underwater archeology is a science difficult to communicate in a museum setting and exhibition. The idea of the installation therefore is to inspire an underwater experience.

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  • Several steps have been taken to develop the installation from raw canvas to the final interactive scenario in terms of technology as well as narrative and interaction.

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  • The interactive installation traces the audience’s location in space and with this location as a starting point different media (picture, text, video etc.) are shown to be selected and experienced by the audience.

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Interactive spaces, creativity, and project organized studies.

Space, movement and visualization are three keywords in a report concluding the pilot project RUC Digital Group Room (working title) from 2014-2016. The report “Interaktive grupperum: Kreativitet og kompleksitet i projektstudier,”  is written in Danish, but early in the project an English video was produced with the aim to visualize some of the thoughts and ideas of the project (see below).

A prototype of a RUC digital group room was developed in 2014 and it was discussed at workshops with university students from disciplines across faculties (computer science, performance design, communication studies, history, philosophy).

In the early video as mentioned above we imagined what a digital group room at Roskilde University might look like – yet changes have been the outcome of ongoing discussions with students. Even if produced at an early stage of the project the video still visualizes our early thoughts and ideas and some of these main ideas still hold true.

Take a look at the video: Digital Grouproom @ RUC – TAKE 2 from Ates Gursimsek on Vimeo.

Images from the early video:

Skærmbillede 2015-09-12 kl. 11.01.34 AM Skærmbillede 2015-09-12 kl. 11.03.19 AM

Images from discussions in and about the prototype:

Skærmbillede 2015-09-12 kl. 11.06.47 AM Skærmbillede 2015-09-12 kl. 11.07.50 AM