Diagramming the Possible. Projective Tools in the Initial Phase of the Pictorial Project

Abstract

This article examines the diagram as a projective tool in the early stages of the creative process, approaching the outset of an artistic project as a field of tensions in which intuition, desire, image, and form begin to take shape in relation to one another.

From a qualitative, theoretical-analytical, and essayistic approach, situated in dialogue with A/r/tography and Visual Arts-Based Educational Research, the study combines conceptual review, analysis of contemporary artistic practices, and pedagogical experience. Through the examination of notebooks, maps, moodboards, and visual process archives, it identifies modes of pre-figurative thinking that make it possible to understand the diagram as a visual technology of thought in the act. As its main contribution, the article proposes three principal diagrammatic regimes: inter-factual, post-factual, and pre-factual, conceived as tactical modulations that can be activated according to the needs of the project, and not necessarily in a sequential order. The article argues for the diagram as an open device capable of accompanying the transition from the possible to the potential, offering a flexible framework for sustaining creative inquiry without prematurely foreclosing it; an approach that is especially relevant in pedagogical contexts of artistic training. While the analysis is situated within the course Pictorial Projects in the Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Murcia, the proposed framework is intended to be transferable to other contexts of project-based creation and artistic learning.