CAEL1001 Chap.8 Data, Diagrams and Machine Generated Images
Data, Diagrams and Machine Generated Images
Week 10 treats drawing as a way of sorting information, carrying it into another form and making it visible, rather than as a way of depicting appearance, noting that mapping, diagramming, symbol sets and system drawings have done that job for a very long time, and that digital technologies now shape those approaches and raise questions about authorship, interpretation and creativity.
The studio draws everyday objects as simple diagrams, enlarges them into charcoal studies, recombines them into hybrid forms by collage, and then sends a written description down two routes: one image generated by machine and one drawn by hand, compared side by side. The unit is explicit that the framing is experimentation, translation and critical reflection rather than replacement.
The chapter sets out where the boundary between a drawing and a diagram actually sits and what the two-route comparison can honestly establish.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Drawing as a system for carrying information
- 02
Why the studio makes the diagram before the charcoal study
- 03
A drawing and a diagram compared on five properties
- 04
The operative difference: a rule you could apply to another object
- 05
One description, two returns, and the text as the control
- 06
What the comparison can establish, which is not which is better
- 07
Divergence as a map of what your text left open
- 08
Documenting the prompt, and why an undocumented image is unattributable
- 09
Confirming what is permitted in submitted work, rather than assuming it
- 10
Maps of things that have no location
- 11
Holding one visual variable constant so a quantity stays readable
Turning an object into a system that survives a second object
- 1State the rules before drawing: anything rigid becomes a line, anything that joins becomes a dot, anything that moves gets an arrow.
- 1Apply them and count. Two blades as lines, two handles as circles, one pivot as a dot, one arrow for the range of movement. Six marks and no others.
- 1Test on a second object without changing the rules. A stapler gives lines for the rigid arms, a dot at the hinge and an arrow for the closing action.
- 1Report the result honestly. The rules held, so the system generalised; had the stapler required a new symbol, the original would not have been a system.
Key terms
- Diagram
- A drawing governed by a rule you could state and apply to a different object, recording how parts relate rather than how something looks from one position.
- Visual system
- A consistent set of symbols and their meanings, tested by whether it survives being applied to a second object without adding a new symbol.
- Translation
- Moving a work from one medium into another, such as a drawing into words and back again. The week treats each translation as a stage that adds and loses information.
- Prompt
- The written text a generated image is made from. Documenting it is what makes the resulting image evidence rather than decoration.
- Conceptual cartography
- Using the form of a map for something that has no location, such as personal history, philosophy or a bodily experience over time.
Data, Diagrams and Machine Generated Images FAQ
Where is the line between a drawing and a diagram?
Not between careful and rough, and not between art and information. The operative difference is whether the marks are governed by a rule you could state and apply to a different object. If they are, you have a system; if not, you have an image. Both are legitimate this week.
What can the two-route comparison actually prove?
Things about your text rather than about either image. Two wildly different outcomes mean the description was underspecified, and the divergence shows exactly where. Two similar outcomes mean the text was carrying more structure than you thought, and it is worth asking which sentences did that.
Am I allowed to use these tools in my submitted work?
That is a rule the University sets and it is stated on each assessment page, so check the current page for the task you are submitting and ask the unit coordinator if it is not clear. This guide does not restate a permission on your behalf. The unit's own studio activity is a separate matter from what may be submitted.
How do I know my visual system is real?
Apply it to a second object without changing any rule. If a stapler can be drawn with the same symbols you used for a pair of scissors, the system generalised. If it needs a new symbol, what you built was a drawing with symbols in it rather than a system.
Assessment move
Do the diagram first even though the charcoal study is more satisfying, because reducing an object forces a decision about what it is that then survives into the larger drawing. Write your rule set down as three or four lines, then test it on something else before you commit. For the comparison, keep the description fixed and change nothing between the two routes, since a control that moves proves nothing.
Document the prompt alongside any generated image, and record which parts of the outcome you specified and which the system supplied. Check the current assessment page before relying on anything from this week in a submission.
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