How do we do things with words? With this question, philosopher John L. Austin refocused the problem of the performativity of language, which, by saying something, does what it names. This illocutionary force, which transforms representation into action, underlies the activity of drawing in science. Rather than passively describing observed data, drawings create models of knowing and new perceptions linked to the visual and spatial qualities of its media. As a means of research, drawing arises from a state of not knowing – of not yet knowing – with the desire to transform ways of knowing, seeing, feeling and acting on reality.
Starting from the fundamental distinction between representation and model in science, the presentation proposes a comparative reflection on fundamental cases in the history of science directly related to the activity of drawing, such as the representations of the moon by Galileo Galilei and Thomas Harriot; the drawings related to the discovery of the DNA molecule by Francis Crick and Odile Crick. The present of this relationship is approached from the point of view of repre- sentations of the body in sports science, resulting from the DRAWinU research project; and the opportunities and threats for the future of drawing in science education are discussed.
