A Line In Motion

In China architects are calligraphers and the ideas in traditional art still influence modern aesthetics. A Line In Motion tells the story of calligraphy from the 'designer's lens' using analysis and diagrams to visualize its fundamental techniques, principles and ideas. Chinese calligraphy is a spatial practice: a sensibility combining graphic design and kinesis. Going beyond a two-dimensioned graphic, the brush makes active the up-and-down axis, the z-axis; writing is a gesture that operates in three dimensions: as one writes, the hand inscribes a physical space, moves circuitously over a spot while pushing and lifting the brush. The calligrapher's art is in his control of timing: in essence, knowing when to stop, when to go, and when to turn. A brush character is not a simple graphic, but rather, it is a notation of movement, mapping the passage of the hand over the page. A piece of calligraphy demonstrates a hand and brush in motion, the product of a moment's creativity at a specific place and time.