Photos versus drawings

When I began blogging about my PhD process I used photographs and photo collages. The first photo was taken in the sauna at a local gym. It represented the haziness of the research journey. SInce then my cellphone and iPad have exposed me to alternative pathways through drawings that open up the theory to the meanings emerging from readings and other resources.

Taking a photo involves some thought and planning. The implementation is quick, happening in a moment of time. The pressure of my finger on a point of the camera captures the image to produce the artefact. The photo is an instant product that can remain static or be reconstituted  through digital processes and other means. There appears to be a certain level of distancing with little bodily involvement.

When considering photos and drawings, both processes of image-making are opening up my rhizo-thinking to others. The images emerge from affective responses and variations representing “self-organized enfoldings” (Springgay & Zaliwska 2015:137). Both methods are creative approaches that make agential cuts thereby opening up possibilities and excluding others (Barad 2007).

There is a degree of exposure about myself and my position in terms of space, time and matter. However drawings have enabled me to place myself more on the edge, in the “open process that is emergent, vital, and abstract” (Springgay & Zaliwska  2015:137). They support my nomadic wonderings where I explore  a multiplicity of fields and flows that facilitate new lines of flight, creative offshoots (Deleuze & Guattari 1987). The gesture of drawing spontaneously through an affective response involves kinesthetic movement over a period of time. It moves away from an organized, structured response. Each artefact is a surprise that results from art-in-the-making. The drawings emerge in an iterative configuring  through the assemblage of the iPad-finger-myself As i look back over the collection of images created in the blogs over the past year, there is a distinct move away from photographs towards drawings.  

In considering what this experience means for my data collection I recognize that taking photos in the context of my research is a non-negotiable factor. Issues of confidentiality and privacy mitigate against the use photography in birthing facilities. However in the classroom I have been able to take a few photos such as the one above. This sign was created by a group of Year 4 medical students for our classroom workshops. It formed part of their roleplay relating to the lack of information given to women in labour. It resembles the many signs held up to us by beggars seeking assistance between the traffic at busy intersections -- a reflection of our inequality. The photo that is combined with lines and patterns was created using Skitch on my iPad. It illustrates how both photos and drawings can be open-ended.

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.

Trans. B. Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

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