FREEHAND DIGITAL DRAWING: A BOOST TO CREATIVE DESIGN. THE OBSERVER’S EYE AND THE DRAFTSMAN’S BRAIN

Representation of an architectural project aims at several intents; one of the most relevant being the visualization 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, while raising the question whether the current habit of an ever increasing digitalisation may be detrimental or advantageous to such relationship. After an analysis of architectural representation in history since Renaissance times, 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, a product of automated computerisation, 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. The 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 was dedicated to find a reliable way to perform the recordings in a subject who freely moved arm and hand while drawing for a few minutes; the second and third experiment were aimed at the analysis of cerebral activity occurring before and after the drawing movement. All results demonstrated that a definitely 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 is consequently 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. Nevertheless, the most recent advances in digitalising analogic dimensions through drawing tablets, have provided a new medium for freehand drawing, which can exploit the capacity of data handling of computers, time and effort saving, with the natural movement of using pencil and paper, ending up in an identical product. A wise usage of modern technology can therefore merge together the human factor of hand and brain reciprocal thrust with the fictitious world of the bits.