‘The dance of drawing’ and the limits of digital assistance

Abstract

By looking at ‘the dance of a drawing’, this paper questions the interest and limits of digital technologies in the world of drawing and, more broadly, the visual arts. Based on the system of Effort conceived by the movement theorist Rudolf Laban (1879–1956), the author proposes a new way of apprehending pictorial and graphic form, from its expressive movements. This approach leads the author to distinguish between two modes of graphic expression, the sensory and the rational, which are both opposed and complementary. By inviting the viewer to observe the dance of paintings by Van Gogh and Seurat on the one hand and children’s drawings on the other, the paper underlines how digital technology cannot completely replace traditional drawing techniques.