Drawing a Hypothesis is an exciting reader on the ontology of forms of visualisation and on the development of the diagrammatic perspective and its use in contemporary art, science and theory.

In an intense process of exchange with artists and scientists, Nikolaus Gansterer reveals drawing figures as a media of research which enables the emergence of new narratives and ideas by tracing the speculative potential of diagrams. Based on a discursive analysis of found figures with the artist’s own diagrammatic maps and models, the invited authors create unique correlations between thinking and drawing. The book is a rich compendium of figures of thought, which moves from scientific representation through artistic interpretation and vice versa. Central hypotheses of the publication were later re-transformed into installations and/or performance lectures and presented in various occasions and formats.

Author's note:

"The idea for this book originated during a two-year research project at the Jan van Eyck Academie in the Netherlands. My longheld fascination for diagrams, maps, networks and the graphical forms of visualising complex associations prompted me to approach the field from an artistic point of view. How could these visual artefacts be comprehended? This book has arisen from a five-year exchange with theoreticians, scientists and artists on the question of the hypothetical potential of diagrams. Here I sent my drawings to various interpreters with a request for a written interpretation (micrology), so that in turn I could react to their texts with diagrammatic drawings and models."

"The process worked until the potential for action was exhausted. Through this intensive exchange of thoughts, the most varying ideas, hypotheses, theses and interrelations developed, eventually achieving the form of captions, (sci-fi)stories, and longer essays on the themes of figure, drawing, hypothesis and diagram. The resulting contributions are of very different kinds, reflecting their authors’ particular fields of knowledge in the fractious borderland between art, science and fiction. The design of the book was developed by Simona Koch reflecting the language of classical scientific formats of publications and enquiring how a specific appearance influences the perception of the content itself."

Language: English