Rhythmanalysis: the line as a record of the moving present

Abstract

This article presents a particular aspect of a recent investigation through drawing. This was set up with the aim of exploring the potential for the drawn line to ‘record’ (re-present) the present moment as it passed. The aspect discussed here concerns the analysis of rhythm to facilitate the understanding of one ‘recording’ the other. The so called ‘moving present’ is the present moment of time we experience ourselves to live within. Time can be understood as either cyclical or linear in view of its rhythms, yet within the unified present as duration we subjectively experience time to flow by, one moment appearing after the next. Using Henri Lefebvre's criteria for what he termed rhythmanalysis, this article will outline an initial theoretical argument for how rhythm within the spatially drawn line and rhythm within the experience of the temporally extended present can be understood. By ‘thinking about the phenomenon’ (phenomeno-logy) of space and time together in this way, my aim is to present drawings that combined this theory into practice, produced in response to an analysis of these rhythms. This exercise is undertaken in view of the fact that we experience space and time together within lived experience, and so I seek to record the essence of that relationship through drawing.

Keywords:

• drawing
• phenomenology
• space
• time
• rhythm

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Joe Graham is a current PhD candidate in Drawing Research at the School of the Arts, Loughborough University (2011–). He previously completed his MFA in Fine Art Media at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (2008–2010) and his BA in Fine Art Painting at Chelsea School of Art & Design (1999–2002). In 2010 he was the recipient of the Henry Tonks Drawing Prize from UCL.

His practice focuses on investigating the proximity of the relationship between the activity of drawing and the experience of phenomenal consciousness, where both are understood to be fundamentally ‘flow like’ in their appearance when considered through the concept of intentionality. Through a process of reflection and renewal, the term ‘drawing’ is considered as a peculiar dualism that pivots between the verb and the noun, between act and object. Drawn lines ‘of thought’ are also the thoughts ‘of those lines’, and so the reciprocal intentionality that persists as a shifting horizon between subject and object, and intersubjectively between drawer and viewer via the drawing itself, is reflected upon across a range of different investigations.

Recent projects include a three-month drawing research residency at the Centre for Recent Drawing in London in 2013 titled Thinking through Outline. Graham is also currently editing a drawing publication, Outline, due for publication by Marmalade Publishers of Visual Art Theory (London) in 2015. This brings together a collection of responses to the topic of ‘outline’ from a variety of artists, writers and academics with an interest in contemporary drawing practice and research. More information can be found on his website: www.joegraham.eu