Selfies, springfilmer och tjuvjakter: förskolebarns bildskapande och estetiska utforskande med digitala verktyg

Abstract in English

In this thesis, children’s image creation and aesthetic explorations are investigated through the observation of a group of 22 children aged 4–6 in a preschool in Sweden. In the study, the children create images primarily using a smartphone and a tablet, taking photographs and filming at the preschool and in the surrounding environment.

The study aims to develop knowledge about children’s images and image creation in preschool, with a particular focus on digital tools as a medium for visual creation. More specifically, the study aims to develop a deeper understanding of children’s visual and aesthetic expressions by analysing and conceptualising the images that are created, and by applying and discussing art-based methods as a scientific and practice-oriented pedagogical contribution.

The study was carried out using visual ethnography and a/r/tography. Using a theoretical framework based on the posthuman approach of Deleuze and Guattari, the study illustrates how the children’s image creation takes form as visual events involving complex, active components that co-create the images. Adding ”c” as in Deleuzian cartography, a c/a/r/tographic analysis is used to identify six categories that outline the children’s image creation: fabulative images, machine images, network images, haptic images, ritornello images, and nomadic images – each marked by performativity.

The findings show how the camera can be understood as a visual-desiring machine that shapes image-creation processes, forming complex analogue/digital-looking apparatuses. The thesis also proposes the concept of aesthetic impulses to better understand the complex visual and aesthetic exploratory processes that occur. These impulses foster sensory, bodily, and affective experiences, leading to unpredictable and ongoing processes of becoming.

The study illustrates how art-based a/r/tographic proposals for image creation can be applied in preschools to initiate processes that encourage open-ended rhizomatic aesthetic exploration. Based on the results of the study, a/r/tographic proposals could be further developed by initiating video walks that could evolve into a method of working with digital in a creative way in pedagogical practice pedagogical practice. A/r/tography is highlighted as a method that promotes the creation of shared aesthetic experiences and supports the development of pedagogical practices in early childhood education.