There seem to be some common themes here - drawing/graphics, talk,
thinking... it seems likely that several of us are exploring simialr areas
with children and adults of different ages and in different contexts.
I've been focusing on research with very young children (from 3 - years up)
and their meaning-making through marks - specifically in 'maths' - this is
not about teaching young children to write 'sums' - but to explore their
mathematical thinking in personal and often creative ways. Early development
develops from gesture and (to the outside world) could be labelled
'scribbles'. It's often very dynamic and as Gill, Aileen and others argue -
talk is very important. Gill refers to children (in part) 'copying and
adapting' - I'd argue that drawing is polyadic (this links with Bakhtin's
work on utterances in speech).
I wonder how much learners' experiences are similar - whatever their ages?
And are the similarities related to drawing (as in art) and music - or have
others explored graphics within other graphical / symbolic disciplines such
as writing, schience and mathematics?
Gill - for work on multi-media - and 'multi-modal' you couldn't do better
than read Gunter Kress's work - but I'm sure you've alsready discovered it!
Maulfry
----- Original Message -----
From: "gh21" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: Drawing Dialogues
> Hi Aileen and others who have joined in this conversation.
> I have just completed my PhD researching young children using drawing to
> support development of design ideas. I had one class to whom I taught the
idea
> that a design drawing is both a container for your ideas and that you take
> those ideas on a journey across the page, and another parallel comparison
> class who didn't get this input. One thing that came out really strongly
> across the 15 months of the project was that from the point at which I
> explained the purpose of design drawing using these metaphors, "my" class
> became much stronger at developing ideas within conversation. So that the
> drawing ebcame a discussion document between pairs or groups. they were
saying
> "what I'm going to do is..." and then draiwng it. Or looking at other
> children's drawings & saying "what you could do is..." This was quite
> spontaneous - I din't tell them or teach them to do that. What happened
was
> that they enriched each other's thinking & so their ideas were more
creative,
> but also they kicked out the wild & wacky non-starter ideas. The paralllel
> class drew in near silence and then really began discussing & designing
once
> they had the materials in their hands. This meant that ideas were less
> creative and if unusual, tended to be poor solutions to the problem given.
> Once they had started cutting up materials, they couldn't re-image their
> ideas, whereas "my" lot, who designed through drawing conversations could
> re-image, abandon first ideas that went nowhere, copy & adapt good ideas
from
> others etc etc...
>
> As next (post PhD stage) to this, I want to look at how children model
ideas
> through construction kits & see if same processes apply, and also to see
if
> parallels exist in drawing/ mark-making/ interaction of graphics & text &
> multi-media text - anyone have any thing useful on any / all of this?
> Gill Hope
>
>
> >===== Original Message From The UK drawing research network mailing list
> <[log in to unmask]> =====
> >Aileen - this sounds fascinating! My research area is the development of
> >children's symbolic languages - and their thinking as their early marks
> >begin to be defined as 'drawing'; 'writing' ; 'mathematics' and so on.
> >
> >I'd be interested in learning more about your 'coversation' in June.
> >Thanks a lot.
> >Maulfry
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Aileen Stackhouse" <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: <[log in to unmask]>
> >Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 3:55 PM
> >Subject: Re: Drawing Dialogues
> >
> >
> >> Hello Angela
> >> I'm currently in the 3rd year of my practise-led PhD at Duncan of
> >> Jordanstone College of Art ( a faculty of the University of Dundee).I
use
> >> drawing to research thinking which occurs during drawing. Part of my
> >> research involves drawing while in conversation. From 1 June until 30
June
> >> this year I will be creating a 30 Day Drawing for Conversation in
> >> Centrespace at the Visual Research Centre(Dundee Contemporary Arts)as
part
> >> of my final submission. I will be in conversation for a set time once a
> >> week using the drawing as a fulcrum. Conversational partners include a
> >> practising artist, a philosopher, a visual anthropologist and a
> >> curator.This project is still at the planning stage as it is focus for
the
> >> work I have done up till now. If you want to know more let me know. I
can
> >> also be reached at [log in to unmask]
> >> Regards
> >> Aileen Stackhouse
> >> School of Fine Art
> >> Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art
> >> University of Dundee
> >> Dundee DD1 4HN
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> =======================================
> >> Aileen Stackhouse
> >> =======================================
> >>
> >>
>
> Gill Hope
> Senior Lecturer Design & Technology
> Canterbury Christ Church University College
> Canterbury
> Kent
>
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