{"id":718,"date":"2024-12-06T07:33:44","date_gmt":"2024-12-06T06:33:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/artashistoricalresearch\/?page_id=718"},"modified":"2025-04-08T13:56:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-08T11:56:59","slug":"assignment-2-tree-rings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dlf.uzh.ch\/sites\/artbasedhistory\/assignment-2-tree-rings\/","title":{"rendered":"Exercise 2: Visualizing Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Fig. 3.2: \u201cHistory\u201d as the total of myriad vectors, Jonas R\u00fcegg 2024.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Visualizing Time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Draw \u201chistory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students gather in groups with different disciplinary backgrounds. They spend 5-10 minutes filling a blank paper each with a personal drawing of \u201chistory,\u201d without looking at each other\u2019s works. Afterwards, they compare their drawings and explain their choices of subject, framing etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The groups discuss what \u201cstory\u201d is visible in each of the drawings. Are there any protagonists and antagonists? Is there a beginning and an end? Is it a tragedy or a story of success? When, where and who is \u201chistory\u201d in your drawing?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Possible takeaways<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This exercise helps give shape to an abstract concept. Participants are forced to make choices where only a small part of the concept\u2019s connotations can be expressed at once, and in means other than the go-to explanations we use in language-based conversations. Drawing can bring out assumptions otherwise hidden behind conventional expressions: who acts in the picture? What are the spatial or graphical relationships between objects and figures? Is there a direction in \u201chistory?\u201d And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For advanced audiences, the level of abstraction can be elevated by assigning more abstract topics (draw \u201ctime\u201d). Alternatively, the exercise can also be narrowed down to more concrete topics (draw \u201cdemocracy\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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