More than a Mark: the joy and complexity of children's graphic languages

The Research Symposium, as an online initiative, invites participation in 3 pre-recorded sessions that aim to build understanding around children’s interest and engagement in the graphic languages. Sessions will be delivered in Italian with translation into English by Jane McCall.

Webinar 1:  INVENTIONS IN DRAWING

The themes discussed in this webinar have to do with the meanings of the language of drawing, a powerful and essential* language that goes back to the dawn of humanity. It is a strongly expressive and poetic language, related to verbal language and sometimes connected with it, though on other occasions it is so inventive as to precede it. Mark (segno) and drawing (disegno) become traces of Self in the world, theories narrating our personal point of view as we interpret being in dialogue with the contexts of our experience.

* in the sense of being both indispensable and containing an essence

This session is 3 hours (including translation) and will explore the contexts and processes of children’s drawing (birth to primary school).                       

Webinar 2:  THE PLEASURE OF DRAWING. THE VISUAL THINKING OF CHILDREN

This webinar addresses themes related to the language of drawing, and in particular attempts to analyse drawings made by children aged 0 -10 years, starting from a grammar of the language of drawing with the intent of making visible the strategies of cognition and construction enacted by children as they draw.

This session is 2 hours (including translation) and explores the new exhibition The Pleasures of Drawing, including an analysis of the drawings and processes.

Webinar 3: IMAGINE A FOREST

This webinar narrates the experience of an in-depth exploration in the infant-toddler centres and preschools of trees understood as the natural connectors of the planet. This exploration, in the form of mark-making and drawing, involved the whole city of Reggio Emilia, and led to the creation of an exhibition and documentation shared publicly in the largest square in the historic centre of  Reggio Emilia.

This session is 80 minutes (including translation) and shares the narrative of a project titled Imagine a forest, which involved all of the  Municipal Infant Toddler Centres and Preschools in Reggio Emilia, as a celebration of the 100 year anniversary of Loris Malaguzzi.