Abstract
Recent approaches to children’s art and drawing influenced by the writings of Deleuze and Guattari and new materialist scholars (for example, Karen Barad, Jane Bennett Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin) explore themes such as process, duration, matter, assemblage, and becoming. They allow for a shift away from linguistic and symbolic interpretations, and offer an opportunity to focus on making rather than meaning in children’s drawing practices. In this paper, I will discuss a selection of research by Linda Knight, Christina MacRae, Christopher M. Schulte, and Christine Marmé Thompson, which focuses on assemblage and process, before presenting a case study from my own research. This case study documents and discusses a drawing made during the course of a lunchtime comic club with children aged 7 and 8. My aim in writing this paper is to examine the ways in which research written from these perspectives opens up new understandings of children’s drawing practices.
