The 5-Symbols Art Task Series is
tailored for pedagogical practice, and
its aim is to facilitate students’ self-expression. It contains five
given symbols: these are a ship, house, heart, tree, and an optional
symbol. All of these reflect different parts of the personality.
The five symbols are embedded in a story of an
imaginary journey. In this journey we are sailing, so first we have to
design our own boat. The boat is the first symbol. The boat or ship
represents getting away from the ordinary days, and a journey into
ourselves.
In European culture in
many cases ships are symbols, and
they can have special attributes. For example, in a number of
mythological and religious stories, such us Noah’s ark in the Old
Testament, or the tale from ancient Greece about the journey of
Odysseus. Also Kharon’s boat is not just a means of transportation, but
it symbolizes transmission between the world of the living and the
dead. We can also see special boats in today’s popular blockbusters,
like the Black Pearl in
The Pirates
of the Caribbean.
The equipment, the size or the secure or unsecure
visualization of the ship shows the background of a person and his or
her senses of security in real life. We can see this if we compare the
two boats in Figures 1 and 2. The first is a large and well-equipped,
safe ship, but the other one is sinking right now. There is a man
standing in a tiny little life boat, and a big shark is about to eat
him. He is screaming. These boats clearly show the differences between
the two students’ sense of security.
While we are sailing, we get into a heavy storm and
we get shipwrecked. We are marooned on an island, where we find a
house. The house is the second symbol. The House-Tree-Man Test (H-T-P)
by Buck is a well-known psychological drawing test.
3 Based on
Buck’s test I expect that the house is a symbol of family
relationships. However, because of the storyline, the house in my
method symbolizes the drawer’s conception of a shelter in a difficult
situation. Figures 3–5 show some examples of the different
house-drawings, and the differences of sense of security, when the
drawing person is in trouble. The drawer of Figure 3 said:
This is a
ruinous house. Nobody lives here. I don’t feel like going inside.
Figure 4 is a castle with flowers in the garden.
Figure 5 was made by a 14 year-old Romani boy. His
house is a prison, and based on his comment I assume that this theme
reflects his conception about difficult situations or about his future.
He said:
This is a prison at the end
of the world. Nobody could get out
of here! There is a man standing in the left corner. He is crying and
holding up his arms, asking for help.
After we have taken a rest in the house, we start
discovering the island. In the middle of the island there is a cave,
and deep in the cave we find two magic mirrors. The first mirror shows
our heart instead of our body. Our own heart is the third symbol.
Generally heart is the symbol of love, or other feelings and desires.
In addition, the heart is a state of mind and a feature of the human
character. I gathered some common idioms related to heart, e.g. heart
of stone, lose your heart to a man, heart of gold, one’s heart goes
out, my heart bleeds for you, heart-to-heart, one’s heart sinks, etc.
Figures 6–8 are examples of adolescents’ drawings about their own
heart. These pictures reveal different feelings and moods.
In the second magic mirror we can see ourselves
altering into something else. This is an optional symbol about our
selves. Optional symbols are often animal figures, plants, brand names
or logos, and beloved objects. They reveal the conscious or desired
aspect of a personality. After that we climb out of the cave. There is
a tree near the exit of the cave. The tree is the last symbol. Drawing
a tree is a psychological drawing test similar to Buck’s house
test.
4 It reveals deeper
feelings of the drawer, and the tree
symbolises the whole personality. Further on I show examples for the
tree and optional symbol drawings.
At the end of the story we are asleep under the
tree, and the rescue team with our friends find us there. This is the
end of our imaginary journey.
Projective Drawings in Education
Drawings can be regarded as a representation of the psychic state.
Projective drawing tests are common in psychological practice, for
example Goodenough’s Draw-A-Man test
5,
the Rorschach test,
6 Buck’s
House-Tree-Man test, Koppitz’s intelligence test,
7 and so on.
Drawing is a projective cue, and the person can express herself through
it. In psychological practice, projective drawing tests are used to
reveal the unconscious parts of the personality, to diagnose mental or
personality disorders or to help therapeutic procedure.
At the same time, in the educational context
projective drawings have another function, which requires another point
of view. It is very important to see clearly how we can use the
projective method in education. In the school, drawing is not part of a
therapeutic procedure, and it is not a diagnostic tool. Instead,
projective drawing is a tool of nonverbal communication, and helps
self-expression through visual representation.
According to Kristóf
Nyíri, “everyday thinking and communication, as well as scientific
theories, involve more than just verbal language. They involve images,
too.” Pictures are “
natural carriers
of meaning”.
8 Pictures
are
able to convey the kind of notions which the verbal mode is not, so
drawing can be a tool for understanding teenagers. Furthermore,
teachers have to use the projective method prudently, because the
therapeutic and educational procedures do not have the same roles.
Also, teachers have to be aware of their limit of competence, and they
should cooperate with other experts in the school if it is necessary
(for example the school psychologist, a family advisor, a child
protection expert, or a special education teacher). Carefulness with
the explanation of symbols is also required from them. In all cases the
meaning of the symbolic drawing is based on the drawer’s own
interpretation. I discuss the possible explanation of drawings in
detail in some other publications of mine.
9
The following examples show that the same motif can
denote absolutely different contents. Figures 9–11 all represent
angels. Below the pictures we can read the drawing teenagers’ own
interpretations, and these make it clear that their feelings and
thoughts were different in each case. It is possible to understand the
meaning of angel as a symbol if the drawer is taken as a starting
point, independently of the teachers’ own convictions or their
emotional state.
On the other hand, projective drawing is neither a
tool of teaching visual arts, nor a measuring instrument. In the school
the aim is not to develop drawing skills but to help self-expression
through shaping their own symbolic pictures. These drawings sometimes
have very low level of representation, because in this case spatiality
and realistic depiction are not important. So using projective drawings
in education requires a new assessment procedure, where the
expressivity and substance of the drawings becomes conspicuous. Figures
12 and 13 are examples of low levels of representation, but strong
self-expression. Figure 12 is a heart full of scribble. It shows
painful and angry feelings with very simple device. Figure 13 is a
raft. This is the drawer’s own boat. He is unable to navigate it,
without having a sail or power engine. It shows the insecure feelings
of the drawer.
5-Symbols Art Task series is a projective type of method, but
does not serve therapeutic purpose. This task aims at drawing symbols,
and these pictures show the veracity of the inner world instead of the
depiction of the outside world. Symbols support self-understanding,
because symbols always have two meanings.
10 The
everyday meaning gives you the feeling of security, and the hidden
meaning of the symbols make self-expression possible. So symbols allow
people to reveal themselves and stay safe at the same time. They have
the option to choose between these meanings. To draw symbols is an
opportunity for the students for self-expression and they can choose to
take it or not.
I based my views on the sociological concept of the
interpretation of symbols. It sees symbols as a reflection and a
concentrated expression of the inner self. Visual symbols are a
connection between the inner world and the community, because these
pictures reveal the drawer’s thoughts and emotions.
Veracity of Adolescents’ Drawings
Usually feelings and emotions are the most important elements in the
drawings of the symbols here discussed. As I mentioned earlier, the
drawer’s own annotation is the main aspect for the explanation of the
drawing. Whatever they say about their drawing, they say all of it
about themselves, because these symbols reflect the personality.
Sometimes these feelings are connected to forbidden or ashamed
contents, for example aggression, anxiety, or inferiority complex.
Andrea Kárpáti and Tünde Simon review symbolization processes in a
variety of classic and new media. As they write: “Symbols are elicited
by tasks that are emotionally engaging and thus may result in the
formulation of a personal message. Verbal utterances of aggression,
anxiety and phobia are normally suppressed in a school environment, but
may be freely expressed during an art class.”
11
Some examples demonstrate aggressive or ashamed
contents in the drawings. Figures 14 and 15 show aggressive or painful
feelings.
Figure 16 at first sight is a common drawing of a
heart. There are no decorative elements, no figures, just some colours.
But the drawer tells us that they represent her suffering pangs of
jealousy. Figure 17 is a 13-year-old girl’s optional symbol. She
portrays a tattered and humbled young girl, who is her symbol. Very
likely it would be difficult to utter these feelings, but through
drawing symbols it is feasible.
Usually these drawings densify a lot of complex or
ambivalent thoughts. It is very difficult to denote them in a verbal
way, but the picture is a good tool for it. Figure 18 shows a hamster
and a snake. It symbolizes the relationship between people. Figure 19
is a variation of a well-known sign, a smiley face. It shows ambivalent
thoughts about the drawer’s own personality.
During my researches I compare the results of
the 5-Symbols Art Task Series to a verbal test about personality. This
test is a Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ by Robert
Goodman.
12 In some cases the
drawing shows such deep feelings like
mourning, whereas the verbal test shows a totally trouble-free status.
It seems they could not talk about their problems, but they could draw
about it. Examples for this are shown in Figures 20–22.
Figure 20–22 are all from the same boy. This boy was
mourning deeply when he made these pictures. His father died suddenly a
few months before, and the boy had not spoken a word about it with
anyone. His teachers and his mum worried about his being emotionless.
But these drawings with his own symbols show his inner world clearly.
The little size and the lines show anxiety, and his words about the
pictures talk about painful feelings, mourning and loneliness. As in
the mourning boy’s case, sometimes symbol drawing can be a better tool
for self-expression than words.
In Figures 23 and 24 we can see two
pictures of a 14-year old boy. The drawings were made during his
parents’ divorce. These pictures show his feelings about it. His
symbols are full of fighting, intimidation and defence.
Summary and Conclusion
The visualizations made by pubescent children can contain important
information about the individual. Based on my research I claim that we
can use projective drawings like 5-Symbols Art Task Series successfully
in education. They are a useful pedagogical tool not just in Art
education, but they help class community work too. They promote
self-knowledge and self-communication, conduce to integration of the
outermost students, reveal the problems of students who are difficult
to handle, lead to understanding conflicts, or contact with parents. It
seems that in some cases drawing is a better option than the verbal
mode. Projective drawings not only help to come to truly know
adolescents, but they contribute to – as mentioned above – possible
cooperation with other experts in the school, for example the school
psychologist, a family advisor, a child protection expert, or a teacher
for pupils with learning difficulties.
A 13-year-old boy said about his own heart:
This is
an inner light, which is looking for a way out (Figure 25).
Drawing can
be an appropriate tool for letting the inner light out!
