Phase One: Conscience Wash and Freestyle Drawing as Social Experiment
Between 2010 and 2013, I began a process of artistic recalibration. After years spent refining 3D renderings and chasing digital perfection through radiosity and viewport settings, I felt the need to return to the immediacy and expressiveness of hand drawing. I called this initial phase “conscience wash” — a spontaneous return to instinct, freeform, and the subconscious through ink on paper.
At its core, this phase was not just about regaining lost skills, but about exploring a different kind of dialogue — one between creator and audience, mediated through digital platforms. I used Facebook and various blogs as informal exhibition spaces. The goal wasn’t recognition, but interaction — to observe and analyze the kind of feedback and social “noise” generated by raw, personal, and often absurd visuals.
The Artistic Premise: Layers of Interpretation
The drawings were intentionally ambiguous, humorous in a dark and surreal way, and presented in a casual format using liners and markers. Each element of the project was carefully selected to evoke multiple reactions, depending on the viewer’s background or level of awareness.
1. Architectural Nostalgia
For architects, the use of markers and sketch-like lines could trigger a nostalgic connection to their school days — a reminder of when the line was still a personal expression. In this sense, the act of sketching became therapeutic, reconnecting the narcissistic, often socially withdrawn “dreamer-architect” to his emotional and cultural core.
2. Cyber Traffic Disruption
To casual online visitors, the drawings may have seemed awkward, confusing, or slightly disturbing — enough to create a spark of concern or curiosity. This deliberate unease could potentially generate discussions, gossip, or mild controversy, contributing to the visibility of the project.
3. Naive Rejection
For others, the work may have appeared childish, pointless, or simply a waste of time — the kind of reaction you might expect from people deeply focused on practical matters like business or family obligations.
4. Professional Tension
From a professional point of view, the project might have seemed stylistically inconsistent or even inappropriate for online exposure. This deliberate tension was part of the test — to see how such material would be received in different digital contexts.
5. Artistic Cues
For those genuinely interested in drawing and visual arts, the content may have hovered between autistic detachment and surrealism, with a line more elegant than the represented subject matter — a subtle clue that something more complex was happening beneath the surface.
6. Global Perspective
Audiences from abroad, especially those exposed to a greater diversity of media from a young age, were expected to recognize and decode the stylistic and conceptual layers more easily. Since random strangers were unlikely to discover my work accidentally, I was actively hoping for meaningful feedback — perhaps even delayed or latent responses — from those who “got it.”
7. Meta-Observation
Another layer of the experiment was to observe whether any influential individuals — curators, critics, or cultural agents — were following my profile from the shadows. For this reason, the drawings intentionally carried a meta-content layer, expressed through subtle combinations of style, mannerism, and conceptual references.
Medium, Audience, and Latent Response
The experiment continued with this idea of “tuning” into external social layers or digital communities. I deliberately used peer-to-peer platforms like Facebook, Vimeo, YouTube, and SoundCloud — not just as distribution channels, but as behavioral filters, gauging audience reaction based on interface and context.
The composition of the potential audience — both visible and hidden — was always an open question. Because of this unpredictability, I used surreal or unusual imagery that refused to provide clear answers. The “line”, both in its absence and its presence, became the true conveyor of meaning — sometimes autistic in subject, sometimes restrained in style.
Final Thoughts: Recognition and Transgression
Most people didn’t recognize themselves in the drawings — nor were they meant to. If someone did, it was probably either forced or naive. But this was another part of the test: to see how personal, almost private content could transgress the cyber medium, subtly navigating through the fragmented attention span of online culture.
( written in 2014, on/from file “drawing skills.txt” and then with ChatGpt )
You can see samples of this work/period on my Behance profile :
PAUL SELING 
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