ABSTRACT
Drawing is at once immediate, and yet takes time. The marks on paper – pencil, crayon, ink, pen – appear instantly, they are real and absolute, but the process as a whole requires us to spend time with our thoughts, memories or experiences as we begin, develop and complete a drawing. Through this duration it is possible for thoughts, realizations or insights to come into knowing. For the researcher, drawing can activate thinking and reflecting that offers great methodological potential. This short entry uses my own research, where I have used drawing with audiences, both children and adults, to explore and revisit their experiences of theatre and dance, to consider the potential utilization of drawing as a research methodology. These are experiences that are intangible, transient and often seem ineffable. They are often extremely affective experiences, known within our bodies in a manner that seems to bypass our knowing minds. I propose that drawing is an act of doing-thinking that enables research participants to enter into a dialogue with their own experiences, to surface memory, make connections and connect affect to experience to knowing.
