| Popis: |
In this article, a child perspective is used to highlight children’s meaning makingprocesses in art activities. Taking an ethnographical approach, data have been collectedthrough participant observations, video-recordings and informal interviews.Children’s pictures were documented in different ways. Thirty-six children, four to sixyears of age, in two pre-school settings participated in the investigation. My analysesshow that the meanings of art activities are different for children than for adults. Childrenappropriate pictorial genres available in society, but in their peer cultures theyuse them for their own purposes. Social aspects are very important for the children.Making pictures is a way to form alliances. The children’s art activities may be describedas local pictorial cultures with shared opinions about which motifs are interestingto draw, which pictures are beautiful, etcetera. Aesthetical aspects are importantto the children and they often prefer perfectly shaped pictures that look like mediapictures or adults’ pictures to their own more “childish” drawings. To make suchpictures they use a variety of strategies – they copy each others pictures, they usesimple schemas and compositions and they use templates and painting books. Thechildren’s ideals – both their collectivism and their taste – clash with the adult’s world,where originality and individuality are central values. |
