Read: Operation
Principle: Read with your whole body.
Pay attention to emotions, sensations, memories, intuitions, confusion and discomfort. Feeling overwhelmed, lost or unable to understand is part of the process. Don't fight it or correct it too quickly. Record it. These reactions are observations. They often show hidden assumptions and show where something important is happening. Don't try to become less of an artist while reading. Use your artistic perception as a method of inquiry alongside analytical thinking.
Note to self: Go to F. Now.
1. Goal
Define why you are reading. Examples: understand the research, communicate it visually, support collaborators, build my portfolio, generate artistic material.
2. Budget
Don't read the whole paper. Define the available time. Read the cover, abstract, table of contents, introduction, then one section at a time. Then chose one section that fits within it.
3. Read
Read slowly. Mark only passages that make you stop. Resist the urge to understand everything immediately. Continue reading. Return later if needed. Read offline to avoid rabbit holes.
4. Encounter
Why does this matter to me? What surprises, disturbs or fascinates me? Why do I care? Connect to your emotions, sensations, memory. What makes you uncomfortable? What is visually captivating? What feels poetic? What feels violent? What feels absurd?
5. Analyze
Write one sentence for each.
A. Why?
Why was this research done? (Take distance. Why did these people make this research?)
B. Who?
Who produces this knowledge? (military, anatomists, engineers, pilots, doctors)
C. What?
What is being studied? (What exactly are they trying to measure? Movement, joints, body, force?)
D. How?
How is knowledge produced? (measurement, model, graph, instrument, protocol...)
E. Notice the differences
What can the science paper see that I can't? What can I see that the science might not? Where do our interpretations diverge?
6. Pause
Stop. Walk. Stretch. Cook. Sleep. Meet friends.
7. Harvest
Collect material.
A. Fact
What happened? (Body becomes mechanical model)
B. Representation
How could I show it? (Stick figure becoming machine)
C. Art
What if? (What is lost when a body becomes measurable?)
8. Sketch
Think with drawing. Produce one quick sketch, diagram or visual note. Use drawing to understand.
9. Produce
Create only ONE visual artifact (diagram, flowchart, timeline, science illustration, motion graphic, glossary, annotation...).
10. Continue
Choose another section or move to another operation. Return to Read when needed.