| dc.description.abstract | Despite advances in image, video, and motion capture technologies, human interactions are frequently
represented as line drawings. Intuitively, drawings provide a useful way of filtering complex, dynamic
sequences to produce concise representations of interaction. They also make it possible to represent
phenomena such as topic spaces, that do not have a concrete physical manifestation. However, the
processes involved in producing these drawings, the advantages and limitations of line drawings as
representations, and the implications of drawing as an analytic method have not previously been
investigated. This thesis explores the use of drawings to represent human interaction and is informed
by the prior experience and abilities of the investigator as a practising visual artist. It begins by
discussing the drawing process and how it has been used to capture human activities. Key drawing
techniques are identified and tested against an excerpt from an interaction between architects. A series
of new drawings are constructed to depict one scene from this interaction, highlighting the contrasts
between each drawing technique and their impact on the way shared spaces are represented. A second
series of original drawings are produced exploring new ways of representing these spaces, leading to
a proposal for a field-based approach that combines gesture paths, fields, and human figures to create
a richer analytic representation. A protocol for using this approach to analyse video in practice is
developed and evaluated though a sequence of three participatory workshops for researchers in human
interaction. The results suggest that the field based process of drawing facilitates the production of
spatially enriched graphical representations of qualitative spaces. The thesis concludes that the use of
drawing to explore non-metric approaches to shared interactional space, has implications for research
in human interaction, interaction design, clinical psychology, anthropology, and discourse analysis,
and will find form in new new approaches to contemporary artistic practice. | en_US |
