Visual arts and drawings to communicate and explore authentic life situations, a data collection method in caring science - a hermeneutic perspective.

This methodological article aims to describe three methodological strategies for using drawings as a part of qualitative data collection methods in caring research based on hermeneutics. In some research interview situations, participants may have difficulties to express their experiences and feelings in words. The consequences may be that the descriptions in research reports will become superficial and not authentic, meaning, "telling it as it is". Drawn pictures may facilitate and support reflection related to the deepening of experiences and thoughts, and communicate and express more than words can do. It may also reveal thoughts and feelings the person drawing the picture was not aware of. Three methodological strategies are described: (1) Drawing a picture as an introduction or starting point for an interview, (2) During an ongoing interview, encouraging the participant to draw a picture when further explanation or description is needed for deepening the communication and (3) Drawing something in a pre-existing picture. The theoretical foundation of Gadamer's hermeneutic philosophy is discussed in relation to what a drawing is representing and presents. The interpretation of the drawn picture depends primarily on the creator of the picture, but at the same time the interpretation and understanding is a movement between the interviewer's and the participant's horizons, and thus is open for preunderstanding and new understanding. In contrast to an ordinary interview between two parties, an interview involving a drawing adds something specific to the conversation as it becomes a "trialogue" and not only a dialog. The drawn picture stands on its own. Using the participant's drawing can, therefore, be understood as an ongoing process with three parties involved: (1) the participant, (2) the researcher and (3) the drawing.