18 May 2012

Drawing interest in London

Three RMIT University staff curated exhibitions at the Drawing Out 2012 conference in London recently.

The conference was jointly organised by the University of the Arts, London, and RMIT and attended by RMIT Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Margaret Gardner AO.

The universities jointly ran Drawing Out 2010 at RMIT in Melbourne.

Professor William Cartwright said the conference brought together all disciplines involved in drawing - from art to technology and science.

"It explored the transdisciplinary nature of drawing and this was reflected in the topics addressed by keynote speakers, conference presenters and associated exhibitions," he said.

"Cartography was embraced by the conference organisers as an essential component of drawing."

As well as formal presentations, RMIT also contributed three exhibitions to Drawing Out 2012:

Conscious Collective - a group exhibition organised by Dr Emma Barrow from the School of Art.
Contemporary Australian Drawing 2 - curated by Dr Irene Barberis, also from the School of Art.
Eduard Imhof - artist, engineer and cartographer (1895 - 1986) - curated by Professor Cartwright from the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences.

Professor Cartwright said the Eduard Imhof exhibition provided both an insight into the technical drawings produced by Imhof as preparations for the more formal topographic mapping and modelling and the final scientific representations of geography - maps.

"The exhibition contained reproductions of just a small sample of the wonderful drawings, paintings and completed maps that comprise the archive at the Institute for Cartography and Geoinformation, ETH Zurich," he said.

"RMIT is indebted to ETH Zurich for enabling reproductions of the archive to be exhibited at the Drawing Out exhibition.

"The Drawing Out 2012 conference was a reflection of the collaborations being developed between RMIT and the University of the Arts."

Professor Cartwright said the universities would again cooperate for Drawing Out 2013 in Melbourne.