Felt Maps: Documenting the ‘Spatialised Feelings of Everyday Public Atmospheric Spaces
Felt Maps: Documenting the 'Spatialised Feelings' of Everyday Public Atmospheric Spaces is an ongoing practice-based research project that explores the notion of drawing as a means of recording the ‘spatialised feelings’ of everyday public spaces, aiming to enhance our awareness of pathically felt bodily experiences. Drawing upon the theory of atmospheres within new phenomenology, the research examines how the affective and expressive qualities of atmospheres, understood as corporeally felt impulses, can influence the gestural drawing process. By investigating various sites through drawing in-situ—from New York City to Sligo, Northwest of Ireland and the Australian countryside, my drawings, termed 'Felt Maps,' are records of the phenomenological experiences of a site’s atmosphere.
Through this practice-based research, the gestural line becomes a form of pathic knowing, revealing dimensions that are more felt than thought. This approach offers a more profound lived experience by encouraging us to sense ourselves pathically within our surroundings. Drawing as a phenomenological act, can provide a meaningful account of what is usually perceived as 'in-situ,' 'background,' 'surroundings,' or 'environment.' By prioritising the felt body, this method of enquiry extends beyond the traditional five senses, providing a more holistic understanding of the spaces we inhabit and the act of drawing itself.
This research project is part of my doctoral research at Loughborough University UK.
I have been invited to present at conferences including APD - Architecture, Public Art, Drawing Seminar, Lisbon Faculty of Fine Arts, Portugal, November 2024 and Drawing Research Network 2023, Drawing in Relation at Loughborough University. Additionally, the research was presented at conferences in poster format at RMIT-Mapping Connections (AUS) and Drawing Articulations at Leeds University (UK). The research also formed publications, including a zine 'ATMOSPHERES I and book chapters such as ‘Project Anywhere Biennial IV’ (University of Melbourne and Parsons, School of Art, NY, 2021) and ‘Drawing from the Non-Place’ (Cambridge Scholars, 2020). And this research was explored through exhibition format at the following: Contemporary Centre for the Arts, Derry-Londonderry, (NI), Art, Walk, Porty (SCO), Courthouse Gallery & Studios, Clare (IRE), DASS ESSZIMMER, Bonn (GER), Leitrim Sculpture Centre (IRE) and DRAWSPACE (AUS). These projects were made possible by funding by the Arts Council of Ireland.
This research also forms part of the ongoing exhibitions, ATMOSPHERES I, II, III by Drawing deCentered (Felicity Clear, Mary-Ruth Walsh, Kiera O'Toole). Funded by the Arts Conic of Ireland Culture Ireland and ZEITGEIST '24.