Drawing as an Ethico-political Practice

Abstract

This essay explores drawing as an ethico-political practice. Taking London as an example, I speculate about a critical and creative, radical and imaginative engagement with speculative urbanization processes at a time when the extreme right is on the rise and the populist far right has become increasingly mainstream. Reflecting on a nonrepresentational drawing approach that responds to distantiated expert eyes by breaking free from their knowledge and pre-defined moral standards of the capitalist city, I explore different lines: lines that commodify the cityscape; lines that cross commodifying categories; lines that creatively produce alternatives; and lines of violent creativity. In so doing, I scrutinize conservative links between a visuality of capital accumulation and fascist urban aesthetics.

本文探讨了绘画如何成为一种伦理政治行为。以伦敦为例，在极右势力崛起、民粹主义极右势力日益成为主流之际，我推测了城市化进程的一种行为批判性的、创造性的、激进的和富有想象力的。为了打破专家们的资本主义城市知识和预设道德标准，我采用非写实性绘画方法，去回应专家们的眼光。我探索了不同的线条城市景观商品化，跨越商品化类别，创造性地制定替代品，暴力创造力。在此过程中，我仔细审视了资本积累的可视化与法西斯城市美学之间的保守关联。

Este ensayo explora el dibujo como una práctica ético-política. Tomando a Londres como ejemplo, especulo acerca de un compromiso radical e imaginativo, crítico y creativo, con procesos de urbanización especulativa en un momento cuando la extrema derecha se pone de moda y la derecha populista crecientemente ha llegado a ser corriente política importante. Reflexionando sobre un enfoque pictórico no representacional que responda por los ojos expertos distanciados al soltarse de su conocimiento y estándares morales predefinidos de la ciudad capitalista, exploro líneas diferentes: líneas que comodifican el paisaje de la ciudad; líneas que cruzan categorías comodificantes; líneas que producen alternativas de modo creativo; y líneas de creatividad violenta. Al hacer esto, escudriño los lazos conservadores entre una visualidad de la acumulación de capital y la estética fascista urbana.

Key Words:

• capitalism
• cityscape
• drawing
• ethics
• fascism
• 资本主义城市景观绘画伦理法西斯主义
• capitalismo
• dibujar
• ética
• fascismo
• paisaje de la ciudad

Acknowledgments

Some of the ideas that I develop in this paper have been discussed at the international symposium Spaces and Politics of Aesthetics, which took place at Cardiff University in 2019. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the symposium. A special thank you to Julian Brigstocke and Claire Blencowe for thoughtful suggestions in the early phase of writing this paper. A very special thank you also to two anonymous reviewers for their close reading and constructive comments on my work.

Notes

1. See publicly available planning documents for tower developments in the City of London; especially Environmental Statements, which include “Townscape, Built Heritage and Visual Impact Assessments.”

2. See publicly available Design Statements, which are documents that are produced by architects; for example those for 1 Undershaft.

3. For a discussion of the use of the terms horizon, sky-line, and skyline, see Gassner (2020).

4. Deleuze and Guattari (2016) emphasize that while the totalitarian state “does its utmost to seal all possible lines of flight, fascism is constructed on an intense line of flight” (269).

5. For a discussion of thinking versus knowing, see Arendt (1978, 2003).

6. The “sole ethical criterion,” for Deleuze and Guattari, “is the ever-increasing power […] to form mutually enhancing or life-affirming assemblages” (Bonta and Protevi 2006, 82–83).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Günter Gassner

GÜNTER GASSNER is a Lecturer in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3XQ, Wales, United Kingdom. E-mail: [email protected]. He is the author of Ruined Skylines: Aesthetics, Politics and London’s Towering Cityscape (Routledge, 2020). His research interests lie at the intersection of spatial practices, critical theory, and political philosophy. He specializes in questions about relationships between aesthetics and politics, history and power, and fascism and urbanism.