Encounter materials mean to us that it affects us, force us into action, demand from us, prompt us to care concern us and bring us into question (Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. 2017).

 

·       To tell stories of what happened when we think with materials when we choose to see materials as movements, as encounters, as assemblages, as ecologies as time 

 

·       How materials move through time and space; how materials move us physically and emotionally; how time moves; how air moves; how bodies move; and more

 

·       Interaction with materials

·       The components of the material, history, condition and how we interact with it

·       An object that takes on different ideas and meanings

·       Materials have multiple uses and meanings

·       Materials, objects, places and environments are bound to experimentation

·       Experimentationon opens up and creates different ways of thinking and doing, how children use materials to show their imagination and representation of their world

·       Experimentationon allows us to open up perception and understanding of what is possible

·       Process is important not an end product

·       No right or wrong

·       The studio has no set standards or requirements

·       Failure and mistakes are a part of the artistic process

·       Space is not defined

·       Attentions shifted-thought, talk and values 

·       Art as central to children's learning process

·       Engaging with the arts in a deep connection to artistic ways of knowing and being

·       Proof of objects existence

·       Photography is used to help make visible a child’s interior world and gain insight into children’s lives and experiences

·       To diffract our thoughts and pedagogical moments are not in order, stories or narrative but art more like mindmap with various directions and approaches

·       It emerges into different approaches
(Pacini-Ketchabaw 2017, p. 1-21)

G (3 years 2 months) sits at the drawing table, there are colourful markers and white A4 papers. She starts to pick one piece of paper and put it in front of her. She moves her arm to pick one pink marker. 

G starts to draw a circle, another one next to the first one and she draws two more circles one higher and one lower. Inside circles, she draws two dots, and one line looks like a smiling face. 

G also draws lines as a body. Educator approached her and asked, "what are you drawing?" 
G pointed to each circle of the faces and told me who are they.

 

So we could

·       Engage an Aboriginal person to guide our exploration of Aboriginal culture and art. 

·       Explore the artwork of Aboriginal artists with your children.

·       Explore the history of Aboriginal art.

·       Explore the symbols used in Aboriginal art. 

The best way to ensure it doesn’t is only explored Aboriginal art techniques with an Aboriginal person working alongside children and educators in your classroom.

·      Children to explore the sensuality and beauty of colour, texture, movement, lines and curves and space through encounters with a wide range of media and materials

·      Children to strengthen the dispositions of artists and scientists, dispositions to look carefully, to pay attention to detail and nuance and to work with intention and awareness

·      Children to use their reflections to guide their exploration and also to collaborate in ways that honour each person’s work

·      Children to become knowledgeable about a range of media, developing skills that allow them to use each medium with ease

·      Children to be in dialogue with each other to take new perspectives and deepen their relationships with each other 

Encourage children to slow down to take plenty fo with their work.

 

Children need to have many different opportunities to explore a particular art medium or material.  It takes many encounters for a child’s relationship with an art medium to grow into easy familiarity. 

 

 

Written documentation should tell the story of children’s exploration and play and also reflect on their play to share. Educators should share the plans about how they will extend their explorations and they should invite families to think about their children’s play.

·      Observation note

·      Photographs 

·      Transcriptions of children’s conversations

·      Sample of their work

 

When we display children’s artwork we should think about how to tell the story of art exploration.

·      Create a display against a neutral background.

·      Include close-up photos of the children at work on their art.

·      Keep text to a minimum.

·      Use a large font.

·      Considering giving a title to the display.

·      Consider framing children’s two-dimensional art by placing black paper behind it.

 

This work allows an artist to revisit earlier work, noticing themes that have held constant throughout their work, different techniques that they tried, or changes to themes or styles over time. 

 

Reflection is an essential element of this bold work. After each art exploration takes time to reflect on what happened in the studio.  When we reflect on our experiences in the studio we begin to grow our understanding and routines. Reflection helps us invent our way in studio practices.

 

During the making of the digital visual journal, I also thought that how to record children’s artwork visible and the process of their learning. I tried to follow what Malaguzzi (2015) explains “try to capture the right moments, and then find the right approaches, for bringing together into a fruitful dialogue, their meanings and interpretations with those of the children” (p.117).