I recently read Paula's blog 'Drawing for Reflective Practice' and it inspired me to try and use my journal in a different way. Paula writes "In the visual arts a journal uses visual language and drawn images to relate to thinking through a problem." I commented on her blog saying that I am generally very comfortable with words so don't often use other mediums to work through ideas but that I thought I ought to try it.
Initially it proved to be completely baffling. Not only am I incompetent at drawing but the minute I tried every single thing that I've been thinking about recently seemed to disappear from my mind. When I use words they flow so naturally that an idea progresses really quickly in my mind. Drawing seemed to be having the opposite effect.
This seemed really odd to me because I vividly remember that when I was younger and couldn't verbally explain something properly to someone I would draw a picture for him or her instead. Not only would this clarify what I meant but it would also solidify the idea in my mind and then allow me to talk someone around the drawing. I used to do this all the time so why did I seem to have lost the skill? Had I become too good at using words and therefore neglected other areas, losing the ability?
I then started to think about the way I learn. A lot of my thinking is based in this area at the moment because of the work we are doing in conjunction with the reader. In particular I was thinking about the work of Howard Gardner (Gardner, 1983, 2005) and his idea that people are 'Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic learners (VAK).' I believe I am primarily a visual learner. If someone is explaining something to me I need to see it. I can't just listen. I need there to be something for me to look at, be it words or pictures. Even when dancing, where I am sure I do learn a lot kinaesthetically, I initially watch to get an idea of what I am supposed to be doing and how it is supposed to look before I try it myself.
I then used this knowledge of how I learn to think about how I communicate with other people generally. With that came a realisation that actually nothing has changed from when I was younger. I still find it much easier to communicate in a visual way. Either by writing (as I show regularly in my blog), demonstrating (as I would when teaching a dance class) or using diagrams (as I do sometimes when explaining complicated blocking for routines I have choreographed).
I wanted to include a couple of specific examples of when I thought I had communicated well and when I hadn't and the two campus sessions provided perfect examples of this. In the first session we had to do a verbal presentation to the group and then talk about it shortly on camera. I found this extremely challenging and quite often found myself lost in my own ideas having no clear idea of what I thought. In contrast, during the second session we had to do non-verbal tours using written words, pictures and demonstrations to get across our point. I found this really enjoyable because it gave me time to work out what I wanted to say. I felt I could collect and organise my ideas into an intelligible format before having to express them.
What was my conclusion from this discovery? Perhaps there isn't as much of a difference between writing and drawing as I initially thought. Perhaps they are just different forms of visual communication, which is something I feel I am good at. With this in mind I returned to drawing with a less timid attitude and drew some pictures around the way I feel about different sorts of learning and the way I learn in particular. I'm not going to post any of those drawings now because they are truly rubbish but really that's not the point. I am starting to use them to clarify what and why I think things. If any significant drawing comes up I'll post it to show what I mean.
Hi Mark, thanks for the post. I definately agree in that I would never have chosen drawings over words to express my feelings. I think we use words so much it is just our automatic response to express ourelves in words as we do everyday. However, after reading your post about the benefits of drawing I am definately more inclined to give it a go! I am sure that my drawings would also be truly rubbish but hopefully I might discover something new that I would never have found by just using words.
ReplyDeleteGood post Mark. I think one of our greatest assets is our ability to categorise. This means when we have a new experience, we can relate to previous experiences. The down side is we tend to categorise when its not necessarily to our advantage.
ReplyDeleteOne example is this. To what extent is the audience experience of dance kinaesthetic or visual? Is dance actually not primarily a visual art? If you found drawing beneficial perhaps it is because it is a core competency in dance? If I used the terms ‘tracing a line’ ‘composition’ ‘form’. These all make sense in terms of dance and visual art.
Making categories of things tends to separate them to make them distinctive and recognisable, but perhaps the act of drawing and dancing are fundamentally not that different?
I like the idea that drawing and dancing are not that different from one another.
ReplyDeleteDancing is like drawing but instead of putting pencil to paper you are using your body as your tool and the stage or space around you as your canvas.
You could use a lot of the same words to describe differnt types of drawing that would also make sense if you used them to describe different types of dancing; clean lines, neat and accurate, abstract, creative, fun, dull, elegant, distinctive.
Mark I passed by this show the other long night when I was walking home from the overland train I took because the Tube strike - but I was too tired at that point to go in. I did think of your Blog though and wanted to see if I could get any early day away to visit the show. One of my time issues is to build this time into my schedule... to see and experience in order to think.
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