"Why do people draw?" It recently became evident that some massive research into this fairly tricky issue is under way. A symposium titled "Scientific Research into Drawing" was held at Hillside Plaza Hall in Daikanyama on January 19, and at this eight-hour-long event four of the biggest universities in the greater Tokyo area presented interim reports of a collaborative research they had been doing for about one year.
According to the flagman of the project, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music professor Fujihata Masaki, this project "explores the possibilities of digital media particularly in the field of art, while focusing on fundamental issues of technology and artistic expression rather than such media’s superficial convenience. The first thing to investigate into is the phenomenon of drawing." In the process of their studies, the researchers found out that it’s "not the finished drawings, but the act of drawing that one needs to gain a deeper understanding of." "The act of drawing," Fujihata further explains, "is a sort of communication through symbols, and has to be attributed to the ability to cognize and symbolize even before acquiring the ability to use language."
In the first half of the symposium, each research team presented preliminary results of their investigations. The "drawing simulation with a robot" worked out by the team of University of Tokyo’s Ikeuchi Katsushi showed that the problems begin with such questions as how to make a robot hold a brush, which already gave visitors an idea of this project’s long-windedness. Quite interesting even for the amateur eye was the "oil painting simulation" developed jointly by the Universities of Technology and Fine Arts and Music. Utensils like paint brush, canvas and oil colors were analyzed from optical and hydromechanical perspectives, and the results used to create models and modules. The painting’s texture was adjusted by changing the parametres for the (virtual) oil colors' viscosity and the amount of thinner, and calculations of surface reflection and internal diffusion produced surprisingly realistic results. The virtual paints were applied with a virtual brush onto the virtual canvas in single lines. Presenter Saito Suguru, assistant professor at Tokyo University of Technology, explained that "with the current technology it’s difficult to paint with a variety of different strokes", but each time the computer-animated brush hit the canvas, the intensity and shade of color seemed to be changing.
Part two began with Fujihata’s "summary" and lectures by Tokyo Women’s Medical University professor Iwata Makoto ("Drawings seen from the brain") and artist/art critic Okazaki Kenjiro ("What is a painting?"). "Duchamp’s 'Naked Girl Falling Down The Stairs' emphasizes perception of motion, the pointillist style of Georges Seurat perception of color, the cubism of Picasso perception of form, and Mondrian’s 'Apple Tree in Bloom' perception of space. This means that, since the end of the 19th century we have been dealing with "cerebral paintings" that either stress or eliminate the unitary module of visual perception." Especially this theory of Iwata Makoto, but also the other propositions were highly stimulating, but the following panel discussion with the trio of Fjihata, Iwata and Okazaki was rather unconnected and ended in diffusion. Okazaki specializes in studies of the Japanese language, and on Tokieda Motoki’s language process theory Fujihata responded with a debate related to artificial intelligence researcher and computer developer, Alan Turing’s Imitation Game. Within the limited time frame of such an event, however, it’s obviously impossible to conclude such a discussion. But then again, considering the scale of this topic, that’s not surprising, and I'd rather see it as a natural point of departure for further explorations.
In the audience was Sekiguchi Atsuhito, an artist and professor at the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), and his questions and opinions were the constructive remarks of an actual creator: "Ultimately, do you aim to represent color within the 'RGB' scale, or is it about reconstructing the paint itself?" "Manet mixed green and pink, Pierre Bonnard yellow and purple, and Cezanne and Van Gogh brown and blue to get grey color, and each of them produced a totally different kind of grey." "When an artist draws, he determines the contours according to planarity and picture composition. The inner side is different from the outside"… Especially the engineers in th eaudience were listening carefully, and stated repeatedly that this was "very informative". After the symposium I asked Sekiguchi for his opinion.
"Until now, the technical data that are necessary for drawing pictures have not been schematized. In terms of clearly focusing on this aspect, I think this is an essential project. The reason why IAMAS isn't involved is just because it’s too far away from Tokyo (laughs). I'm in the media art department, so this subject concerns me, and I hope event like this will raise the status of this type of research. As an artist I can of course easily provide the engineers with analysis data."
Both panelists and audience at this first installment were mostly from the fields of art and science. In his own lecture, Fujihata stressed the necessity of cooperation between cognitive science, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, neuropsychology, neuroscience, etc., and above this, collaboration with experts from the fields of linguistics and philosophy, as well as adjacent cultural disciplines such as imagery, music and literature is certainly required too. Wouldn't it be desirable to have more kindergarten nurses who are surrounded by infants all day, and professional creators like Sekiguchi, Okazaki and Fujihata participate in such events? It’s a precarious subject that needs to be approached with a perfectly interdisciplinary setup, so I hope there will be lots of different people joining the project in the future.
Ozaki Tetsuya / Editor in chief / REALTOKYO