Install and Abstract
- lsimonsart
- Apr 15
- 2 min read
This practice-led research investigates drawing as a form of real-time note-taking, in which perception, cognition, and material process occur simultaneously. Situated within an inquiry into visual subjectivity and neuroodivergent perception, the work begins from the understanding that seeing is neither stable nor complete, but fragmented, contingent, and contiuously constructed. While John Berger's 'Ways of Seeing' positions perception as culturally conditioned, his model maintains a sequence in which seeing precedes articulation. In contrast, I argue that within my practice, drawing and note-taking collapse this sequence, producing thought in parallel with perception rather than after it.
Methodologically, this research operates through large-scale portrait drawing combined with accumulative written annotation. The drawn image follows a structured, observational process, while note-taking unfolds in real-time—reactive, non-linear, and interruptive. These two systems operate simultaneously but do not resolve into a unified whole. Instead, the work accumulates fragments: partial likeness, isolated features, and written impressions that register thoughts as it emerges. This approach is informed by conditions such as prosopagnosia (commonly known as facial blindness), where recognition is not holistic but assembled through discrete visual cues.
I argue that drawing, in this context, is not a representational outcome but a site of cognitive production. Through the integration of note-taking and portraiture, the work resists fixed identity and coherent perception, instead foregrounding instability as a generative condition. Meaning does not reside within the image itself, but continuously produced through the accumulation of marks, where seeing, thinking, and drawing unfold together.
WHAT
I am exploring alternative modes of portraiture and drawing through acts of note-taking, informed by my neurodivergent way of seeing and response. This involves questioning the assumption that portraiture should produce a stable, unified likeness, and instead considering how identity can be constructed through fragments, interruptions, and partial recognition.
HOW
I have been looking at the act of note-taking and how it presents itself within a contemporary fine arts space. Methodologically, I employ note-taking as a real-time disruption within the drawing process, inserting marks that register immediate thoughts, environmental stimuli, and shifting attention, Currently I have been engaging in large-scale portrait drawing, where the act of looking itself is sustained and deliberate, while note-taking remains reactive, instictive, and non-linear. These processes operate simultaneously but do not resolve into a unified system; instead, they produce a layered accumulation of fragments.
WHY
Note-taking can provide an alternative way of showing neurodivergent seeing and thinking. It allows the work to make visible a fragmented and non-linear cognitive process, where attention shifts, interrupts, and accumulates rather than follows a singular, continuous path. This reflects conditions such as facial blindness, where recognition is constructed through isolated features rather than holistic perception. By forgrounding these disruptions, the work challenges dominant expectations of clarity, coherence, and completion within both portraiture and visual perception. Instead, it positions fragmentation and instability as generative conditions, suggesting that meaning is not contained within a finished image but continuously produced through the interaction of marks, thoughts, and perceptual shifts.
