PUBLIC MARKS with search cartoons

Patrick Maynard surveys the rich and varied practices of drawing, from the earliest markings on cave walls to the complex technical schematics that make the modern world possible, from cartoons and the first efforts of preschoolers to the works of skilled draftspeople and the greatest artists, East and West.

In this project, that engine is a historical science-fiction novel that operates as a gigantic interactive database of 2,200 images with an original sound composition. The images are harvested from period illustration, cartoons, photographs, film, ephemera, industrial design, architectural drawing, urban planning schemes, science fiction, fantasy and utopian novels, and more.

We may be living in the era of the email, but one young illustrator has proved that the art of correspondence is far from dead. While working for her degree at Glasgow School of Art Harriet Russell decided to find out exactly what lengths the men and women of the Royal Mail were willing to go to to ensure the safe delivery of her missives. To put them to the test she concealed the addresses of 130 letters to herself in a series of increasingly complex puzzles and ciphers. Among the disguises she employed were dot-to-dot drawings, anagrams and cartoons. The answer, it seems, was very far indeed. Amazingly, only 10 failed to complete their journey back to her.