drawing form from fiction
research, teaching, and student work
Drawing Form from Fiction is an architecture seminar exploring spatial form in literary fiction. Students analyze various spatial types found within literary texts: ‘physical’ settings, such as architectures, cities, and landscapes; relational structures of character and plot; compositional arrangements of time and movement; and the architectonic form of the texts themselves.
Students are introduced to the literary discourse of spatiality through writings by Walter Benjamin, W.J.T. Mitchell, Gaston Bachelard, Michel de Certeau, and others. A broad range of architectural-literary works, from Giovanni Piranesi to John Hejduk to Douglas Darden, serve as exemplars for student analysis. Revisiting historical- and neo-avant-garde practices with a focus upon those engaging narrative, collage, and appropriation, architectural precedents are utilized as direct source material for student works. Using collage techniques such as cut-up, sample, and remix, students explore alternative drawing methods toward an expanded engagement with architectural history, narrative structure, and experimental design. Drawing prompts request the development of relational diagrams, topological projections, plans, sections, axonometrics and hybrid compositions, all toward the development of each student’s individual development of an allegorical architecture.
Simon Scott, allegorical section, Ulysses, 2024; American Society of Architectural Illustrators - Architecture in Perspective 38 Competition 2024, Best in Show, Student Category; Design Communication Association, 2024, Best in Category, Design Undergraduate Upper Division
Minqing Zhang, topological axonometric, White Noise, 2024
Kolbie Jones, allegorical section, The Castle, 2022
Andrew Shearman, topological section, The Crying of Lot 49, 2023, Design Communication Association, 2024, Award of Distinction
Mason Miles, allegorical section, The Castle, 2022, Design Communication Association, 2022, Award of Distinction, Featured Cover Illustration for Representation 2023-2024, Journal of the Design Communication Association, ISSN 2374-5150
Bernardo Baustista, topological section, The Trial, 2024, Design Communication Association, 2024, Award of Distinction
Mason Miles, threshold fragment, The Castle, 2022, Design Communication Association, 2022, Award of Distinction
Jacee Hammons, topological plan, The Castle, 2024, Design Communication Association, 2024, Juror Award
Publications: Featured Cover Illustrations for Representation 2023-2024, Journal of the Design Communication Association; “Drawing Form from Fiction,” Representation 2023-2024, Journal of the Design Communication Association, ISSN 2374-5150, 2024; Design Communication Association International Conference and Exhibit - DCA 2022 international conference proceedings, Auburn University, 2022
credits
Architecture 504: Drawing Form from Fiction, University of Idaho-Boise, 2022 - 2024, Dwaine Carver
Selected student works:
Bernardo Bautista
Jacee Hammons
Kolbie Jones
Mason Miles
Simon Scott
Andrew Shearman
Minqing Zhang
Publications: Featured Cover Illustrations for Representation 2023-2024, Journal of the Design Communication Association; “Drawing Form from Fiction,” Representation 2023-2024, Journal of the Design Communication Association, ISSN 2374-5150, 2024; Design Communication Association International Conference and Exhibit - DCA 2022 international conference proceedings, Auburn University, 2022
Exhibits: DCA 2022 Design Communication Association International Conference and Exhibit - Auburn University, 2022; DCA 2024 Design Communication Association International Conference and Exhibit - Montana State University, 2024; American Society of Architectural Illustrators - Architecture in Perspective 38 Competition 2024