Climbing out of the tree

“All of tree logic is a logic of tracing and reproduction … The tree articulates and hierarchizes tracings; tracings are like the leaves of a tree” Deleuze and Guattari (1987).

Trees are such a familiar metaphor used in many disciplines. One of my research participants compared student learning to a seed that gets nurtured to grow into a healthy plant, possibly a tree. However Deleuze and Guattari (1987) suggest an expanded theoretical approach in which we ought to theorize beyond trees and tracings - rather rhizomes and mappings through which we can explore more possibilities. A tree symbolizes a fixed and static genealogy where our “being” and position matter, and a tracing is reproductive rather than productive or generative.

In the dynamic flow of this research, I am shifting and becoming rather than being. There is fluidity in the process. Recently I was asked where I stand in terms of my ontological position? In considering Barad’s (2007) material-discursive interconnections, I wonder if I can truly name a position. I’m moving along unpredictable lines, working through a dynamic diffractive approach that is putting me in an in-between space in time/with time where I am becoming through the unfolding, infolding and refolding of emerging data. Rather than sitting on a branch, or connected to the trunk I am exploring different routes, creating new ones as layers of data are explored, as meanings fold and unfold through each other. In this mangle of entanglement, I am “part of the mix” (Greene 2013:751).

As I map my way through the emergence of newness, I become sensitive to forces and flows that move me away from tracings over given, structured concepts and categories - away from places where points are plotted with a fixed order (Deleuze & Guattari 1987). In the image above I have tried to capture this flow and movement in which I am immersed. The array of colours and swirls highlight the forces that have shifted me out of the tree. I used You Doodle on the iPad then added a layer with Adobe Ideas.

Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of

matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. 1987. A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia (B. Massumi, Trans.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Greene, J. C. 2013. On rhizomes, lines of flight, mangles, and other assemblages, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26:6, 749-758.

Mandala magnetism

What about the optical patterns that we see and see us?

Working in the in-between space, the emerging data in this project are influencing me by transforming my knowing and being. Hultman and Taguchi (2010:537) explain a relational materialistic approach in which “a diffractive ‘seeing’ or ‘reading’ the data activates you as being part of and activated by the waves of relational intra-actions between different bodies and concepts (meanings) in an event with the data”.

A mandala, recently drawn in pen by a student has captivated my attention - a magnetic appeal. It stood out for me among the group of 25 drawings. It has acted as a constitutive force working on me. The image depicted a baby in the centre surrounded by words reflecting the student’s feelings and thoughts, written in text going round in a spiral path. Perhaps the movement of shifting the paper while writing in a circular manner combined with the symbolism of a mandala was cathartic for this student.

My image here was created with the Kaleido App on the iPad - a simple mechanistic mandala. Colour effects on Word enabled me to soften the hues. The layers and patterns with radiating concentricity give meaning to the many connections that are appearing in my research project.

Hultman, K & Taguchi, H.L. 2010. Challenging anthropocentric analysis of visual data: a relational materialist methodological approach to educational research, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 23:5, 525-542.

Behind my blogging

Why am I using images with text in my blogs? I am not an artist or art therapist nor do I have any training in design. I do though love patterns, colours and movement - and my iPad. In this research project I plan to cut into the process through these visual texts - self-generated data emerging through an iterative process - data-in-the-making, “enabling newness to come into existence; the ‘more-than’ of data” (Springggay & Zaliwska. 2015:137).

Apart from the artefacts, these drawings provide a “trace of the thinking process” through marks that reveal emotions, force and other characteristics depending on the medium and tools used (Taylor 2008). I am creating and recreating agential cuts (Barad 2007).

Sapochnik (2013) points out that drawings have the “potential to (at least, to some extent) circumvent the work of internal censorship and allow access to more elusive sources of meaning”. There is an intra-action of forces happening and emerging.

Through the affordances of the iPad, I can choose different Apps to create two-dimensional representations that are free flowing without the resistance of paper or tools. There is a playful element as I explore and engage with the digital space.

Here I have superimposed faces from the iPad App called Cool Faces onto my design from the previous blog. The facial expressions allow me to highlight the importance of acknowledging emotion and affect in my work and research - an aspect of medical care that is frequently under-represented.

Sapochnik, C. 2013. Drawing below the surface: Eliciting tacit knowledge in social science research. Tracey. Drawing knowledge. http://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/sota/tracey/journal/edu/2013/sapochnik.html

Springggay, S & Zaliwska Z. 2015. Diagrams and Cuts: A Materialist Approach to Research-Creation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. 15:2:136-154.

Taylor, A. 2008. Re:Positioning drawing. In Garner, S. (ed) Writing on Drawing Essays on Drawing Practice and Research. Chicago. Intellect Books.

Digging deeper into diagramming

The process of image-making as a reflective tool continues to intrigue me. In this drawing with entangled circles, some complete others open, I used Adobe Ideas on the iPad to enable me to create the different layers that illuminate what is included and excluded in my research exploration. Looking through these different lenses brings alternative and multiple insights.

When interpreting the artefact, the product of the finished drawing, a multimodal semiotic approach can be useful (Jewitt & Oyama 2001). It provides a framework to make meanings from what is said and done with the images in terms of social, moral and political representations, Yet, there seems more to gain in exploring the process. Is a drawing ever finished?

As I explore the “abstract machine” of images (Deleuze, 1986), I am drawn to the concept and process of “pure edging” which orientates us “toward new positions, bodies, and forms as more-than” (Springggay & Zaliwska 2015). In my research project, I am entangled in the event of Obstetrics learning, digging at the edges of a hole of sensitivity; keeping the (w)hole without dislodging the soil.

Immersing myself in the emerging data through the research process, reveals potential cracks. For instance negotiating entry into challenging contexts can be problematic. I sit on the “edginess of the process and experience” (Springggay & Zaliwska 2015:142). Fortunately there are pillars of support around me.

Jewitt,C & Oyama,R. 2001. Visual Meaning: A social semiotic approach. In (eds.) T. van Leeuwen & Jewitt, Handbook of visual analysis. London: SAGE.

Springggay, S & Zaliwska, Z. 2015. Diagrams and Cuts: A Materialist Approach to Research-Creation. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies. 15:2:136-154.

Pulling together apart

The material practice of drawing may be viewed as an 'agential cut' which according to Karen Barad is an intra-active movement in material-discursive practices. It “enacts a causal structure among components of a phenomenon in the marking of the ‘measuring agency’ (“effect”) by the measured object’ ("cause")" (Barad 2007).

“Different 'agential cuts' produce [and materialize] different phenomena” (Barad 2007).

In our first workshop for 2015 I tried something new, asking students to draw their reflections. These Year 4 students had just completed their initial 8 week Obstetrics rotation - a time in their becoming doctors that is acknowledged as momentous when they begin to feel like a ‘real’ doctor. One of the aims of the participatory classroom session is to motivate students to become advocates for change through a collaborative approach.

The energy of the group during this workshop was palpable. They shared their good and not so good experiences through numerous roleplays, conversations and drawings. What struck me in their images that were mostly drawn with pastels, were the contrasts revealed by the students through their happy and sad visualized encounters, light and dark shadings and their use of metaphors such as pandora’s box, a green healthy tree bearing fruit versus one that was bare and burnt-out, and hearts that were broken yet covered with compassionate text. 

Support through the department and Faculty is offered to students throughout their studies.

I felt drawn to two images in particular. One was of a mandala using successive circles of text. It made me feel that perhaps the action of writing in a circular way was cathartic to the student. Another was a vivid rectangle with dense colour and thickness indicating intense pressure placed on the paper. Was this student indicating an intensity of emotion or containment within the fixed rectangular shapes?

Feedback from the students in terms of drawing images indicated that they mostly appreciated using this extra tool to unpack their experiences and to use their creativity that is often kept hidden as they work themselves through a very structured and fact-filled curriculum. However some students expressed discomfort working in the visual medium.

In the image above I have borrowed ideas to depict these contrasting encounters and emotions that our students witness during their Obstetrics rotation. Using Explain Everything on my iPad, I have included an image drawn for me by a local artist, Stacey Stent.

Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.