Architectural Drawing: An Inquiry III

Is it out of nostalgia, the love for the past or the critique of the present, I dont know. Why do we always find our pasts comfortable than the present? This post is a continuation of the dialogue on drawing as an act. And in this section, I am thinking of the tools we used to draw, versus those used today.

I am perhaps trying to document shift in a certain kind of drawing culture. The shift has caused changes, and through my own bias, I undervalue them. Shift in culture of doing things changes values we associate with them. 

(Typing has become boring and in my note book, I make very diagrammatic notes - like concrete poetry. The interface of a blog in its conventional format does not allow it. So these days, most of my posts end up becoming very fractured and without elaboration. Pardon for that - that is also a culture shift). However, I will try to explore diagrammatic writing on this interface. 

Below is a list of activity > old tool > new tool list. All activities are related to drawing:

Activity	Old tool	New Tool	Remarks
Drawing a line	Lead wooden pencils: minimum grades	Lead wooden pencils: multiple grades Clutch pencils with different points	Students use different pencils to draw different intensities of lines.
Sketching	Coal / Coke sticks	Charcoal pencils	The way in which one handled a charcoal stick changes, hence the way in which one draws changes
Erasing	Conventional cubic erasers	Pencil erasers Erasing shields	Students take lesser care in the first step of drawing
Inking	Rotring pens	Microtip rotrings Stabillo	The care taken to make edges meet is lesser. The care taken to preserve the tool is lesser.
Straight lines	Foot rule, drafter	Rolling scales, adjustable setsquares, stencils, etc	Things happen faster and the culture of cross checking dimensions is fading away.
Sharpening	Cutters / blades	Sharpeners, electronic sharpeners, etc	Sharpeners are becoming redundant with the coming of clutch pencils.

Students now carry different pencils to achieve different grades of lines. Back in our times, our professors taught us to use a single pencil to create a variety of line intensities just by correct application of pressure. Is it too late to re-instill in students this value - since the uses of using only on pencil are purely logistical - it saves the time you spend in switching tools and it saves the space the new tools would otherwise occupy. It also avoids chances if losing or buying expensive items.

Tools are always devised to overcome shortcomings. Few baseline shortcomings can be underlined as the issue of speed and the issue of facility. These ideas take larger meanings over time, than just their functional values and tools become objects to possess. 

In the remarks column, all statements point at a certain way in which value system is changing. Our ways of looking at a drawing versus the students way of looking at a drawing must be imagined through the process in which the current generation is operating. Otherwise, we may leave ourselves dissatisfied with the kind of product the students are offering us.

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WORKING QUESTIONS:
Do our tools control us? 
Or has the possession of these tools become a style statement?
Or are there new deficiencies of skill which have devised new tools? What does it say of our culture? Do we belong to a culture that capitalizes upon every kind of human activity - whether efficient or deficient?