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Promener le Walkman

Recreation of on more drawing from the early nineties, extant in photocopy only. This features an androgynous type female person in unisex fashion, windbreaker jacket of undefinable material, either synthetic or leather, a pair of jeans. Notice the enlarged head, fine-tuned to remain just in the realm of what is biologically possible. It is very likely that, if a person of these proportions would exist in the flesh, the head size would already be considered a sport. It is only the conventions of drawing which allows for head enlargement without suspicion of morbidity or exploitation. The theme of the enlarged head was a big one for the artist at that time. It runs counter to certain Hellenistic laws of proportion and ideals of beauty, but the contemporary artist can of course freely decide what they consider beautiful. Apart from the size of the head in proportion to the rest of the body (or hands and feet), the beauty of the head is also determined by the beauty of the face. "Dr. Kendra Schmid, an assistant professor of biostatistics, uses the golden ratio and 29 other measurements to study facial sex appeal . These measurements are calculated to determine a person's beauty on a scale of 1 to 10."

British Campus Lawn Audio Exploration, 9.1 x 12.6 inches, pencil on "Exacompta" purple carton, 2022





A notable accessory in this drawing is a Walkman Professional WM-d6c, the highest-end Walkman ever produced, featuring Dolby C noise reduction and a highly superior amorphic head design with a distinctive parabolic grind. Here it is a mere fashion statement or status symbol, but led to the inclusion of the word "Audio" in the title of the work. 

As to the depicted dormitory building in the background, it was taken from a book falsely remembered as the standard work about that period of such importance in Britain "The New Brutalism". Although great care was taken in the selection of the source material, note-taking was neglected. The location of this building might be Oxford, but maybe not. Maybe Cambridge, or maybe somewhere entirely else.

This drawing © 1992-2022 
by Torsten Slama and 
the Reproduction Society
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