The curator’s sketchbook: Reflections on learning to see

This paper advocates for the use of drawing as an interdisciplinary research tool and argues in favour of drawing as a method by which to improve the observation and reading of artefacts. I suggest that the process of drawing, in slowing down the process of looking, can facilitate close observation of artefacts and thereby help to reveal subtle clues and hidden narratives. I call this method of attentive looking The Slow Approach to Seeing. The genesis of that idea and its extension as a pedagogic tool are described herein. This methodological position is supported with reference to John Ruskin, John Berger and James Elkins.