Archiving Spatial Drawing through Texture

Abstract

This visual essay presents a series of archival drawings from the artistic research project ‘EXPANDED GLITCH: forging digital materiality’ which explored new forms in blacksmithing through spatial drawing in VR, producing a collection of statement furniture-sculptures for showcasing Jewelry. The collaborative project started in a workshop format and continued more formally, in this way also exploring non-linear ways of working closely with craftspersons, designing with photogrammetry scanning and VR technology. The overall porous process of exchange is discussed from the lens of trajectories of diffraction1, examining moments of tension and ambiguity between collaborators and how the specific digital tools influenced the process. Some of the images presented are preparatory drawings used throughout the design process of the first sculpture. Together with other drawings that were made following its realization, the essay presents the process of archiving the experience of spatial drawing into one ‘final drawing’, the artwork LIMBS (2025). This archives different aspects of the project’s material, spatial and collaborative dimensions through its composition and its digital matrix of texture layers. LIMBS (2025), considered both a drawing and a textile artwork, also translates a deep engagement with digital materiality and the movement of spatial drawing into a physical work.