Freehand digital drawinga boost to creative design. The observer's eye and the draftsman brain

Abstract

The representation of an architectural project aims at several intents, one of the most relevant being the visualisation of a design. The subject of this dissertation is therefore the relationship between the draftsman, the creativity of his brain, the represented design, and the mind of the observer. Since the Eighties, architects, designers and scholars wondered whether the current habit of an ever increasing digitalisation could be detrimental or advantageous to such relationship. After an analysis of architectural imaging since the Renaissance, as reported in Part 1, the current techniques are reviewed and discussed. The first question, addressed in Part 2, has been whether the simulation of reality with renders of photographic quality, would relate to the observer better or worse than a traditionally hand drawn image. A questionnaire has been constructed to probe the communication and representation qualities of the images. The results suggested that these two qualities were best represented in the case of freehand drawing compared to photorealistic renders. Part 3 was focused on the designer and used the instruments provided by neuroscience, i.e. the EEG and 'evoked responses', to quantify the brain activity in connection with freehand and CAD drawing. Because the involved technology had never been applied before to a drawing subject, the investigation had to be divided into three separate experiments. The first one was dedicated to finding a reliable way to perform the recordings in subjects who freely moved their arm and hand while drawing. The second and third experiments were aimed at analysing the cerebral activity occurring before and after each drawing movement. All results demonstrated that a larger cerebral activity preceded and followed each movement in freehand drawing compared to CAD design. This finding may be considered a robust step towards the notion that also creativity may consequently be improved. The final conclusion is that the freehand drawn images make a better link between author and observer, and at the same time the very movement and haptic perception of the hand elicit creativity. Indeed, the most recent advances in technology of drawing tablets have provided a new medium for freehand drawing, which can exploit the capacity of data handling of computers with the natural movement of using pencil and paper, ending up in a traditional hand made product. A wise usage of modern technology can therefore merge the human factor with the digital world.