When I first started tactile drawing last year, my main focus was syncronising my moving hand with my mark making hand so all that was translated was shape and contours.

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Now with the introduction of phenomenology, I have devised a method of stages of working that relates to some of the key concepts. I have related examples to some objects I have drawn in my sketchbook this term:

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Stage 1

Epoché (Edmund Husserl)

This step involves removing bias in my thinking or natural relationship to something. I attempt to forget its form and my habitual understanding/meaning of the object.

For example, If I am drawing the feeling of my feet burying/moving into the sand, I aim to remove my knowledge of its texture and how it would react if I were to walk accross it - my feet sinking slightly on dry sand, less so on wet sand etc. (I sometimes struggle with this concept becasue I don't feel that it is fully attainable to remove your bias, I have written some thoughts on debating certain methods in another post). However, it is helpful as a starting point for drawing

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Stage 2

Intentionality and the Chiasm (Maurice Merleau-Ponty)

As a result of the first stage, I feel that intentionality naturally happens. In attempting to remove previous understandings, it allows for a 'fresh' or new experience/interaction with what I am touching - I am bringing a new awareness to an object. I try to notice how the object or whatever it is makes me feel (not emotionally, but descriptively), rather than how I think about the object. This is the point where I notice the chiasm, an intertwining of subject and object; me and the object. Also this applies to the environment where I am working.

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Stage 3

This isn't really a key concept (as far as I know), but at this point, I take some time to really slow down and extend the thinking process - really try to understand the tactile phenomena before I begin drawing it.

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Stage 4

Begin drawing

This stage is hard to put into words becasue it is so subjective. For example, if I am drawing a piece of dried seaweed I feel and simultaneously make marks that relate to specific areas of the object such as spikey points or edges which would typically be defined marks on the page, or smother large surface areas on the seaweed which may be lighter, hazier marks. After reading Joe Graham's writings, I try to create a rhythm of 'nows' and isolate tactile phenomena within 'nows' to ground the process and myself.

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Stage 5

Noema & Noesis (this become really important these last few weeks of this term)

Reflecting on what happens when the noema floods the noesis, in the true spirit of phenomenology, as a result of this, mental phenomena should preceed physical phenomena. Therefore, the way the object exists as a physical form becomes almost irrelevant as the new meanings associated with the object in my consciousness are now most important. The realisation of this in the last few weeks is what has made me shift towards creating something immaterial to reflect this observation.

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