SCIRIA Reader in Drawing and Cognition

Research Interests

Drawing, Cognition, Artistic Creativity, Research Methodology.

Profile

Born in London, 1936. John Tchalenko completed his PhD in Soil Mechanics at Imperial College of Science and Technology, London in 1967; his thesis introduced new optical techniques for studying the microstructure of clays. He lectured and researched at Imperial College in Engineering Seismology until 1975, publishing over 40 scientific papers on Soil Mechanics and Seismotectonics and developing new methodology that has become standard for studying shear zones. He was invited researcher at the Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, US as well as UNESCO and UN consultant on earthquakes in Iran and Turkey.

He subsequently graduated as film director from the National Film and Television School, Beaconsfield, and after 1979 directed and produced a number of films on science and art subjects broadcast in the UK and abroad, including 'Hot Glass' and 'High Fire' on glass making and ceramics; 'Wall of Light' with architect Richard Rogers and sculptor Richard Deacon; and 'Earthquake Country' on the prediction of earthquakes.

In 1991 he started collaborating with artist Humphrey Ocean on 'Double-Portrait', a mixed film and painting exhibition which toured to the Tate Gallery, Liverpool; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London and several other national galleries and museums in the UK. In 1998 he initiated and directed the Wellcome Trust Sci-Art project 'The Painter's Eye Movements' and the National Portrait Gallery exhibition 'The Painter's Eye'.

This project involved the Laboratory of Physiology in Oxford University, and the John Gabrieli Laboratory in Stanford University, U.S.A, and resulted in several published papers and a 52-minute film.

He was appointed Research Fellow at Camberwell College of Arts in October 1999, and nominated as Reader in 2004.

He directed and coordinated the exhibition 'Needle in a Haystack' at the Royal Society, voted best display of 2003 Summer Show. He was invited to exhibit 'Free-eye Drawings' at the Royal Academy of Arts show in 2004, and in the same year the touring exhibition 'How do you look?' opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery, ending in 2006 at Royal College of Surgeons, London.

A collaboration with Imperial College and St Mary's Hospital, the project was supported by the Wellcome Trust 'Engaging Science' program 2004-2006.

In 2006, his exhibition 'Images from the Endgame: Persia through a Russian Lens 1901-1914' was shown at Brunei Gallery, SOAS, London accompanied by a major book, published by Saqi Books, London.

Current Research - Statement

"My approach to research is guided by two principles. First, that there is a clear distinction between subject of research and method of investigation. Whereas the former must be sharply focused within a particular field of knowledge, the latter must be free to explore and use whatever disciplines and tools seem the most appropriate. Since 1990 my subject of research has been artistic creativity and my method of investigation has made use of biomedical and psychophysical techniques. The challenge is to combine the rigour of scientific studies, where research means advancing a well-defined subject in a verifiable way, with artistic investigation, where progress takes place in domains beyond the purely rational and measurable observation.

Second, that research must result in two parallel and equally important modes of output:  peer-reviewed (journals, conferences) and popular (exhibitions, films, media). This is not only because, as a professional and public individual I have an obligation to communicate in both constituencies, but also because the effort required to operate simultaneously in these two modes benefits the advancement of the subject under study.

A unifying thread throughout my research is a strong reliance on visual observation. By closely observing a phenomenon, and if necessary, by inventing tools to aid in the observation, fundamental underlying truths may be discovered. In virtually all fields of investigations involving the world around us these truths are there to be grasped if our observational skills are sufficiently advanced. My present work consists in observing how people draw and paint, using scientific tools to monitor eye, brain and hand behaviour, and the results are beginning to throw light on the process by which the brain transforms the external visual world into the artist's picture, i.e. on artistic creativity." - John Tchalenko, 2006