Making Sense of Movement: A/r/tographic Explorations of Physical and Virtual Environments

There has been a rapid globalGlobal move toward a digitalizationDigitaldigitalization of materiality that requires changes in how learners use their embodied minds. Through a/r/tographic explorationsA/r/tographya/r/tographic exploration I examine how I make sense of my own and a group of children’sChildren movementsMovemovement in physicalPhysical and virtualVirtual environments. The conceptual framework for discussing includes embodied cognitionEmbodyembodied cognition theoryTheory and two empirical studiesEmpirical studies: (1) A study of my own sense-makingSensesense-making through touchTouch interaction with a virtual realityVirtual Reality (VR) picturebookPicturebook app, (2) An examination of a group of children’sChildren exploration of physicalPhysical and virtual materialities in an artsArt and craftsCraft educational project. Methods used in addition to a/r/tography is sensorySensesensory ethnographyEthnography, audio-visualAudio-visual documentationDocumentation, and collageCollage-makingMaking. This chapter is a retrospective reflection in which I interpret and learn from the methodological choices made during these empirical studies. The study is analyzed and discussed via two main themes. The first discuss how hapticHaptic visuality—embodied photos and video—can deepen understanding of sense-making and movementMovemovement. The second discuss how makingMaking collagesCollage is a reflective processProcess to make sense and express understanding of movementsMovemovement in physicalPhysical and virtualVirtual environments. In addition, how collagesCollage are central to explore and represent sensorial experienceExperience through surfaces and texturesTextures as linked to hapticHaptic visuality.