Resources embodied by action: A study on the coordination of gaze search and layout change in a professional Chinese calligrapher

Abstract

How does an artist utilize their ecological constraints when creating art? The present case study describes the making process of Rinsho, or imitation drawing, by a professional Chinese calligrapher through 16 experimental trials. To examine the process through which ecological constraints were exploited and utilized, I recorded the calligrapher' s movement data using a 3D motion capture system. My analysis focused on the calligrapher' s gaze search, specifically head height, the number and frequency of head rotation during writing, and the directional distribution of head movement. The results show that the calligrapher performed a flexible gaze search in response to surrounding constraints, while his drawing procedure remained relatively consistent. The calligrapher combined fine brush-tip control and active gaze search with whole-body movement. In addition, the comparison between the present study and the author's previous study suggests that the calligrapher generated his own constraints in movement variables, and explored white space and character shapes on the paper by utilizing these constraints. These results imply that Rinsho is the art of pursuing resourcefulness under a given set of constraints. The present paper proposes that the method to describe the time evolution of an environment-body system is an effective approach for studying artists' making processes.