Araceli Sánchez Soto
Cómputo para Niños
DGSCA-UNAM (2)
México
Febrero del 2000

Introduction

Art is considered a  unique human activity, a cultural manifestation in which humans express and communicate their inner riches using various means and styles; it is a medium in which sensibility is the most needed element with which to encounter oneself and others.

In educational terms these ideas take shape in the so called "Artistic Education",  backbone of the teaching process in which several elements are combined: emotions,  affection, senses, and the intellect; all of these elements intervene in the development of skills  among which creativity stands out.  It manifests itself through different activities  one of which is of great relevance to our present work, the drawing: graphic representations that we have all used at some point in our lives (especially during our childhood) and that were part of our being and making. 

Drawings happen to be one of the most common tools used by  children to express themselves; through them they manifest their fantasies as well as their fears, the  way they perceive the world and themselves; it is a means in which it is not necessary to go too deep into what was meant to say, unless there is an adult interested in what the child did  and decides to ask in order to further understand the meaning of what was drawn.  The meaning can have different connotations depends on the conditions or context in which the drawing was made as well as on the particular personal situation  of the one that creates it.  

In the Workshop with children, drawings with computers and without them have been one of the activities most encouraged and rich in itself, not only because of the artistic creations that have been obtained through it but also for the information that it has provided about the authors.

In this chapter, the analysis of some of the drawings done by the children will be divided in two parts.  In the first part,  the analysis will be focus on the artistic aspect, to accomplish this, reference will be made to some creations that were part of a project developed  in Kidlink: "Nuestra versiòn de los alebrijes" ("Our version of fantasy figurines"), creatures designed  in the computer from  the children’s imagination and the combination of various animals.  In the second part, and with a symbolic (projective) point of view, drawings  will be presented that were created during their free time activities, not related to  Kidlink; these productions have been grouped into "Drawings to read and listen; stories of the life of street children", all of these are manifestations of their feelings and aspects of their life that may have not been possible to know  in any other way.

Children’s drawings

The drawings created by children may be influenced by several factors,  some are necessary for their growth, but others can hamper it.

Among these influences the conditions surrounding the creation of the drawings are of significance.  The influence may come from the child directly, he takes the initiative  to draw and decides what and how he is going to do it.  The child’s intention is to communicate something  even if he is not aware of it, through the drawing he may tell us if he is sad or happy.   Sometimes he will give us a verbal indication with respect to what he is doing  (“these are the eyes of the cloud”) , which takes us to think that drawing represents a means by which  he talks with himself, with his inner world.  On the other hand,  the creation can be the result of an external request, someone, an adult or a professor , ask the child to draw and may even specify the theme to develop and provides certain material to use.  In this case the intention does not come from the child, but from the person requesting the creation of the drawing; the graphic activity in this case  is guided toward an specific result such as to evaluate a concrete activity like the capacity that the child has to represent objects.

It is possible that in both situations the child creates the figures freely and spontaneously.  However it is also possible that this could be replaced for copies of  models or shapes considered as true representations of the objects. Here, like in writing, there is no freedom for the child to draw what he wants or to express things as he sees them.

That freedom and creative expression that is inherent to the child early on  within the graphic expression, are hampered when the child has to follow certain forms, what has been taught as the way things must be done.  Even the activity of copying from models is frustrated when the child compares his creation with the original, since he realizes that they are not exactly the same.

It is true that freedom of expression is more common among small children, however this can extend also to older children,  assuming that the surroundings are stimulating and that  the necessary material is provided so that he can create as only he can.

To limit and to trap what can be created with the imagination using the hands and colors is the biggest mistake that we can do with street children or children in a similar situation. With them we should rather try to  free what is in their imagination  and that expresses what they are and what they feel.  Reality is taken not for children to make perfect copies of it, but for them to play with it , to transform it and to create something new, as was done with the “alebrijes”( fantasy figurines)  or  to tell about themselves through images or representations.  In this way the act of drawing is considered in this context  first of all as an expression of freedom.

I." Our version of  alebrijes ( fantasy figurines)… in computers”

Kidlink  not only makes communication  possible among  young people from different countries via writing or chats in real time, but makes communication possible also through drawing,  this can be considered like a bridge  that allows us to bypass frontiers no matter what the language  or the color of the skin may be.  However, in most of the projects, the drawing  is an “image or illustration of ”,  taking shape  after what has been written; in other cases  their production is attached to some special occasion, for example, the creation of greeting cards for some special celebration.

In the “alebrijes” project, drawing played a central role, not just as manifestation of a  free artistic production but also as the  “pretext” or “ inspiration” that gave life to the written text  and   gave the clue as to the characteristic of a certain animal.   In the next section, an explanation of the following  topics will be presented:  The link between both forms of expression [image or illustration  vs. pretext or inspiration] ;  What is behind these artistic productions?  And  the Method used in the making of this project. 

Characteristics of the project: objectives and description

The project appears following an activity  called “Bichonario” [from the a Spanish word for creature- bicho and  the word imaginary-imaginarios].  The activity proposed  the link of two names,  either two animal names or  the name of an animal and a thing to invent a new being.   The name “ alebrijes ” is  taken from the handicraft invented by Don Pedro Linares, fantasy figurines made in paper mache or wood,  with bright colors, horns, wings, scales ,  produced by the artist during  an illness.    The similarity between what was done by the children and these figures was what made us named the project “ Our version of  alebrijes”, since just like artists use cardboard, wood,  paint brush and colors to create,  we used computers, our main work tool,  so that children make full use of their creativity without other instruction but to create an animal by mixing other animals and using their imagination.

The original project proposes to mix the names of  animals to make the description  of the new creature and  draw it afterwards.   In our workshop there were children that did just that to start creating their fantasy figures other children, however, mixed the animals first and thought about the name afterwards.  At this point writing was the mechanism to inform the others what they wanted them to know about their drawings: the name, eating habits, behavior pattern,  lifestyle and why not? preferences. While the descriptions were base on  what was real, the result was fiction.  It was a way to play with words, confuse real names,  and use this as a way to express what can only be found in fantasy.

Method of work

Through the project we used a graphic program called “Animator”,  with which the children were able  to draw and write what was related to their creations and were also able to give them movement.

To obtain an “alebrije”  in the computer was the result of three stages:

a) Oral  presentation and research

To introduce the project we gave  a short explanation of what  “alebrijes” are, highlighting their characteristics: a combination of parts of different animals and other imaginary things; at the same time  we showed them a magazine so the children could see what they were. We said that while it was not possible for us to make a figure in cardboard or wood,  we could make up some in the computer.

As an example so that they had an idea of what they could do, we showed them a figure made by us on the computer. This animal got the name  “avegrafilo”, in this the body of a bird (ostrich) was mixed with the head of a giraffe and the legs of a crocodile.  To this figure we also added a bit of text so that the new animal had a detailed description.

So that the children would start  creating alebrijes  we showed them various books on animals, among which were those that live in land and in the sea, from these they could take parts as well as invent others.

b)The birth of  “alebrijes”

After  each of the children found the animals that attracted their attention, the started deciding the parts that they would use  of each to draw their new animal.  Some of them made a sketch, which was traced afterwards to a transparency which facilitated their transfer to the computer; others drew it directly on the computer.  With the tools of the program they gave life to their creations:  using color, drawing a background or doing animation.

In this last case the creations required more attention and help from us.  The complexity of the animation depends upon how interested the child was in that  topic,   the completion requires time and care of the movement of the objects in each of the scenes.  At the same time  you need to encourage the child to continue with his work, this often takes more than one session  and it may be quite tedious to work in the same project when others are doing a different one. However, what is sometimes seen as  “a waste of time”, is seen as a reward  when the animation is finished and is also admired by his peers.

Although the children had already found the name for the creation, none of them had it written in the computer, so we suggested that they should, otherwise people looking at their creations would not  know what to call them.  As they wrote the names of the animals the children thought that it was not necessary  to give details anymore since after reading the names the characteristics would be obvious.

We encouraged them to do it telling them that people looking at their drawings would make their own interpretation and not that which they particularly wanted to show.   Some of the children had already read about the characteristics of the animals they had chosen for the “alebrije”,  so we suggested to take some aspect of  what they read or to make it up.

Among the “alebrijes” that were created we could make  a division with respect to what they display, so that on one side we have the ones that we can call wild “alebrijes”  and on the other side the ones that are tame.

Wild Alebrijes

We called them like this because the chosen animals that inspired the final creature have the common denominator of being aggressive.  Their habitat is ruled by the law of the dominant one,  the one that survives is that which is able to defend its territory.

In some cases the children wrote the text by themselves; with the smaller ones we played secretary so that nobody would end up without communicating what the alebrije  represented.

Among those “alebrijes” we have:

Rinoalcón

“Is a very large and ugly creature, is 1 meter tall and it weighs a lot. It needs a very strong tree to rest.  The head is big  and very heavy.  If it bends over it falls head down.  The  “rinoalcòn”  eats leaves and shrubs.  When it is under attack flies away and uses the horn for defense, sticking  it into the tummy of those that want to harm it.  Lives in the trees.” (Javier, 13 years)

“Javier combines the body of a hawk (halcón) and the head of a rhinoceros to create his  “alebrije”.  The part that belongs to the hawk allows the new creature to escape danger  and it defends itself with  the horn of the rhino.  It is worth mentioning that his description matches the drawing: the head of a rhinoceros is heavier than the body of a hawk , that is why Javier said “its head is very big and heavy.  If it bends down it can fall on its head.”

Vampuma

“the vampuma is a wild animal, its body is remarkably unusual.  Its body is like a vampire bat with the head and legs of a puma.  The vampuma is an underground animal.    Eats snakes, mice and rabbits. It hunts those like an eagle since it seizes them while flying.  In the winter it needs to move to another place to survive the cold. Finally,  it drinks orange and grapefruit juices.  ( Fernando, 15 years)

Fernando is the one that describes his “alebrije” as wild. He combines a bird with a cat;  with the body of a vampire bat this new creature can seize its prey while flying and the features of the puma allows it to hold a grip so as not to lose the prey.

His text tells us some of  its characteristics:  what does it eat, how does it hunt, what does it like to drink and where does it live.

Tigrila

“The tigrila is an animal from the time of the dinosaurs.  It is carnivorous because it eats meat.  It lives in the jungle and in the mountain peaks.  Eats snakes, pythons and boas.  In addition, once in a while it eats a cow.  Its claws are large and measure 60 cm”. ( Israel 10 years)

Israel also mixed a feline with a bird; in his drawing he highlights the beak of the eagle and the length of the tiger claws (60cm), both characteristics allows it no doubt to better seize its prey. 

Israel, in addition to including text and scenery also made an animation.

Pantigre

“This is an animal that eats everything: vegetables or meat.  It lives in the woods, in the jungle wherever he wants.  It is 2 meters and a centimeter high.  Sleeps when is very tired, in a cave or in a very large tree as a cave.  It likes to hunt  deer, rabbits, any animal.  Likes to jump to find its mate”. ( Jonathan 12 years)

Even though this alebrije is in part an aggressive feline, the other part  correspond to a panda giving this new creature  a less aggressive look; although it hunts animals it also eats vegetables to survive.  We can observe that Jonathan retakes and combines the characteristics of the two real animals;  the characteristics vary according to the situation at hand.  While in the jungle the aggressive characteristics are exposed, helping it to survive in this  environment; while in the woods it probably would be calm.

 Children that had been in the streets at sometime, will behave like that, at times they will show tenderness and love, especially to those that inspire trust.  To others, and if they feel threatened, they will be aggressive and silent.

Tame "Alebrijes"

They are so called because unlike the others, these “alebrijes” reflect the need for affection of the children.  These were made by the younger ones, after reading what was written about the characteristics of the animals that they created, we could noticed that they put to one side the physical description to concentrate on the animal’s attitude.  Because the children could not write or read, and as we already mentioned , we took the part of  the secretary to get the text; we wrote in the computer as they communicated to us what the new animal was able to do.

The “alebrijes” in this category are:

Pinguillena

“The pinguillena swims and flies because that is the way she is.  Flies very far to its house.  She lives where there are others like her, that is where her mother also lives.  She has the head of a whale and the body of a penguin.  They  fight since they were born, besides she goes into the water”. (Arturo 6 years)

Tortulibrí

“Is an animal that sometimes lives in the land.  Makes its house, flies the whole day, its wings are very fast.  Flies, eats, builds its house and feeds the tortulibrìs again.  When it finds another home feeds again the tortulibrìs. The tortulibrì has the head of a humming-bird( in Spanish colibrì) and the body of a turtle”. ( Arturo 6 years)

The creations of Arturo communicate the need for maternal love, the birds invented by him share the same property of engaging into a flight home, to take care and to feed the little ones, and not only its own but others as well.

Children at the “casa-hogar” (foster home or institute) live in a similar situation.  They are all treated the same way by the street children educators, who many times take the place of parents, either in school related work or in situations of daily life such as eating and personal hygiene.  The older children  are also responsible for the little ones, they help them with school work or taking them to class.

Vacaniño

“I invented this animal.  I called it vacaniño because  I gave it the body of a cow (spanish-vaca) and the head of a boy (niño).  I saw the animal in a story book for children.  The boy was milking his cow”. ( Jorge Salinas -8 years)

The “alebrije’ created by Jorge has a very particular feature, it has the head of a human being.  In the text he gives us a short explanation regarding its origin.  Maybe this “alebrije” rather than portraying the need for affection, allows us see the purity of his imagination and creativity; since compared with the others it breaks away from the pattern of mixing two animals for the new creation, replacing one of the parts for the head of a human being.

c) Exchange of "alebrijes":

The creations were sent as an example so that children from other countries will be encouraged to participate in this project and establish the exchange in this way. Later we received the creations ( without a drawing) of four girls from Uruguay:

• Colivaca; “Eats grass and drinks coca cola.  Its body has the head of a cow, the beak of a hummingbird, the tail of a cow and everything else like a hummingbird.  Its hobbies are to sunbathe, to eat a lot and to dance ballet”. (Daniela Correa and Jimena Domìnguez)

• Colarg:”The colarg has the body of a rabbit and the tail and legs of a reptile because it drank stagnant water.”  (Marìa Jimena and Lucìa)

What the“alebrijes” tell us:

The drawing of the children not only tell us about colors and the characteristics of strange animals, products of their imagination.  The combinations that result in the alebrijes are not chosen by chance, if we look at them carefully we can find in them more than the mix of two animals.

The birds probably tell us about that freedom that the children have when they are in the streets,  which is  restrained when they encounter authority figures as well as the leaders of the group to which they belong.  This is where the image of felines make sense, they represent the aggressiveness, the strength that they need to live and to survive in the streets, the way in which they have to defend themselves from those around them.  They are animals that are feared but at the same time are respected and admired.

The “pantigre”lives wherever it wishes, like them, the same in a park or at the metro station; is looking for a mate, they also need company,  human comfort that many times is substituted with a drug.

The “vampuma”is a nocturnal animal that lives underground, street children have more freedom at night, they come out of the ground, out of the sewage to interact, to laugh, to play and to forget for a moment their situation.  The descriptions of the drawings of Arturo are more transparent in the sense that his text allows us to see more clearly his needs: companionship and the care of a mother.

The “alebrijes” are the animals that reflect the life of those that created them but they also tell us about children’s creativity and children’s art, both the result of free expression.

About creativity Nuñez said that within the creative process, the most important thing is “the appearance of an external object which others can see and touch”,  in addition of having the characteristic of being something new, that does not exist  and therefore is been given life;  “Our version of Alebrijes” is this object, these figures and texts made in the computer in which they, as the authors, and us, as the spectators, see the result of the play with lines, colors and words.

The making of the “alebrijes”,  break with the copy and the teaching of models,  regarding the drawing as well as  the writing.  In the previous projects it was already mentioned that  teaching  to write is based in most cases in the copy, in the use of signs or figures to reproduce the saying of others and rarely what we want to say, neither our opinions or feelings.

The images and the descriptions of the “alebrijes” correspond to unique beings.

Although it is true that for the creation of the drawings, models were used (the animals and the original “alebrijes”) in which the new animals were based, the influence of these models was partial, not only because of the alterations of the originals by adding and mixing parts of others, but also because the children were free to decide what parts of the models  to copy.

With the text there was a similar situation, they used the original description of the animals without copying word by word.  At that time the children were the interpreters of their drawings in the sense of translating with words the meaning of the images, or what they wanted others to know about the drawings.  The written word is present, the writing this time does not refer to  the reality that they live and perceive, but was rather a manifestation of a reality that is present in all but only a few know and dare to express ; the reality of fantasy.

With respect to children’s art we can say that while as adults we recognize it,  at the same time art in general has set categories that make children’s art lose value.  Children lack those concepts that adults have created with time to consider that an object is a work of art;  therefore they  are out of this game with rules and this allows them  to be free and spontaneous,  as infants should be.  Children, but not adults, create art from  basic elements at hand ,  with that which is closer to them; they do not look for the right technique or which colors go best.

If children’s art is judge from the adults  point of view, it loses its meaning, because you are judging using set rules and not looking at what the child did.    We cannot confront both  expressions because they have different origins.

When an adult creates art it must follow certain rules, however artists like Mirò, Matisse and Klee distanced themselves from the control of forms and figures that did not allowed them  to express what they really wanted, and they substituted the norm for  those qualities of children’s creations:  casual, spontaneous and with freedom of expression.  The work of these artists, considered “primitive” break with the imitation of what is real, for example, Mirò thought that art was to be sold in art galleries, therefore wasting the chance of creating for the joy of expressing what you have inside.

Even  Picasso in the last stages of his career, turns away from representation with perspective to the simple abstraction of children’s drawings. He said: “When I had the age of these children, I could draw like Raphael (in whose paintings you can appreciate the serene harmony of shapes); but I needed all my life to learn to paint like them.”

If the productions of these geniuses of painting are close or identical to children’s creations  why, then would they not be considered art when both children and adults have the same potential and ability to create?  The key lies in being able to evaluate the art of children on their own, for what they express, for what they want to communicate, because they are unique.

Matisse said: “to create is to express what we have inside”.  This is,  we create or produce something to transmit emotions and feelings, so that another person can feel the same sensations that we feel as authors .  Wallon said: if the pleasure is shared, then the drawing or painting is considered  a work of art.  That is if we as adults or even if other children while admiring the art work of our children feel the sensations that the work is reflecting , if we recognize in this way their power of invention and their imagination, then their drawings like other children’s drawings can be called art.  

At this point where creativity and art merge, we find simultaneously emotions and satisfaction in the completion of something you have given life and form to using pre-existing elements.

In this manner, the “alebrijes”produced by the children are the result of the transformation of reality into fantasy; if we were to know more about the authors, each drawing would reflect different emotions.  Taken together we can appreciate the talent of the children when they are given the necessary elements and freedom to express.  None is better that the other, they are all beautiful by themselves because they are the product of hard work and the imagination of each of them.  “Our version of alebrijes”represent the break with copying reality that in many ways is far removed from us and rather shows what is ours: the magic of imagination.

II.  “ Drawings to read and listen: stories of the life of street children”

Our children can use drawings a lot better than writing, for them it is easier to  “talk”through sketches than to weave letters that they hardly know.  Although written language is replaced by images, this carries the purpose of the other: to inform, tell something to others, to make us listen.

We believe that drawing is not only a means to show their creativity, as was mentioned in the previous section, but also the means to expose what they are, their problems, their emotions. Hence we have said that some of the work has had a projective value, however, not under Freud conception of a  “defense mechanism that consists of giving others characteristics or feelings that are rejected or unknown in yourself”, but rather a reflection of the vision that the child has of himself and the world around him. It is a projection in the sense that the author leaves traces of everything that constitutes his personality.

All the children’s creations have something to tell us, getting to know how to read their work requires interest and attention not only to the work but to the child himself.  To try to look in the creations for something more than motor skills and perception but to look for the information or the meaning of the images depends on who is looking and how he looks, i.e. , the spectator.  If what the child creates does not acquire relevance at all, then it goes unnoticed and stays as one of many he has done.  On the contrary, if the person that is observing shows special interest, he will try to recognize, to “read”  what the child tried to tell us, in this case maybe the  free drawings would be more expressive than what is done under an specific order or instruction.

In our case, all the children’s creations have a special meaning, first because they are the product of children that have not known freedom of expression and we know how difficult is to say and express your feelings, what you are; that is why we appreciate their work  by itself but we also try to get to know the  history and background through their work.

“A picture can say more than  a thousand words”

The drawings produced by the children are never the same, even when they have been given a common theme, each one has its own style, his way of communicating something, for these reasons each drawing conveys a different message.  To get to interpret those images and to read and listen to  what they are trying to say depends a great deal on how much contact or knowledge you have with the author.

It is true that we do not know  well all those that created the drawings which we here are trying to analyze, but what we do know is that they all have been in a situation where they have taken to the streets, therefore their stories are not that unknown; however this is still not enough  to get the entire picture, we need to build trust so that the child communicate about his drawing,  the  child needs to perceive that we are interested in listening and in understanding what he is telling us.  So, through these drawings that speak for themselves and which at the same time need interpreters, is how we will learn more about their lives rather than asking them directly.

The drawings that will be presented were chosen in light of what they represent, what they communicate. They were all made at different times and by different children.  In the “reading” that we did of them we were able to find the following topics:

Family  relationships

The maternal figure is one of the prevalent topics in the productions; they sometimes reflect  abandon. For example, in the following drawing done by Eduardo (10 years) we see two dinosaurs, one  is the father and the other, the son.  When asked about  the mother dinosaur the child said that she had abandoned them.

In others instances like with  Daniel Lòpez (12 años),  the need for the mother can be seen in his drawing of an animal that encases the attributes of an “ideal” mother.  He drew a bird called “Aguador” {water=agua).  When he was asked,  he said that the mother really cared for its babies.  He wrote:   “… every day goes to the lake and lies in the water until its feathers are completely wet.  Then returns to the baby chicks and let them drink the water from its feathers.”

Another topic is the whole family.  In the description that  Daniel Bumas (11 años)  makes of a lion,  he says that if the children get close while it is eating , it growls at them.  This refers us to the children homes, usually characterized by the disintegration of the family and by the presence of a stepfather or stepmother.  In many cases these figures use violence with the children and request them to go out and work  to keep the home, for these reasons the children decide to abandon the home and take to the street.

What they have lived,  what they want and what they wish

The work of the children tells us about their life experiences and also what they wish to have.   Among life experiences there is the encounter with an authority figure, two of these figures are the school teacher and the policeman.  Of the first, we can say that for most of the children that have been in the streets,  the school, the teacher, represent the space and the person where freedom is lost, where ideas are repressed: you must obey, follow the rules.  In the chapter about “The Rights” (Los derechos) the children expressed: “We have the right to a cool teacher,  one that teaches well and who is not too strict… who is not always scolding us.”   The meaning of this last statement is expressed by Eduardo (10 años) in an animated story for which we do not need words to “read”the message; through the various images we see a child, tired of the teacher’s stiffness, he throws a crumpled piece of paper.  In the last image a mocking laugh from the child is manifested with a balloon floating.

About the police, it is known that when the children are in the streets they encounter this authority figure, who instead of  protecting them,  take advantage of them, hitting them or taking from them whatever money they have on them.  Raùl (14 años) called his drawing “Robolobo”.  It is obvious that it is about something bad and ugly; after asking who the character was, we found out that it referred to the policeman “that use to hit us when we were in the streets”.

Amongst the things which they wish to have is the house.  Eduardo ( 10 años)  showed us two houses, one of them, the one with little detail represents where he lived before taking to the street.  The other is the house where he would like to live.  This one shows a little more than a pleasant space, it is in a way expressing the right to have a home.

The “wishes”expressed through a picture also have a text, this is the case of  Enrique (13 años) ;  he creates a story around the wishes that come true with this magic boot to those that have it.  Even though there are typographical errors,  this is unimportant when you want to rescue the meaning of the work.   The story may very well be part of a fairytale, but there are no dragons to kill, no princess to rescue, just a child and a magical object that makes all your wishes come true.  Seen in this context, and  knowing that the children have been in the streets we can imagine the situations that they have encountered.

The dialogue with images

While there are categories in which the art of children can be placed with respect  to their characteristics, contents, color and spatial distribution among others, in our case we are not going to  classify the productions of our children, that is not our job, we do not have that expertise.  Our role is  rather to show the value of the drawing for the stories they tell, for what the author tells,  for the simple and the same time complex way in which they show what we are, what our life is, what is out there when we play blind or deaf.

To present the final product and recognize its value, requires giving the child the trust and encouragement to make the computer the space where he can exercise freedom;  he then can give us back an image that tells us “ I am, I want, I need this”.  Once this bridge is built, you require an interpreter that will communicate with the drawing and also with the author.

The dialogue is established the moment that the child shows us what he has done;  “we speak” with the image, we “read” it from the elements it represents,  looking at each we try to deduce what it is trying to express.  The reading is easy when the message is so obvious that it does not need words, like the animated drawing  by  Eduardo or when the author tells us  about the drawing,  such as Daniel, Arturo and  Enrique did.

We believe that the dialogue with the images gives different information than what is obtained through writing only.  To decide what to present is not an easy task, this is why the creations are of great value, the child is giving us part of himself without having asked for it directly.

The production can be seen as freedom because it touches aspects that the author probably will never refer to in writing or verbally, in particular in reference to feelings. For example, Arturo would have never mentioned the need for his mother so openly as he did through his drawings.

With respect to interpretation,  we cannot have only one art work to understand the reality behind the artist, you need several images  that tied together reflect a common theme; we do not have several drawings from one child but we have several drawings from children under a similar situation,  so we have generalized,  that is, we can interpret the meaning of these drawings because when placed together all of them share feelings of abandonment, aggression as well as the need  of love and affection. An example is the maternal figure described earlier.

Another aspect of the interpretation which we have mentioned before has to do with the writing of the interpreter. Now, the magic of this character is not only to talk with the image, but to translate what the image is saying, that is to move from a graphic sign to a written sign and to try to reflect and to describe as faithfully as possible what the author is telling us.  The writing of the text corresponds to the interpreter, but the idea expressed is the property of the one who said it; the comments belong entirely to the image because it was the author that presented it.

In this case our job was limited to be  close to the site of production and to question  the child to give a more accurate meaning to the drawing,  we need to be aware of when is the right time to question the child and when to keep quiet.

As interpreters this time we did not use written language to fix with words the thoughts of children but rather to open and expose what was hiding under the images: visions of the world , external and internal, only made visible when the one who receives them has the interest to allow them to be heard.

It is true that the meaning  within the drawings is not as conventional as plain writing, however the richness of  it  is present in the ability (power)  that the image has to convey what we desire,  with details, colors, so that the spectators discover the feelings and state of mind of the artist.

Drawings are not conventional because not everyone understands what is in them.  Two houses will not be the same even if the same child draws them.  For example, Eduardo made two houses that represent different things, one where he had lived, the other where he would like to live.  In turn, the word house isolated means the same anywhere: a space to live.

To interpret, translate and converse with these images takes us to the encounter of memories, emotions and feelings that we can only know of when the protagonists of the stories talk about them and invite us to read.

In this fashion, the image is tied to language  since the objects represented are communicating something.  In this instance , something which goes beyond the workshop in which the drawings originated.   They communicate cultural aspects in the sense that the “alebrijes” tell us about  a particular attitude or a certain way of being,  they tell us about creatures which, just as the originals, are the product of mexican art and belong to a space and time that in no other place will be at its best.  The productions that we called projective, are a way to tell in silence what is happening in the big cities: the street children, whom with a borrowed weapon, in this case a computer, they  face their world and can be heard.  {note of translator: the last sentence of this paragraph in the original text is a poetic image- I believe she is saying:  although there are so many street children , their presence is ignored and therefore it is necessary to” listen” to the message conveyed within their drawings.}

The drawings of the children are not as arbitrary as you may think, it is only that to appreciate them in their entirety, to “read” them and go deep into the meaning is the privilege of those few that are ready to go deep and have the interest of unraveling what the image says about itself and its author.

(1) This chapter is part of my thesis work: Araceli Sànchez -  Kidlink, a space for the development of cognitive skills in street children by the internet. An experience in a Computer Workshop.

(2)Dirección General de Servicios de Cómputo Académico - Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México