Mammalogue

This exercise draws from artist Paul Thek’s Teaching Notes on 4-Dimensional Design which he prepared as an introductory exercise for art students. Many of the original questions and statements are personal or complex and require you to consider your subject position in relation to others. One of the statements in the original exercise was to ‘make a monkey out of clay’, an exercise which UK artist, Nicola Singh has used as a way to generate dialogue through performative actions.

This exercise plays on the terms mammalogy (the study of and observation of mammals) and dialogue (a conversation between two or more people). It draws on the above and elements of the Surrealist Cadavre Exquis game, by asking you to conjure up a creature from your imagination and from the imaginations of others, much like Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros, whilst reflecting on how your imagination is framed by your own subjective experience.

In this exercise, you will work first independently and then in pairs to consider your own subjective positions and reflect on these to generate a design for a new mammal, which you will achieve together.

For this exercise you will need some means by which to design a mammal. This may be pencil and paper, any art materials and/or scrap materials you may have in your home, or if you prefer, use of an online tool such as Photoshop.