Suspended Narrative By John Elderfield Summary

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In John Elderfield’s article ‘Drawing as Suspended Narrative’ he discusses the idea that a drawing or design needs to be considered and thought about in terms of its final product, but that natural creative developments should still be able to take place throughout fabrication. If a design is being too controlled upon construction, the creative process and capability of the drawing is hence limited.

This is shown when Elderfield wrote “My aim here is to consider the nature of source-transformation in drawing by attempting to define drawing itself as a process, by examining the nature of sources and their specific manifestation of the source and structure”. Elderfield also says “Drawing as the most effective method of allying idea and image is, of course, an interpretation with much history.” Elderfield’s concept of conscious planning could also be considered in terms of the story; if the story is not given room to develop then it may not reach its full potential. This theory also relates to the writing of Paul Emmons. In ‘Demiurgic Lines: Line Making and the Architectural Imagination’ Emmons explains that “Architectural drawing is a unique mode of active thinking, a fertile wellspring where a design emerges from within the effort of drafting.” This Article focused on the …show more content…

The artist’s language through drawing is their unique expression of their private thoughts, making them public and hopefully understood in some way. The journey of the personal becoming public is at the heart of the architect’s narrative and the narrative usually starts with a drawing. The importance awarded to drawing in the process as the initial and inventive moment of the art making narrative is very well