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For a group of British artists to set out to stimulate and inform an audience about the joys of drawing, using the fundamentals of paper and pencil is no surprise, but for them to utilise advanced contemporary technology Ü Director and DVD is cutting-edge stuff Ü is remarkable, to have scored the equivalent of half a million dollars US for production, a triumph.

The outcome is an engrossing entry to the fabled world of the hand-eye-brain artist, the aristocrats of the art world and the true professionals of the arts and graphics tradition. We may have encountered that slight distain for any technology pre-1800 in the drawing studios of countless art schools but it is tempered here, unavoidably given the delivery medium, by a message that gently insists that though the superhighways are digital, the skills needed to have them lead somewhere meaningful begin on the drawing-board.

Appropriately the interactive interface is not cluttered with words. The six initial branches illustrate the direction in which they lead: Drawing as Method, as Reflection, as Understanding, as Instrument, as Fashion and as Exploration - plenty of possibilities amongst the foliage of this tree.

So, if you want to start talking about ñ..the galaxy of drawingSî to say, a newly enrolled art student (with stars in the eyes), or anyone burning to put themselves out there, why not begin here, with these headings? Strategy - create the space where a discourse can develop through that gentle correspondence between mouse and screen Ü on-screen interaction avoids the theatricality of the real-life studio, which can follow in good time. These six spaces are for exploring the practice of drawing, many critical and theoretical issues, together with examples of outcomes and career paths as experienced by professionals in the various fields Ü the links between the branches are implied with frequent reference to paper, pencil and charcoal. The science of perception and cognition are even vividly conveyed with reference to the recent research work of John Tchalenko. (Ref Leonardo V?N?)

Exploration, besides being a branch subject heading, is the modus operandi for this opus. There is a set of sparely designed navigation tools constantly available at the bottom of the screen, including notebook and bookmark devices, but finding ones way about is initially not easy and occasionally it is possible to become lost in apparently sprawling areas. For instance, the OOtherÍ area, (a matrix of Obathroom tilesÍ), leads to groupings of aphorisms which somehow perfectly represent the generic drawing teacherÍs disposition to encapsulate with words (of wisdom) aspects of their art. Though groups of slide illustrations are available at various points through this apparently randomly generated path, its sum effect is the more alienating of the encounters among the branches of this complex tree, rather like encountering a call centre operative reading cues from the computer screen, without much desire to engage. OSelfÍ is represented with a wholly visible matrix Ü thus the intended metaphors become clearer Ü populated by single concept words dynamically linked together, or liable to trigger another aphorism. These sound-vision ObitesÍ as they are encountered around this galaxy are clearly intended to provoke: ñDesigners think for us, if they do this well we use their designs.

The verbal vocabulary of the art school has always been a constant source of fascination, clearly useful since the time of Ruskin for applying words, as the dominant cultureÍs preferred tool of communication, to achieve the overall improvement of the student. Clearly the mature and experienced art teachers who consulted on the project have a well developed vocabulary in both senses of the word. Words that identify the branches and sub-branches were arrived at in committee and besides being a snapshot of a certain state of things, (including the outcomes of mutual consent), enabled each contributing partner to go off and produce the content for an allotted section during the three year time of the projectÍs span. Thus, together with an extraordinarily skilled multimedia production team, the user encounters a collaborative artwork with layers of visual, audible and text-based material which conspire to provoke users Ü surely the oldest trick in the textbook Ü to itch and scratch at aspects of their encounters with these people.

There are strong elements of pure didacticism that seeks to update present and future artists and designers with the tools made recently available to enlarge the palette of possibilities. The user can try out various principles of Computer Aided Drawing/Design, from basic transformations to extrusions and sweeps, or can be briefed on the terms used by architects and engineers for the various kinds of sheets and conventions employed in technical drawing.

As a lapsed drawer myself, I marveled in a corner of this galaxy with the ceramicist Peter Meanley as, using pen and ink, he applies patient method whilst collecting visual data for the construction of an sculpture based on a vintage Velocette motorbike. Within an elegantly designed interface, we observe the intensive activity and process over his shoulder that he describes with a language rich in the deliberation of his approach and experience.

SeeingDrawing does not set out to present a well argued case for drawing Ü historians and theorists would have taken a very different path surely Ü but it provides vividly a welter of material (3.3Gb) and a sense of scope within this impressive and engaging work. In the hands of the novice or the classroom lecturer, it provides a wealth of starting points from which to move forwards.

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