This paper explores the use of concepts from contemporary and street art, theoretically and practically, as visual arts subject matter for ninth-grade students in a Swedish compulsory school. The use of multimodal interaction analysis enables pupils to focus on sensorial practices, materiality and verbal as well as non-verbal communication (Broth & Keevallik, 2020; Streek, Goodwin & LeBaron, 2011). The video-recorded data covered six lessons in which the pupils’ understanding of art as a concept was challenged based on the teacher asking: What is one allowed to do in public spaces as an artist and as an ordinary citizen? The aim of the study was to investigate informal pupil interactions moment by moment and reveal how such interactions may influence epistemic positioning (Melander & Sahlström, 2010). Thus, this research aimed to address the following questions: In what ways does peer interaction take place in class? What is said, and how does it relate to the tasks at hand? Based on empirical analysis of the video-recorded interactions, the study addresses how the social organisation of the senses during interactions—including verbal utterances, gestures and cultural norms—in a classroom setting may have an impact on how pupils participate and express their knowing. Methodologically, the study draws on work by Mondada (2019 ; 2021a, 2021b) and Goodwin (2018), adopting an ethnomethodological approach to analysing social interactions (Eilittä et al., 2023). Thus, this paper contributes to the emerging discussion of the perceived lack of close-to-practice research in the field of visual arts. Additionally, the study offers a methodological discussion of the use of line drawing as an analytic tool in the context of (multimodal) interaction, unpacking the local ecology of the classroom setting (Laurier & Boelt Back, 2023). 

Broth, M., & Keevallik, L. (2020). Multimodal interaktionsanalys. Studentlitteratur.

Goodwin, C. (2018). Co-operative action. Cambridge University Press. 

Laurier, E., & Boelt Back, T. (2023). Problems and experiments transcribing video. In P. Haddington, et al. (Ed.), Ethnomethodological conversation analysis in motion: Emerging methods and new technologies (pp. 245–263). Routledge

Melander, H., & Sahlström, F. (2010). Lärande i interaktion. Liber.

Mondada, L. (2019) Conventions for multimodal transcription. https://www.lorenzamondada.net/_files/ugd/ba0dbb_986ddd4993a04a57acf20ea06e2b9a34.pdf

Mondada, L. (2021). Sensing in social interaction: The taste for cheese in gourmet shops. Cambridge University Press.

Mondada, L. (2021). Orchestrating multi-sensoriality in tasting sessions: Sensing bodies, normativity, and language. Symbolic Interaction, 44(1), 63–86.

Streeck, J., Goodwin, C., & LeBaron, C.D. (2011). Embodied interaction: Language and body in the material world. Cambridge University Press.