Diagrams play an important function in producing meaning in the arts, sciences and esoteric culture. Making or interpreting diagrams can help us schematise the relationships between the parts of a concept or object. Diagrams can help us visualise that which is abstract, invisible or imaginary.

This project addresses the need for practice-led research about diagrams. Through artistic experiments, I will investigate how colour, materials, gesture and abstraction can affect how we produce meaning in diagrammatic form. My artworks will investigate how sensory and aesthetic relationships with diagrams can lead to fruitful chains of associative thought and new interpretative encounters.

I will have conversations with researchers from a range of disciplines, such as biologists, anatomists, architects, urban climate researchers, physicists, and geographers of outer space, etc. These conversations will inform my artistic and speculative interpretations of their diagrams and research. This approach encourages the exchange of knowledge and practice between disciplines. Common threads in my artworks will include diagramming visible and invisible forces and connections between time, space, nature and technology.

An analysis of other artists’ works will explore the importance of diagrammatic abstraction in 20th and 21st western art. I will explore how diagrams of time have been a means for artists to create associative and speculative works that reflect concerns about the relationships between technological developments and human life.

Links

Website: https://www.mary-yacoob.com/images
Instagram: @mary_yacoob

Supervisors

Primary supervisor: David Burrows
Secondary supervisor: Chiara Ambrosio