The Conversational Organisation of Drawing

This paper presents a detailed empirical study of drawing activities in a face-to-face design discussion between three architects. We show that, in addition to their usefulness for representing spatial relationships, drawing activities also display important interactional functions. A short 12 minute interaction is described in which a rich variety of shared drawing spaces are created. We make three claims: i) unlike gesture or speech, drawing activities do not automatically claim rights to the floor', ii) drawing sub-spaces are used to help people monitor if they are talking about the same thing iii) people collaborate to create 3D 'virtual' maquettes through temporary combinations of sketch spaces and gestures. We argue that drawing is defined more by its interactional than its inscriptional character.