Illustrated Journeys. Field notebooks: from pencil and paintbrush to the digital world

 “Illustrated Journeys. Field notebooks: from pencil and paintbrush to the digital world” reflects on the role of drawing as a tool at the service of science and knowledge throughout history, from the past through to the present day. Despite having to coexist with more immediate media, such as photography and video, drawing is still very much alive today.

Way before the birth of photography and video, early travellers spurred on by scientific goals (geography, archaeology, botany, zoology, anthropology, art and other fields of knowledge) used drawings to reflect and disseminate what they had seen on their adventures. Illustrators and field notebooks consequently became essential elements for all scientific expeditions.

Despite photography becoming a universal medium during the 20th century, drawing continued to play a key role in the dissemination of knowledge, partly as it could reflect aspects of reality in a way which photography struggles to achieve. The naturalist Jordi Sabater i Pi (1922-2009), a pioneer in primatology, is a notable example. On the centenary of his birth, the Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món pays homage to him through an exhibition of some of the drawings and field notebooks from the Sabater Pi archive, held at the University of Barcelona’s CRAI Library of Fine Art, and from his own collections.

Drawing also played a fundamental part in the assembly of museum collections and inventory tasks for museum archives. As an example of this, this showcase exhibition displays a series of graphic materials ranging from quick sketches drawn in the field during expeditions, through to carefully detailed drawings, produced within the context of the Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món for inventory purposes and the contextualisation of its collections.