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.
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