Blind Drawing
A Disruption of Perfectionism
Abstract
Blind drawing is an exercise based in phenomenological and experiential pedagogy which I do with students in every architecture design Studio I teach no matter the year level of their education. It is drawing blindfolded with charcoal and dry pastel on large sheets of paper using a guided conversation to evoke sensory experiences and abstract thought. It is a transformative exercise that changes students’ perceptions of drawing, image-making, representation of concepts, and offers alternatives to how architecture design Studio can perform. Removing outward-looking visual connections turns the students’ attention to inward perception and the imagination. These poetic drawings are embodied energy drawn out from the subconscious. This style of blind drawing is a disruption of perfectionism and establishes an embodied attitude for the design Studio by breaking through the fear of mark making and the intellectual self-criticality of ‘getting it right’.
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