Ideas Unscrapped: Repurposing Metal to Support Process Writing

• In Event: 28.091 - Sheraton Roundtable Session Two - Grand Centre
  In Roundtable Session: 28.091-3 - Art, Affect, and Becoming: Acts of Composing

Abstract

In this 7-day Writing Clinic over the course of two summers, 38 children in grades 1 through 11 were invited to paint four acrylic drafts on 16-guage 4x4 weathered steel and use the rust-markings to write and revise a descriptive narrative. With each paint application, children revised their narratives for a total of four drafts. The purpose of the study was to investigate how painting on a porous medium can be used to help children re-see and revise their personal narrative writing between drafts. 152 written drafts were collected; analysis of 38 narratives, and accompanying questionnaires from the children and their parents suggest that writing from painted steel provided a meaningful revision experience.

Author

• S. Rebecca Leigh, Oakland University