"Cities and Slowness." Newtopia Magazine. Vol. II No. 2 June 2003.

The idea of our rapid interconnection, of a globalization of urban building culture, is false. It is foisted upon us by scoundrels and Wallpaper magazine. I’ve spent this week in five different cities, with Rem Koolhaas’s face staring out at me from the cover of Wired at each airport terminal newsstand. Just because I can pick out the same urban patterns, I don't necessarily understand those cities in any way that matters to me. Sure, polemicists of globalized urban culture can find evidence for their arguments. Especially while shopping. Or perhaps mostly while shopping, as globalization is becoming a cliché for consumer choice. But for myself, and thank god I’m not alone in this, I travel to see the differences, and believe the differences are real.

Thus the act of drawing. It is a strategy; it is a way of moving through the world, and also a way of being still. I’ve gone on some trips recently without a camera, since the camera makes my eye lazy. An instant and then it’s a memory. We’ve all had the experience of looking at a photograph we've taken without the recollection of experiencing "there". This is obviously not the case with a drawing. Even the most rapid sketch requires the physical time, the actual connection between eye, hand, mind, and the engagement with what is before you. The act of sketching in an urban environment is not merely an act of recording; it’s an act of having your surroundings unfold before you.

This is also why I’m suspicious of technique. Isn’t it important to guard against forcing the sameness, to see only what you draw well and not engage with what makes your drawing fall apart? The street sketch is not about being a good drawing or not, artistically speaking. Ideally the subject, the conditions of the drawing, should exert its own force; much as drawing in ink is a different game than pencil. Why should the dazzlingly crisp light of Rome not have an impact on the way you approach a sketch? Or the haze of Shanghai smog? Places suggest what way is right for their drawing.

So the act of drawing, for me, is a device. It is a tool that allows me to slow down. It is a measure of where I am, and why it is different than where I was.

2003.