Browsing by Subject "Arts-based research"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
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    Learning to Be: An Arts-Based Hermeneutic Understanding of My Heroine's Journey
    (2019) Birch, Elise; Leigh, Heather; Misluk, Eileen
    This research explored the question of what can I learn about my life experiences through a feminist lens by integrating art, poetry, and stream of consciousness text into a hermeneutic circle process that explores The Heroine’s Journey. The expected result was that I would have more insight about my own experiences while integrating my own heroine’s journey into daily living. I used a 6 step, 3 round, hermeneutic circle approach that incorporated poetry, art in the form of an altered book, and stream of consciousness writings. I, the author/researcher, am a student in my second and final year of a master of art therapy program who was also the sole participant in this study. The results of this study showed that integrating arts-based layers to the hermeneutic circle led to increased self-awareness and deep insight into the feminine and masculine natures within myself. Through the experience of this project, I have created the framework of an approach that encourages self-exploration, societal struggles, and an on-going process of finding and making meaning.
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    Sugar Works: An Artistic Exploration of Diabetes
    (2019) Jandernoa, Andrea; Riede, Danielle
    My visual work articulates the complexity of chronic illness by exploring personal implications of medical treatment. I manipulate sugar in ways that reflect my own experiences as a diabetic. Using sugar allows me to situate social, emotional and sensory experiences within an organic material that changes over time. I use sugar in forms that are vulnerable to the environment and ultimately deteriorate. This fragility and slow-motion-loss embody the emotional consequences of treating diabetes and evoke common experiences of unpredictability and hyper-vigilance. From this studio practice I designed an arts-based research study to teach sugar pulling to diabetic patients. This study supports participants as they develop the language and metaphors needed to articulate their social and emotional experiences. By emphasizing patient perspectives this study contributes to the understanding of patient compliance, self-care and diabetes support. Both my visual work and this study leverage the material properties of sugar to enable meaning-making and increase visibility for the social and emotional aspects of living with diabetes. Through experiencing my work in these two forms, I hope viewers will find a neutral space to contemplate the contradiction and uncertainty that often emerges alongside chronic illness.