In an earlier chapter I described how unquestioning (and obliging) both adults and children are when they are asked to produce drawings. They fulfill the request much as they would add a column of figures put before them or type “The quick brown fox. …” By contrast, if you ask them to provide a recipe, tell a joke, name a hotel, or describe their feelings, all but the most acquiescent will ask for the pretext. There are two reasons: Knowing the task in hand helps them to frame their response, but more important, in everyday life these pieces of behavior are not identified as pedagogical performances but social acts, and to produce them without a motive is anomalous.

Drawing in everyday life

In this final chapter I wish to take drawing out of the investigative-pedagogical frame and to ask three questions: (1) What sorts of functions do drawings serve for the ordinary person in a middle-class Western urban setting? In language, one refers to “speech acts” (Austin, 1962; Searle, 1969), and there is no reason why we should not try to identify “graphic acts.” (2) How is the graphic act embedded in ongoing affairs: Does it typically appear by itself, or is it usually part of a broader action that includes speech, gesture, and so on? (3) Finally, how is the execution of the graphic performance affected by its social function and by its integration into a broader communicative scenario?