IPL-01 Disegno Lectures / Starting from Movements

1. Objectification

Listen, watch, read, and work through the theoretical material provided to develop an understanding of what is objectified through movement and how movement works as a tool for objectification. In addition, do your own research on the topic.

Our general key question is: “How can we actualize ourselves without any reference other than our immediate perception and action?” This leads to the question:

“What is objectified by a bodily movement that aims at nothing but encoding a sequence of actualized movements?”

The object we have at hand (in the literal sense) is our individual movement while drawing, performed by the body, which includes perception as well as physical activity. Thus, the drawing does not have an external object in the sense of an object, figure or landscape, but the actualized movement.

2. Deconstruction

First, we need to define the term deconstruction in the sense of Disegno. When we perceive something with our senses, we involuntarily deconstruct what we perceive. We break down what we see into its basic forms. We do this without being aware of it. 

When we draw, we consciously draw on this natural ability. Drawing, then, is both deconstruction and reconstruction in one interrelated act, transforming the deconstructed elements into what the viewer can identify through reconstruction.

In order to encode our immediate movements (those that don't aim at anything) with the means of deconstruction, we need to find a suitable method of synchronising the involuntary movements with the intended movements of drawing.

Involuntary movements that we can actually perceive are breathing and heartbeat in their expansion and contraction, in other words, in their ups and downs.

Overview

Your task is to develop three different methods of working with different types of movement.

Purpose
Each of your methods (that is, your formalizations) should be seen as an experimental setting.

You have to find out which one is best suited for which purpose. So the first thing you need to do is define a purpose. 

For example: 

• You will record the involuntary movements you make while listening to a piece of music, while reading, while watching television, etc. 

• You will record the movements when you almost fall asleep. And so on. 

Basic question

The purpose must be related to a question, such as: How does the movement (that is, the drawing) change when the music (or the content of what I read or watch) changes? Or an observation over a period of time: How does my movement (the drawing) change when I draw on an A4 sheet of paper for exactly two minutes every morning right after waking up? And so on.

Once you have defined your purpose and your basic questions, you need to find and arrange an appropriate setting.

Settings

• Define the materials (or objects and their attributes); what surface you will work on (paper, canvas, directly on a surface such as a wall, floor, etc.), what tools you will use (brush, pencil, scratching tools, scoring tools, etc.), what colors and binders you will use.

• Defining the spatio-temporal settings: How long you will work on a piece (if there is a set time or if you are working with an open end) and the size of the format.

• Define the bodily aspects, the position in which you will work (sitting, standing, lying, walking, crouching), the parts of your body that will be involved (only the hand and the angle of the hand or also the elbow, the shoulder, the whole body, as if you were dancing, etc).Assignment
  Elaboration of three different methods (of deconstruction): 

• By formulating a specific purpose (the answer to why you are pursuing this purpose is determined by the question you provide), 

• by providing basic questions (one question for each method), 

• by defining the appropriate formal setting.

Begin by sketching out possible ways in which you will proceed methodologically.

Session 1
Outlining your methods (including purpose, your questions, and your settings) will be the topic of the 1st seminar session.

The session is a two-day onsite event. Online participation is available.3. Formalisation

We use the term formalization in its double sense: First, by defining the formal elements of the method (of deconstruction), and second, by using the results of deconstruction as forms (elements) for your composition.

Formalizing, then, means shaping (correcting, if necessary) the form of the methodological process as you practice it. Formalizing in this sense is identical with working on the method in terms of making it more precise step by step through actual experience.

Formalizing also means using the elements (and particles) obtained from the deconstruction to form different segments for your composition. So you can use the elements and particles directly from the deconstruction as well as the segments formed from them for your composition.

When you are sure that the method will work, formalize it, that is, describe the methods in a short text and add a score for each, showing how the settings and execution will work.

4. Composition

What Artistic Compositions Are –
Philosophical Considerations

Artistic composition is far more than the mere arrangement of visual or sonic elements. A composition is a deeply layered act of meaning-making that spans aesthetics, perception, and politics. Across philosophical traditions, composition has been seen not just as technique, but as a powerful gesture that shapes how we experience, understand, and inhabit the world.

From a phenomenological perspective, composition is the intentional forming of experience. Thinkers like Husserl and Merleau-Ponty emphasize that the way an artwork is composed affects how it is encountered. It is not simply about form, but about guiding perception—shaping how a world appears to consciousness through expressive structure.

In classical aesthetics, composition is defined through the ideal of unity in multiplicity. For philosophers such as Aristotle and Kant, a successful composition brings diverse elements into harmonious relation, creating a coherent whole that pleases both the senses and the mind. This is where beauty often resides—in the balance between variation and unity.

A structuralist or semiotic view shifts the focus to composition as the grammar of meaning. Thinkers like Roland Barthes and Nelson Goodman suggest that artworks function like languages: their parts (lines, colors, tones, words) are signs that follow certain rules or conventions. In this view, to compose is to construct a readable system of meaning.

But for thinkers such as Heidegger and Gadamer, composition is a more ontological act—a gesture of world-making. Here, artistic composition is not just representational or communicative; it is poetic in the ancient Greek sense of poiēsis—a bringing-forth of truth. The artwork composes a world that did not exist before.

Finally, critical theorists such as Adorno and Rancière highlight the political and ethical dimensions of composition. The choices made in any composition—what is included or left out, which voices are heard or silenced—reflect and shape social power. Composition becomes an act of framing the sensible, of determining who or what gets to appear in the shared space of meaning.

In this way, artistic composition is never neutral. It is always an act of intention, relation, revelation, and resistance—a dynamic interplay of form, meaning, and world.

Assignment

Create at least six compositions using each of the three methods. You can also combine the different methods, that is the respective forms (or elements). 

The most important goal of the compositions is aesthetic quality, that is, to ensure that the composition has a neurophysical as well as an intellectual impact on the viewer.

You must have at least 18 compositions.

Session 2

The presentation of your compositions (including the way you formalized the parts of your composition) will be the topic of the 2nd seminar session.

The session is a two-day onsite event. Online participation is available.

5. The Theoretical Part

Overview

After making a series of works with different intellectual and technical approaches, you will be able to articulate your experiences throughout the process, from deconstruction to composition. 

Experience is to be understood as the conscious adoption (and acceptance) of one's individual way of being drawn into the world, that is, one's way of drawing.

The assignment is to relate your final composition to the text on objectification as provided here.

Which positions of the text can be related to your experiences? Which are different? Focusing on the composition you have created here, what does it mean for you to be drawn into the world and what are the consequences?

The point is to connect your individual way of tracing and encoding what you perceive with the intellectual position.

How to approach your theoretical task

First of all, the aim is not to intellectually grasp and categorise the full complexity of the text on first reading. This will happen involuntarily, the more you read, the more you understand.

The philosopher Gilles Deleuze says that if you start reading philosophical texts as a beginner, you will not be able to grasp the whole image of thought in its multidimensional relations. It is much more important to find a passage or just a few sentences that resonate with you.

This is your starting point. Mark what strikes you, think about why, and write down your thoughts.

Now look at your compositions. Can you see a connection between your thoughts on the text and your artistic and creative results?

Since they both relate to the same object and its objectification, there is undoubtedly a connection in terms of content. You just have to recognise it. You are the link.

Assignment

Relate the results to the theoretical considerations given here to describe your experience with the methods you have chosen and how they relate to particular positions in the text. Do this by writing an essay.

An essay is a structured piece of writing that presents an argument, analysis, or interpretation of a specific topic.

Use a simple structure for your paper: introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Your essay should be between 10 and 12 pages (approximately 2,500 words) in length. 

All written papers must be submitted at least three weeks before the official end of the semester, which is March 31 or September 30.6. Design a Product

Design a product that communicates your work, such as a brochure, book, Web site, or of other kind.

Your product must include and relate methods, compositions, and essays. Begin with the basic questions and unfold the entire process of your elaboration as an interesting and compelling way to give the corresponding answers.

Session 3 

At least the draft (or prototype) of the product to be designed will be the topic of the 3rd seminar session.

The session is a two-day onsite event. Online participation is only available upon request and justification.

Assignments Overview

• Objectification: Listen, watch, read, and study the theoretical material provided. In addition, do your own research on the topic.
  Define your purpose, your questions, your settings.
  

• Deconstruction: Develop three different methods (of deconstruction). Outline your methods.
  ►Session 1: Working together on the outlines for
      Objectification and Deconstruction
  

• Formalization: Formalize your methods by describing them in writing and creating a score for each.
  

• Composition: Create 6 compositions based on the methods. In the end, you will have at least 18 compositions.
  ►Session 2: Presenting the compositions
  

• Term Paper: Write an essay of between 10 and 12 pages.
  

• Communication: Design a product that communicates your work, such as a brochure, a book, a website, or something else.
  ►Session 3: Presenting the product

The entire assignment (essay, final composition, and design product) must be submitted at least three weeks before the official end of the semester, which is March 31 or September 30.