The (im)materiality of literacy: the significance of subjectivity to new literacies research

Abstract

This article deconstructs the online and offline experience to show its complexities and idiosyncratic nature. It proposes a theoretical framework designed to conceptualise aspects of meaningmaking across on-and offline contexts. In arguing for the '(im)materiality' of literacy, it makes four propositions which highlight the complex and diverse relationships between the immaterial and material associated with meaning-making. Complementing existing sociocultural perspectives on literacy, the article draws attention to the significance of relationships between space, mediation, materiality and embodiment to literacy practices. This in turn emphasises the importance of the subjective in understanding how different locations, experiences and so forth inflect literacy practice. The paper concludes by drawing on the Deleuzian concept of the 'baroque' to suggest that this focus on articulations between the material and immaterial helps us to see literacy as multiply and flexibly situated.

‘Unboxing’ videos: co-construction of the child as cyberflâneur

“…Given the relationship between childrenÕs online and offline practices (Burnett et al, 2014;Marsh, 2014Marsh, , 2015, it was of little surprise that Gareth enjoyed viewing videos on YouTube related to LEGO. He showed me his YouTube channel, which contained dozens of videos he had marked as favourites, some of which were animations featuring LEGO models.…”

“…online spaces, emotions) are related and become enmeshed in meaning-making practices. Enquiries into childrenÕs engagement with (im)material culture should acknowledge the relation between the spaces in which that engagement takes place, the mediated nature of the world seen on screens, the ÔstuffÕ involved in meaning-making practices and the embodied nature of the practices (Burnett et al, 2014).…”

Digital writing practices: a close look at one grade three author

“…Writing always requires a material infrastructure (Blommaert, ). We take Burnett and colleagues' () definition of material as ‘stuff’, such as artefacts, walls, texts and screens (p. 92) available to authors. While this is typically taken for granted in print‐based writing, technology broadens the volume and diversity of available resources.…”

Narrative in young children's digital art-making

“…Although young children's oral narratives are often observed and reported on in the context of their art-making activities, this is typically done for art-making that occurs via pencils or paint on paper and does not involve digital resources. While rigid distinctions between 'digital' and 'non-digital' cannot capture the complexity of everyday interactions (O'Mara & Laidlaw, 2011;Burnett et al, 2014), by examining how different resources, and in particular digital resources, shape children's art-making, this paper offers a better understanding of the diverse potentials that exist in children's art-making practices, regardless of the resources being used.…”

“…In using the concept of semiotic resources to engage with children's digital art-making, the focus is on not simply the environment created by the computer, but on all of the processes, actions and materialities that constitute engagement with this environment when children use it to make art. The semiotic resources of digital art-making are therefore a physical-digital network of material and immaterial components (Burnett et al, 2014). To trace the influence of digital resources on oral narratives in art-making, a social semiotic approach suggests that we should focus on the materialities of the resources and what these enable and encourage -their 'theoretical semiotic potential ' (van Leeuwen, 2005, p. 4) -as well as examining how these resources are subject to cultural investment, becoming 'fully and finely articulated' (Jewitt & Kress, 2003, p. 2) or 'semiotized' (Bjorkvall & Engblom, 2010) through social interactions.…”