Testing is a central principle in ’Pataphysics. The Autonomous series takes this as a starting point, examining how the frame shapes embodied perception and the act of drawing.
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Whether it be the edge of the paper, the limits of the surface, or the implied space beyond it, the frame remains an inescapable condition. These drawings work with and against that presence, introducing additional frames that impose new constraints. Within this structure, an axonometric language of chance is set into tension with control.
Here, both line and eye are directed and contained, making composition the dominant spatial force. Rather than limiting the work, these constraints create the conditions for disruption—moments where the unexpected begins to emerge.
Here, both line and eye are directed and contained, making composition the dominant spatial force. Rather than limiting the work, these constraints create the conditions for disruption—moments where the unexpected begins to emerge.
France and the Wall (2019) Graphite, Paper
Door Bar (2019) Graphite, Paper
Form Like Christ and His Disciples (2019) Graphite, Paper
Three Horizons (2019) Graphite, Paper
Square 3 (2019) Graphite, Paper
Square 4 (2019) Graphite, Paper
Fancy a Tab Triptych (Trip, Airport, Langhorn) (2019) Graphite, Paper
LOCUS (2019) Graphite, Paper
Square 2 (2019) Graphite, Paper
Square 1 (2019) Graphite, Paper
If The Autonomous series explores projection under constraint, the A Search for Tectonics series begins pushing beyond it, allowing the drawings to construct their own spatial logic.
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Each work starts without a fixed aim, emerging in response to a blank surface and the underlying structure of axonometric projection. From that point, geometric inconsistencies and moments of visual rupture surface, forming spatial conditions that suggest the potential for embodied, material experience.
The resulting networks are at once precise in their construction and unstable in their outcome, altering a visual language of measurement toward one of uncertainty.
Chimney (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Facade . (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Two Horizons (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Italy (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Projection (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Circulation Strategy (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
The Dialectical Computer series is a collaboration with Dr Alex Blanchard, where two distinct practices are brought into deliberate friction. This collision introduces a productive instability, allowing a shared language to emerge through tension rather than resolution. All works presented here are by David Boyd.
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In this collaboration geometric fragments are formed, translating signs and symbols from an external visual script into a space of tectonic projection. Some geometric elements operate as mappings of movement—tracking temporal shifts and spatial rotations—while others register rhythm, translating spatialised sound into structure.
The series questions systems desire to resist external reference through introducing an outside condition. The drawings test whether this resistance is a limitation rather than a generative principle.
Instead of functioning as an instruction or blueprint, these translations remain open to misinterpretation. The act of drawing becomes a negotiation between invention and influence, where external inputs disrupt and redirect the desire for complete autonomy.
Maria (2021) Ink, Paper
8 Squares (2021) Ink, Paper
Sorry Christos (2021) Ink, Paper
Survey (2021) Ink, Paper
Axonometry and isometry are predominantly used as technical tools, often reducing visual projection to a language of precision and control. The Bar Sequence series works against this assumption, reconfiguring parallel projection through an iterative process of visual compression that rejects resolution in favour of possibility.
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Through the tensions that sit between visual repetition and resolution, the compositional system produces moments where structure gives way to inconsistency.
In this series, the assumed stability of parallel projection is unsettled. What is typically understood as factual and measurable becomes open to disruption, exposing the potential for misuse, ambiguity, and invention within a rigid visual framework.
8 Bar (2026) Ink, Paper
The Home series draws from existing places, not as surveys, but as spaces reimagined through the instability of memory. These drawings emerge through acts of misremembering, where fragments of the past are translated into uncertain, shifting conditions.
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In these drawings both a past state and a possible future begin to surface, with inaccuracy becoming the central generative catalyst. The work treats memory not as a record, but as a site of transformation.
These themes resonate with ’Pataphysical thinking, as well as ideas explored in early Dadaism and Surrealism, where misinterpretation and distortion become tools for invention.
JSNE (2025) Ink, Paper
Tyneside Flat No.1 (2022) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Tyneside Flat: Speculation (2025) Ink, Paper
Tyneside Flat No. 2 (2026) Ink, Paper
The Morphologies series responds to geometric restriction and compositional control. Each drawing exists as a fragment of something larger and ultimately unresolvable. Lines resist gravity and detach from any stable ground, suspending the work in a state of compositional stasis.
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Unlike other studies, such as Quirinal Palace, this series does not seek to explore material connection or structural binding. Instead, it accepts composition as the primary condition. Here, composition is not a limitation, but the central generative force—one that enables new forms of spatial invention to emerge.
Pink Lane (2025) Ink, Paper
Hustlers (2026) Ink, Paper
Tools (2020) Ink, Graphite, Paper
The Quirinal Palace in Rome presents a spatial order shaped by hierarchy and separation. It reinforces divisions between social classes, operating as a spatial diagram of imbalance. In response to this closed system, the drawings in the Quirinal Palace series project geometries that infiltrate, disrupt, and rework the palace.
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The interventions suggest the possibility of use and inhabitation, operating as resistant translations of the existing space. Material or formal resolution is not the primary concern; instead, the drawings take initial steps toward potential experience.
To construct these works, plates from The Autonomous series are collaged and overlaid. Through this process, new compositional and spatial configurations emerge, allowing the drawings to interrogate the relationship between solid and void (ground and figure).
Plan (2022) Ink, Paper
Section (2022) Ink, Paper
Failed Projection (2022) Ink, Paper
Axonometric (2022) Ink, Paper
Re-alignment (2022) Ink, Paper
The Brown series examines repetition and the geometric languages it can produce. Each drawing returns to the same origin, yet within each translation elements are both lost and reconfigured.
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A ‘final’ state is not the concern. Instead, the series focuses on the generative potential of mistranslation, where repetition becomes a means of invention rather than replication.
Brown 3 (2023) Ink, Parcel Paper
Brown 4 (2023) Ink, Paper
Brown 2 (2023) Ink, Parcel Paper
Brown (2023) Ink, Baking Paper
Fragments is not a defined series, but a collection of loosely connected thoughts and projections. Some works function as process tests, others as tectonic studies or compositional investigations.
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Despite their differences, all drawings remain in dialogue with ’Pataphysical thinking, using uncertainty as a generative condition. Here, not knowing is not a limitation, but a catalyst-guiding the work toward moments of discovery.
The Jinsihiou Sequence (2023) Ink, Paper
Infill (2024) Ink, Paper
APL (2021) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Bb (2021) Ink, Graphite, Paper
RGB (2022) Ink, Graphite, Paper
Untitled (2021) Ink, Paper