Tracing Paper As a Site for “Taking the Mind for a Walk”1

ITU A|Z • Vol 17 No 3 • November 2020 • 127-139 Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk”1

Hatice Işıl Uysal1, Gülçin Pulat Gökmen2 1 [email protected] • Architectural Design Doctorate Program, Graduate School of Science Engineering and Technology, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey 2 [email protected] • Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

Received: April 2019 • Final Acceptance: May 2020

Abstract This article concentrates on the tactility of a mind-walk that is realized by writing on tracing paper. The mind becomes a terrain as it is being walked on while writing, and writing is both making traces on a surface and opening a path in the mind. As the writing continues, lines match with time, and the path that has already been visited becomes distant. A methodology has been researched to see the previously visited path and the upcoming path simultaneously. The need for seeing both past and present has turned into an initiator idea of seeing depth on the paper surface that has employed tracing paper as a site for this experimental work. Generally used as an architectural drawing medium, tracing paper is used both as a surface and a design environment. As the tracing paper is a translucent plane that makes seeing the superposed lines altogether possible, resorting to the papers diversifies the mind-path created by a single line. Thus, a thought becomes not an extending line that drifts away, but a visual experience of visiting superposed writings simultaneously. The totality and wayfare of thought unfold in and through the frame by its size A4 (21x29.7 cm). In this article, the possibilities of a medium are presented through tracing individual experiences. Also a path narrative is employed to delineate the understanding of the case of being on a continuous walk. Both the path narrative and the tracing paper have been tools for experiencing a surface with depth. Keywords doi: 10.5505/itujfa.2020.55822 doi: Walking, Mind-walking, Tactile experience, Line, Tracing paper. 128

1. Introduction continues and the time passes by, the Mind-walk is an imaginary walk car- written text, the encounters and deci- ried out with a body. As Solnit (2000) sion moments recede into the distance describes, the mind is a landscape of and fade away. Eventually, the problem sorts. And while the mind becomes of the trackability of an imaginable path a terrain when it starts to be walked, occurs. In order to image the path as a paths appear while the walking contin- whole and also continue writing at the ues. Writing, drawing, reading, paint- same time, a methodology is needed. ing and walking are some of the ways According to Deleuze (2006), the that open the paths through the mind creative act is realized through me- terrain. All the continuous intentions diums. For the filmmakers, blocks of and productions constitute these paths. movement-duration are mediums to Walking through the mind means vis- tell stories with (Deleuze, 2006). In an iting specific places that consist of interview, artist Kimsooja tells the sto- ideas and images. As Ingold (2010) ry of her relationship with the surface, points out, to walk is to journey in the “I had this exhilarating moment when I mind as much as on the land, and to was trying to push the needlepoint into read is to journey on the page as much the fabric…So that was the moment as in the mind. Some thoughts can only that this is it, this is the methodolo- occur at 6,000 feet above the plains and gy I would experiment to investigate while following a route a thousand bi- to dig into the depth of the surface” furcations swarm in one’s mind (Gros, (Bloomberg, 2017). The surface was 2014). When writing and creating a the two-dimension that she broke free path on the mind terrain, images and from but was the space where she was thoughts are gleaned. However, there still working. Through the possibilities are also elements such as decisions, of the medium, which was the needle bifurcated ideas, selections, dead ends for Kimsooja, the depth of the surface that constitute the mind terrain. One was discovered. As the needle was the might encounter differentiating paths, medium to discover the depth of the forget the places passed by and stray surface for Kimsooja, by problema- away but still be on the path. tizing seeing the mind-walk as a path As Careri (2007) states, the songlines without becoming distant, the surface of Australian Aborigines tell path-sto- itself has been the medium to discover ries that map their continent. Each the depth for this work. The valid writ- path has its own song and the complex ing surface was shifted to tracing paper of the songlines constitutes a network to create a writing surface with a depth of erratic, symbolic paths that cross that starts to reveal its possibilities as and describe the space (Careri, 2007). it is experienced. A series of successive A song continues as the walk contin- surfaces folding the unfolding thought ues, the length of a song is as long as in an unchanging frame has been the a walk (Solnit, 2000). As a songline site for taking the mind for a walk. makes a path imaginable, unlike a map, The continuous flow of time, between the song merges with the path and tells the body and the surface, was inter- stories about encounters at the body fered and folded by changing the only level. What a songline contains is what changeable element of this correlation, the writing is made up of: The body, the the surface. time and the surface. As to write is to walk through the 1.1. Methodology mind terrain, from the body to the In this phenomenological in-depth writing surface and from the surface to research, that comprises first-person the body there is a flow of continuous lived experience, a specific experiment lines either in the form of a path or a practiced by the author has been tak- text. While writing, encountering ideas en as the basis. The phenomenologi- and visiting images transform into a cal method is solely concerned with kinesthetic experience of the body that the description of an event or object draws lines onto a surface. Writing be- (Crust, Keegan, Piggott, & Swann, comes the correlation of time, the writ- 2011). It studies the structures of con- ing surface and the body. As the writing sciousness as experienced from the first

ITU A|Z • Vol 17 No 3 • November 2020 • H.I. Uysal, G. Pulat Gökmen 129 person point-of-view (Smith, 2018). ments of the traced interretaions, the This method, necessitating the individ- focus has been on creating a narrative ual experimentation, reveals and en- of being at the body level and revealing ables discovering unspoken relations the tactility of working with a medium between body and object through ex- while thinking through the medium. perience narratives. The fundamentals of the practice have been set by defin- 2. Elements of writing: Lines, ing the problem of the trackability of surfaces and tactility an imaginable path and bracketed as The work of the three elements, trac- discovering the depth of the writing ing papers, writings, and the body, is surface. In this regard, this article is more than an interaction. While writ- structured retrospectively by examining, thoughts and images transform ing the theoretical background of the into lines. The translucent surfaces elements that constitute the problem, of tracing paper create encounters in the relation between the experienced depth. Lines and superposed surfaces medium and the problem, the back- work as signifiers of movement and ground of the practice, and analysis of resorted thoughts. The body is the the experiments. The analysis is depen- connective tissue between lines, re- dent on the interrelations between the arranged surfaces and thoughts. This bodily movements and differentiating work of the threefold, on a broad- layouts of the medium. er scale, is the work of lines, surfaces The phenomenological method is and tactile experience. In the following, employed to track the relations be- these elements are examined both with tween the body and the writing sur- their expansions at the broader scale face. The tracing paper as a design and with their situation that is specific environment has worked as a site that to this work. unblocks the path that had a desire to unfold. For this work, it is taken as 2.1. Lines the site where the ideas are probed, A line is a continuous movement. It attached, resorted, accumulated and does not flash into view, it emerges or folded. The tracing paper, as the site, is experienced in a period. Line, as a is discovered through tracing the so- movement, indicates a flow, and track- matic motions transformed into move- ing a line is a temporal activity: draw- ment sequences that create the layouts ing a line, connecting places, sewing, of the medium. The experiments of the singing a song, walking, telling a story, author are tracked and the traces of living… They all occupy a period. De- depth through these experiments are pending on the fact that the lines are pursued. The tension of searching for a related to time, they have metaphorical methodology to reach a trackable path connections with and translations to constituted the background of this site other things that are temporal. Thus, experimentation and, revealing the while occupying time, they also con- possibilities of a rediscovered medium, nect, collect and project things. As they constituted the practice of the site. The work as ever-extending placeholders, narrative of working with tracing paper which are signifiers of intentionality is formed by using photographs of the and movement, lines build paths that experiments, and the experiments have expand and collect infinitely many im- been narrated from the first person to ages, places and temporalities. As con- unfold the unconscious discovery of tinuity indicates connection and move- depth. The photographs used in the ment indicates time, lines connect and fourth part have been the references collect whatever they touch or signify. to investigate the movement sequenc- What is collected on a line differs ac- es and meanings of the differentiating cording to experiences and projections layouts. Therefore, these photographs realized throughout the line. are not illustrative for the text, but the By means of the great variety of ex- text is a reading and the analysis of the periences and projections, lines appear photographs. in different forms and meanings, such Eventually, as the body and the me- as a walk being a line is a trace on the dium, as the object, are the main ele- earth and the air. It makes visible and

Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk” 130 invisible traces. Casey & Davies (2015) they are not grasped at one glance. To approach the line as both a physical and track the writing, one needs to follow temporal phenomenon and also a con- lines. As Solnit (2000) states, to write is nection that links events and places in to carve a new path through the terrain one’s mind. As they have it, a walked of imagination and to read is to travel line is the unfolding of an event. The through that terrain in the guidance of line becomes a space where people meet the author. However, it is possible to be and dialogue takes place (Casey & Da- surrounded by the writings as an envi- vies, 2015). On the other hand, a line ronment. As Pallasmaa (2005) has put might be a walked and embodied path it, two types of vision are focused and as in Richard Long’s works that he calls peripheral visions. While the text works sculptures (Url-1). And as Solnit (2000) as a peripheral image as a whole, read- states, each walk moves through space ing is related to a focused image, and like a thread through fabric, sewing it writing is a focused imagination that together into a continuous experience. calls in peripheral images. Throughout a walk, the body, places and Besides the visuality of a line, a line time get connected and merged as if a is a form for writing that the thought is thread. Therefore, it is possible to talk transformed into [Figure 1]. Thus, ex- about the versatility of different lines. periencing a text is grasping a thought According to Ingold (2007), lines can be via an image that is the extension of sorted as threads, traces, ghostly lines, thought. The flow of writing is bidi- cuts, cracks, creases, and lines that do rectional: thought transforming into not fit this taxonomy. The appearance an image and the image transforming of lines is differentiated both by their into thought. The inner space, the body, relations with surfaces and by their re- embraces images, thoughts and move- lations within themselves. Ingold (2007) ments, and a path starts to open when specifies this approach by stating that a flow is allowed. Images, thoughts and the history of lines is about the history movements get caught in this path as of the ever-changing relations between writing. lines and surfaces. The relation of a line within itself is an in-between relation as 2.2. Surfaces for being both a line and a surface at the Surfaces are layers that make the tac- same time. tile experiences possible. The body is a surface of sorts, and everything that the 2.1.1. Text as the trace body can touch, including air, are sur- The experiments between tracing pa- faces. According to Ingold (2014), air is per and lines were possible depending the very medium that makes perception on the two aspects of writing. These are possible. As densities are variable, such that the writing is a line on a surface and hence an image, and it is the conveyor of meaning and thought. According to Ingold’s taxonomy, the text is a tracing where a line is in a relationship with a surface. It might be formed by surface cuts, hewing out, en- graving or it can be painted or sewn on a surface. The layout of text changes according to which surface it is written on, the writing medium and the material of the surface. The visual experience of a text depends on the correlation between lines and surfaces. When looking at a text, one is engaged in visual practices (Ingold, 2010). Writing and the surface both create an environment that sur- rounds the writer and the reader, and Figure 1. The materiality of thought as lines the environment is a path that can be and surfaces: A handful text (H. I. Uysal, tracked. Although the texts are images, 2020).

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and making technical drawings. By using tracing paper, it is possible to see underlying surfaces, to trace, copy, reproduce, revise, design, etc. Tracing paper also protects the original. There- fore, without changing the original, alternatives can be produced, notes can be taken. Its use is based on seeing, remembering and referencing the underlayers. There are various types of tracing paper that vary in density, col- or, size, texture and opacity. Although they are neither transparent nor opaque, tracing paper offers a surface that can work as both. Since they are not transparent like glass surfaces, one does not have the feeling of writing on an already written surface or falling into the underlying writings. Hence, it is possible to be aware of underlayers; the writer/ designer would Figure 2. A random image of superposed layers of tracing paper be surrounded by the environment (H. I. Uysal, 2019). that is created through underlying images. Using tracing paper makes it as a paper, air or water surface, not all possible to focus on the surface and the surfaces are experienced as planes. work similar to working on an opaque However, surfaces work as mediums surface or focusing on the depth and and via all surfaces, tactile experiences creating visual connections with the are engaged. underlying surfaces. Therefore, trac- The transparency feature of a surface ing paper works as both a frame and ensures that all the senses work. Focus- a blurred surface. As the figure shows, ing on transparency, for example, the the superposed layers of tracing pa- experience of walking on glass creates per are full of writings [Figure 2]. The a feeling of falling into the image even topmost paper is the most dominant though it is a solid surface. Claid (2017) layer where the words on the underly- describes her experience of walking on ing papers get connected. Even if the glass as follows: The visual sights below topmost paper is blank, the writings warp and distort, their lower backs tin- on the underlaying papers are blurred gle as if vertebrae have clashed togeth- to create an environment of words, ex- er, legs become fuzzy and have a life of pressions and thoughts. This environ- their own. In this case, experiencing ment is used for recalling or not leav- the image works with kinesthetic. Even ing the thoughts and making possible though the contacted surface is a sol- to see all the lines altogether. Thus, the id floor, as it is transparent, it offers a thought is preserved in between the visual experience, and the encountered surfaces and the temporal thought is image changes the whole bodily expe- not lost. rience. In terms of transparency, image and experience, the relationship be- 2.3. Tactile experience tween writer/painter and tracing paper “Thought is molecular. Molecular works very similar to walking on glass. speeds make up the slow beings that we are .” 2.2.1. Tracing paper as the site Gilles Deleuze, 2000 Tracing paper has a surface that can be drawn on, but also is a translucent Bohm (1985) addresses a bidirec- layer that makes possible seeing and tional flow of wholeness that is be- encountering the already drawn un- tween “soma”, meaning body, and derneath. It is a design environment “significance”, related with meaning. that is commonly used for sketching Soma-significance means that the soma is significant to the higher or Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk” 132 more subtle level, and signa-somatic ed by the extensions of its thoughts means that significance acts somat- has the meaning of being surround- ically toward a more manifest level ed by bodily projections that work as (Bohm, 1985). In any case, soma and interfaces. The body encounters its significance act together. As Bohm prolongations via those interfaces. (1985) states, there is only one flow, As the body is in continuous relation and a change of meaning is a change with the environment, touching the in that flow. Therefore, any change world always becomes touching one- of meaning is a change of soma, and self. Jacks (2004) uses the word merg- any change of soma is a change of ing for the integration of the body to meaning (Bohm, 1985). According to the environment and the action of Bohm (1895), “meaning is conveyed both as a whole. He associates merg- from one person to another and back ing with the Japanese word for body, through sound waves, through ges- shintai, which refers to the physicality tures carried by light, through books of the body in dynamic relation to the and newspapers, through telephone, physical properties of the world. The radio, television and so on, linking body is merged with the world due to up the whole society in one vast web its nature and structure. Touching is of some-significant and signa-somat- followed by merging, and merging is ic activity”. As Talbot (2015) quotes not getting flattened but getting inter- Bohm, vibrations of meaning are con- twined with the possibilities of bodi- veyed from the mind to the object. By ly connective tissues. Touching and focusing on Deleuze’s (2000) phrase, it merging create the lived space and can be stated that molecular thoughts time that is called tactile experience. make up the writing that has a differ- The second aspect is the visual ex- ent haste of movement. The thought is perience. The visual experience is a pulled into the line and transformed tactile experience as the eye is the into writing. The writing is not a con- skin. Pallasmaa (2005) states that “All veyor of an image, it is the image with the senses, including vision, are exten- cavities, curves following each other. sions of the tactile sense; the senses Thoughts and images that create are specializations of skin tissue, and writing become conveyable via the en- all sensory experiences are modes of vironment of lines and surfaces. The touching and thus related to tactility.” conveyance takes place between peo- Thus the visual experience is not an ple and the environment. Depending encounter with a flattened surface or a on the selection and the correlation frozen moment but is a dynamic pro- of surface and lines, the experience cess that is realized among the surface with the image of lines and surfac- and the haptic eye. Body touching the es may have differentiating paths of surface, inhaling the image and ex- soma-significant and signa-somat- haling the lines builds up the invisible ic flows. Depending on those flows, connections. Between the writing sur- if the body is the center, one can see faces and the body, invisible thought that there is a tactile flow in two direc- lines emerge. The air between the sur- tions. The body-centered flow is called face, and the body is full of bonds that experience, and the experience is tac- carry and project the thoughts and the tile depending on two situations: With images. Pallasmaa’s (2005) words, the body is The images of thoughts, facts and projected onto the world, and the eye emotions are created and experienced is the specialization of the skin tissue. via imagination. According to Corbin According to Merleau-Ponty (1972), there is a world of images (1964), the world is made of the very created with imagination, which is a material of the body. Things are an world that is ontologically as real as annex or prolongation of the body the world of the senses and the intel- (Merleau-Ponty, 1964). The idea of lect. He uses the term mundus imagi- the world as bodily flesh is on the nalis instead of imaginary as the term same axis of thought that the body is imaginary is equated with the unreal projected onto the world. Building an and the things that do not exist. To environment where one is surround- delineate what imaginary leads to,

ITU A|Z • Vol 17 No 3 • November 2020 • H.I. Uysal, G. Pulat Gökmen 133 mundus imaginalis describes the im- Line transforms into movement, the age movement in this world, which movement to image, image to the man- consists of images and where the im- ner, manner to action. Throughout the ages are in suspense (Corbin, 1972). transformation process, the content We experience space in the same way can be expanded or narrowed; matter we experience the interior of the body. can become lineal, a line can be spati- According to Corbin (1972), the five alized. However, all the forms are lineal senses in the outer world, which are in a way since they are temporal and related to a specific organ in the body, experienced at the level of the body. synthesize into one sense in the inner Writing is a slow unfolding. It is a world, which opens up to the world walk that forms a unique path in the of images. As the body moves in the mind. As the speeds of writing and world of images, the muscles, organs, thinking differ, the transcribed line is cells join the move and make the im- a slow unfolding of the bodily expe- aged movement. The whole body gets rience. Thought unfolds and extends involved in the movement of imag- toward a line, and the line transforms es. Image is preceded by experience, into a text by taking a path drawn from and imagination realizes experience the body to the surface. As the writing through images. The relation of image, continues, the line becomes charged experience and imagination is based with meanings, thoughts, images and on the interchangeability and compre- bodily movements. Sometimes the hensiveness of all. Imagination is the thought in the mind is in the form of creation of the inner world that calls a skein (Solnit, 2000). To walk in the in the world of images and, as it is de- mind is to unwind the skein, unfold the lineated above as tactile experience, is thought and visit the places of thought projected from the inner world to the on the line. Saville (2008) describes the surface via invisible connective tissue. movement as the harmony between kinesthetic and visual experience. 3. Mind-walking with tracing Where the kinesthetic and visual expe- paper: Walking and writing rience is combined, movement is flat- Walking is the displacement of the tened as a line. However, as writing is a body over time at the body level. A movement that is realized between the mind-walk is a walk through the ter- inner body and surface, between the rain of the mind. While walking, we path in the mind and the text on the walk our experience plane, ramble surface there are invisible embodied through images and places that are all lineal connections. On the other hand, viscosities of time. According to Zevi writing, which is the slow opening of (1993), walking within a building and the mind, is to leave the pre-written studying it from successive points of behind in time and at a distance. As view is to create the fourth dimension writing continues, the former text be- and give the space an integrated reality. comes distant and temporal, the lineal When the walk within the building is connections between the body and the translated into walking through resort- surface start to attenuate. In order to ed surfaces of tracing paper, the whole recall the former thoughts, the page image becomes the thought that had should be turned backward. been transcribed onto those surfaces. As the written text becomes distant The experience plane of a walker is an and the connections start to attenu- extending line that the images are at- ate, there emerges the need to see all tached to. Ways that unflatten the ex- the writings at one glance to keep the perience, transform it into other forms. thought on the path and let new paths These forms can be listed as writing, to be blazed. However, this need is drawing, photographing, repeating, quite unlike the visual experience of recording, thinking, expressing and looking at a map or a satellite image, as telling. Yet other forms can be added the encountered surfaces create differ- to this list, and some forms would be ent image qualities. The visual quality formless. For example, an architectural of this need is similar to looking back drawing is a form of architectural in- to see the descents and ascents of the tention that is transformed into lines. path that is passed by while walking.

Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk” 134

De Certeau (1988) distinguishes the environment, without quitting writ- narratives of the path and the map and ing, the writing surface was changed. calls the spatial practices of being on Accordingly, this section consists of the path as spatial stories. Being on the a close look at the experiments with level of the body is being on the path, tracing paper via individual experienc- and the view that the observer sees is es. The method used for examining the not an overview of the path but the process was tracking the movements track of it. Using a translucent paper made while working, connections that instead of an opaque paper and super- emerged during the resorting of the posing all the written pages has been a tracing papers, and photographs that way to see the walked path and the on- were taken during or after the process. coming path simultaneously. Through the usage of tracing paper, 4.1. Initial determinants the invisible embodied lineal connec- Before the surface shift, from the tions between the body and the sur- opaque to the translucent, making a face continue to extend and fill the nonhierarchical and unsorted list that atmosphere between the superposed consists of intensions, words, images papers. As it has been called a tactile and thoughts was an earthly path to experience previously, all the layers of start on. Writing the words equidistant- the translucent surfaces and their order ly would keep all the issues unsorted. are included in this bodily experience. First, all the words, concepts and state- Changing the order of the written pag- ments were written on an opaque piece es is a way of sorting a thought differ- of cardboard. Although the locations ently and creating new connections. of the words on the cardboard surface, Resorting the translucent surfaces while being side by side created connec- changes the distances of thoughts and tions and sorting spontaneously, the ex- as the body is involved in the resorting pressions were to be seen loose and un- activity, not only by writing but also by sorted. While using the cardboard as a rearranging, the whole experience be- base plane, tracing paper was taped onto comes a kinesthetic mind-walk. the cardboard to keep all the written issues in their initial state. The cardboard 4. An individual experience flow of surface worked as a reminder and while experiments with tracing paper being worked on via another surface, it Tracing paper was used during the kept its raw state [Figure 3]. Despite the ongoing thesis study of the author. It tracing paper layers being processed, was used as a medium to pursue the the initial surface of the inscribed equi- flowing ideas about the unstructured distant expressions stayed unconnect- work. Before starting to use tracing ed. On the other hand, each new layer paper, the initial intention was to be of the tracing paper became connected. aware of unconnected issues, inten- Depending on reaching connections tions, thought particles, images in the created on the upper layers of the trac- mind. There were pathless intentions ing paper, keeping the layers untouched and words, and as the unconnected and undisturbed has been the first de- issues were being written, they were terminant. To continue working on an wandering away as separate pages. idea, layers were added either by taping Thoughts were becoming connected as or by simply placing one onto another. they were written, but the connections The first attempt at working with the were moving away as they were left be- tracing paper was drawing lines onto hind. The need to see all the connec- it to correlate with the words on the tions together without distances had cardboard. The first surface drawn on appeared. became the front side, and the other Tracing paper is a familiar medi- surface became the back side. It was no- um as it is a tool used for architectural ticed that the tracing paper did not have sketching. The tracing paper appeared two neutral surfaces as white paper has. to be appropriate for creating an envi- It was not possible to treat equally the ronment for continuous writing and surfaces of the paper. The back surface thinking. Depending on the rediscov- would turn into an area of interference ery of the medium as an experimental to the front surface. In addition to the

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Figure 3. The work of the cardboard and translucent paper surfaces. The words encountered through the tracing paper layer and folding (H. I. Uysal, 2017). front and back side relationship, fold- equate for enabling viewing the whole ing the paper was experimented to see surface and focusing comfortably. how the surfaces differed while draw- Paper weighing 112 g/m² was strong ing lines. Folding helped to create more enough and suitable for conserving than two surfaces, augmenting the and archiving. Also, the surface be- fronts and backs [Figure 3]. Noticing havior was not too slippery nor too the differentiating sides of the tracing textured. In terms of their relationship paper was the second determinant for with the surface, an 0.4 mm needle tip getting engaged with the medium and or 0.2 mm plastic tip pen was used. investigating via it. As the third determinant, seeing and 4.3. Tactile movements focusing solely onto the surface of the After working with both cardboard topmost tracing paper, an opaque layer and tracing paper, the cardboard was was placed between the upper tracing removed and only the tracing paper paper and the underlayers [Figure 4]. was used. The written and drawn trac- All these initial practices were the de- ing papers were placed under the one terminants for the relationship with the in use. But the underlayers did not al- medium, enabling examining the possi- ways work as a reference or reminder. bilities of the medium by experiencing Sometimes they were only background it. By associating the tracing paper with working as peripheral images. On the the words below it, and moving the trac- other hand, if the focus was on the ing paper on the cardboard surface, the background, they seemed to become possibilities of relationships between explicit images. If the underlayers were the lines and words have been revealed. associated with the content of the topmost surface, they were drawn into 4.2. Selection of the medium qualities the ongoing work. By slightly sliding While executing these experiments, the top paper, the image of a former tracing paper of different sizes and thought was encountered and pulled types was used. By experiencing dif- into the present. By reordering the sur- ferent types, eventually tracing paper faces, new connections and other pos. of the size A4 was selected. It was ad- sibilities appeared. Reordering surfaces

Figure 4. Placing an opaque layer in-between (H. I. Uysal, 2017)

Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk” 136 worked as resorting ideas to create a new thought path. If the top paper was removed or shifted, other diverse lines would be visible [Figure 5]. To reach a thought on a particular place of the mind-path, a walk was started through all the other surfaces, passing by other thoughts and images, and revisiting places, finally arriving at the targeted thought. This walk corresponded to resorting, removing, shifting or adding previously transcribed surfaces. All the movements were for following the path Figure 5. Encounters with different images depending on the slight of thought by playing with distances, shifts of tracing papers (H. I. Uysal, 2019). orders, and zooming in and out. How- ever, the movement was not random. It as the least visible writing trace at the was controlled by the need to see more bottom to create other possibilities clearly, more blurrily or not to see at all. of a path. The main reference writing To edit the thought on the same plane, would be placed at the top, and the it was assured that all the thoughts un- other writings that were essential to see folded into the same frame, and the would be under it to provide the fol- path in mind was framed with super- lowing of the thought. The reason for posed A4 tracing papers where it was adding a translucent surface by taping folded. it to the finished surface was to edit the writing, but also to see the way it was 4.4. Layouts before it was edited. This was also done The initial experiment that created to deepen and expand the text [Fig- the layouts consisted of some attempts ure 7]. In no circumstances were there to cut the A4 papers. These attempts made any changes or corrections on were finalized by taping cut pieces onto the front surface of the original paper, other A4 paper. To be able to archive because all the visual connections that and resort the papers, the size A4 was create the path and the process need- kept in the future works. Keeping the ed to be kept as they were. The only size as it is, formed the layouts of the permanent intervention made onto paper. the original tracing paper was drawing The layout of a surface changed ac- lines onto the backside to highlight se- cording to the scope of the thought it lected specific expressions on the front conveyed. Having some writing on a side. Even though the line on the back surface allowed it to keep its semantic surface seemed to be blurred as it was context. The first writing attempt was on another paper surface, it moved to write separate subjects on separate with the surface it belonged to. pieces of paper. If anything was needed If instead of seeing everything, not to be added onto a specific paper, an- seeing things became crucial, white other paper was placed onto the writ- paper was taped to the backside of ten paper to keep it untouched. Some- the tracing paper [Figure 8]. Or an A6 times there were only a few sentences sized white paper was taped, in order to that could belong to one specific sur- focus on the writing in process and still face [Figure 6]. Sometimes, although it be surrounded by peripheral image of had space, one surface was not enough. the under layers. As the A6 paper was If the thought needed to continue, it placed as a separator, the flow of some leaped to another surface that was al- thoughts were stopped, surrounding ways removable. Thus, if the recently image of the under layers was kept and created connection caused by the addi- the focus on the specific idea contin- tion was not appropriate, the taped ad- ued. Besides, when the surface to focus dition would simply be removed. The on became smaller, the thought would first idea, if necessary, would remain accumulate onto the surface; it would in its initial form without an addition- fold and deepen. When the A6 paper al note, and the note could be visible was removed, the path continued to

ITU A|Z • Vol 17 No 3 • November 2020 • H.I. Uysal, G. Pulat Gökmen 137 extend and become connected with other layers. As the tracing paper surface worked for following and unfolding thought, the path created through bonded thoughts had been visible via layouts produced during the work in process.

4.5. Other experiments Throughout the working process, in addition to the specified movements and layouts above, ways of combining writing with two-dimensional images and of experiencing the new con- Figure 7. Underlying surface contains an nections due to their superpositions outline, and the top surface follows the were experimented with [Figure 9]. outline by expanding it; the overview and the detail working together (H. I. Uysal, The writings, drawings or photographs 2018). were superposed within the context of a shared subject. As the texts had been tion of the skein into forms of tactile peripheral images, in a similar way, movements. Bringing the materials photographs and drawings worked as together, rambling on different pa- textual elements. The image, above or per surfaces and writing have been below, was an atmospheric element bodily processes. Unfolding thoughts that set the tone for the ongoing writ- became connected to time and place ing. through writing. The speed of thinking has been aligned with writing speed. 5. Conclusion An imaginable path is created. All the Before being transcribed, thoughts experiments were done with tracing are in the form of a skein that waits to paper with the movement sequences be transformed into lines. There are of superposing, shifting, taping, re- no trails of a path on the terrain of the sorting, adding papers with different mind, but there is an image of possible opacities have been between seeing or paths. Throughout the process of expe- not seeing the underlying layers. These riencing the tracing paper, writing and movement sequences have formed the mind-walking have been a transla- tactile experience, and while the papers were revisited, the traces of the movements have worked as signifiers of the mind-walk process. Seeing the written pages below had the meaning of visiting the place where thought has risen, and being there unfolded other paths of thought. Depending on the experiences of thinking through tracing paper, various ways of thought tracing, mind-walking types have emerged. While tracing the layouts of the surfaces and the tactile movements, intertwining of the body and the surface have become explicit. In a broader perspective, writing is a tactile act already. It is a visual and kinesthetic experience. However, the change in the opacity of the medium, breaking free from the opaque surface, has changed the experience as a whole. Figure 6. Not using the entire tracing paper Going beyond the act of writing, work- surface. Creating a paper with spaces to keep the writing within its meaningful ing with translucent layers has become context (H. I. Uysal, 2019). a tactile visuality that draws the paper

Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk” 138

Figure 8. A6 papers being used to provide focusing; the layouts created by these papers (H.I. Uysal, 2018). space into the experience as depth in charged with and has a background situ. The depth provides accumula- of bodily walks, it continues to search tion of writings instead of distal writ- for a methodology of keeping walking ings. The surface has become an ac- through the topography, the surfaces, tive place with changing views and and the mind-terrain. Becoming aware depths. Continuing to walk the path of connectiveness of the time and line while looking both backward and for- has been the first step for questing the ward is the definition that makes this accumulation of lines that would create need specific. Using the tracing paper a depth where one can see the time. The was the medium to continue working. differences between map and path nar- The experiments with it have revealed ratives create the quality of seeing and the possibilities of the medium. For a tracing. Seeing has become encounters mind-walk, the tracing paper has been on a path that show the traces of the the site with a depth that enables the troddened path. Writing has become thoughts to accumulate. an act of sewing the images, lines, and This work asserts the challenge of surfaces around a thought. In conclu- keeping a nomadic experience as it sion, this work consists of the interrela- is. However, it does not research the tion of two separate research issues: the representation but the actualization exploration of the unfamiliar meanings of the experience. As this work is and usage possibilities of a familiar

Figure 9. Correlation between other images and writing (H.I. Uysal, 2018).

ITU A|Z • Vol 17 No 3 • November 2020 • H.I. Uysal, G. Pulat Gökmen 139 design tool through experiences, and Ingold, T. (2007). Lines: A brief histo- the path narrative of being at the body ry. Routledge. level. The interrelation has revealed a Ingold, T. (2010). Ways of methodology for a tactile mind-walk Mind-Walking: Reading, Writing, through an imagined surface depth. Painting. Visual Studies, 25(1), 15-23. doi:10.1080/14725861003606712. References Ingold, T. (2014, May 21). On the life Bloomberg (2017, January 17). of lines [Video]. Vimeo. https://vimeo. Kimsooja explores the notion of being com/97117540 human | brilliant ideas ep. 45 [Video]. Jacks, B. (2004). Reimagin- YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/ ing Walking. Journal of Archi- watch?v=P3Dq9dNmE-I tectural Education, 57(3), 5-9. Bohm, D. & Factor, D. (1985). Un- doi:10.1162/104648804772745193. folding meaning: A weekend of dialogue Klee, P. (1972). Pedagogical sketch- with David Bohm. Routledge. book. Praeger Publishers. Careri, F. (2007). Walkscapes: Walk- Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964). Eye and ing as an aesthetic practice. Gustavo mind. In J. M. Edie (Ed.), C. Dallery Gili. (Trans.), Primacy of perception (pp. Casey, S. & Davies, G. (2015). Lines 159-192). Northwestern University of Engagement: Drawing Walking Press. Tracking. Journal of Visual Art Prac- Pallasmaa, J. (2005). The eyes of the tice, 14(1), 72-83. doi:10.1080/1470202 skin. Wiley. 9.2015.1010366. Saville, S. J. (2008). Playing with Fear: De Certeau, M. (1988). The practice Parkour and the Mobility of Emotion. of everyday life (S. Rendall, Trans.). Social & Cultural Geography, 9(8), 891- University of California Press. 914. doi:10.1080/14649360802441440. Claid, E. (2017). Walking on Glass. Smith, D. W. (2018). Phenomenol- Emotion, Space and Society, 28(2018), ogy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford 89-93. Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Corbin, H. (1972). Mundus Imagi- March 28, 2020 from, https://plato. nalis or the Imaginary and the Imagi- stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/en- nal. Retrieved August 02, 2018, from tries/phenomenology/ http://www.bahaistudies.net/asma/ Solnit, R. (2000). Wanderlust: A his- mundus_imaginalis.pdf. tory of walking. Penguin Books. Crust, L., Keegan, R., Piggott, D., & Talbot, M. (2015). Holografik evren. Swann, C. (2011). Walking the Walk: A Omega Yayınları. Phenomenological Study of Long Dis- Url-1 < http://www.richardlong.org/ tance Walking. Journal of Applied Sport Sculptures/2011sculptures/linewalk- Psychology, 23(3), 243-262. doi:10.1080 ing.html> /10413200.2010.548848. Zevi, B. (1993). Architecture as space: Deleuze, G. (2000). The brain is How to look at architecture. Da Capo the screen: An interview with Gilles Press. Deleuze. In G. Flaxman (ed.), The brain is the screen (pp. 365-373). University Endnotes of Minnesota Press. 1 Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketch- Deleuze, G. (2006). What is the cre- book (1925) begins with the phrase ative act? In D. Lapoujade (ed.), Two “An active line on a walk, moving free- regimes of madness (pp. 312-325). Se- ly, without goal”, and the emphasis is miotext(e). on his mostly cited phrase “drawing is Gros, F. (2014). A philosophy of taking a line for a walk”. walking. Verso.

Tracing paper as a site for “taking the mind for a walk”