Abstract - Again

I really hope I got it right this time...

Chinese calligraphy is a spatial practice, and a calligrapher’s spatial sensibility combines graphic design and kinesis. This thesis devises a graphic system that act as a guide for showing the various spaces found in a work of calligraphy. Graphic space or the figure-ground, is analyzed using the work of contemporary calligrapher Noriko Maeda, and Li Chun’s treatise titled The 84 Law’s. The Chinese character is a line graph centered within an imaginary square and written in a prescribed way using a rule called stroke order. This rule ensures that the lines of a word are added systematically. Chinese writing involves moving the hand in various directions: horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Stroke order ensures that no move is repeated successively. When a brush makes contact with a hard surface, the tip flexes. The brush is always responsive to a downward force, in this way, a brushstroke is an imprint of a hand gesture. The brush makes active the vertical plane or the z-axis; writing is a gesture that operates in three dimension. As one writes, the hand inscribes a physical space, moves circuitously over a spot while pushing and lifting the brush. But the Chinese character is also a descriptor of time. The five styles: Hsiao Chuan, Li, Tsao, Chen, Tsing represent the evolution of the character form. The calligrapher’s art is his control of timing, in essence, knowing when to stop, when to go, and when to turn. Various environmental and emotional factors affect the calligrapher’s sense of timing, therefore, every piece of calligraphy is unique, specific to the moment of its creation. A character written with a brush is not a simple graphic, rather, it is a movement notation. A piece of calligraphy is a route map showing a hand and brush in motion, it is an example of a moment of creativity at a specific time and place in history.