Delineating Surfaces

Abstract

This paper retraces the explorations engaged in by the Minim friar Jean-François Niceron (1613-1646). His treatise, La Perspective curieuse, recounts his search for anamorphic images and suggests the pursuit of ‘delight in seeing the possibilities beyond the expected’ that these images offer. Anamorphic representations are deformed images, whereby the point of view is displaced in space. As a result, the resolution of the image is only possible through the adjustment of the body, the re-positioning of the body near that unique secondary vantage point. Based on the capacity of anamorphic representations to disclose a space for wonder manifested only in the physical encounter with the image, the following text presents a workshop undertaken with PhD students where we re-enacted Niceron’s drawing instructions to explore the significance of ‘reaching toward a meaning not yet known’ that he envisioned.

Through the workshop, the act of delineating a surface became a way to occupy and inhabit the space. The text is presented in the format of a script to allow readers to follow the events that happened during the workshop, but also to encourage rehearsal and to invite the event to be played again. The script, as well as Niceron’s drawing instructions, are meant to be read, played and repeated, in the same way the movement by a body is a prerequisite for uncovering the meaning of the anamorphic image. These re-enactments do not only possess the potential to bring the past into the present, but they also—by the act of imagining a past-in- the-present—project our understanding of history into possible futures.

Read the full article online at: https://drawingon.org/Issue-02-07-Delineating-Surfaces