Interdisciplinary Approaches 1

Auto-ethnography and Art

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoethnography#:~:text=Autoethnographic%20methods%20include%20journaling%2C%20looking,generate%20a%20self%2Dcultural%20understandings.

Auto-ethnography is a form of personal research motivated by exploring connections to deeper meanings. Examples of research methods consist of journaling, viewing archives, self interview and habit/ routine observations. There are also many topics that this research could be focused on, such as: “hobbies, religion, location, friends, family, race, gender, ethnicity, sexual preference—just about anything that creates identity.”.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-teaching-autoethnography/chapter/8-choosing-topics-for-the-autoethnography/#:~:text=They%20can%20be%20based%20on,about%20anything%20that%20creates%20identity.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/160940690800700103#:~:text=Examples%20of%20this%20 emerging%20method,1996)%2C%20evaluating%20one's%20actions%20(

From viewing examples of auto-ethnography online, it’s clear that this form of research is typically displayed in a written, formal document. Looking at Sarah Wall’s article “Easier said than done, writing an Auto-ethnography”, it’s clear that her work fits into multiple of these categories. She’s sharing her experience with adopting and relating it to wider issues such as ethics, kinship, culture, motherhood and success in life. 

As a visual learner, understanding and following the important details was challenging. Despite the stereotype to use formal writing to document research, there could be alternative methods to display findings in a creative, unique manner. 

https://www.instagram.com/suncerulean/

Claire, An Instagram bullet journal influencer shares her monthly pages. Aesthetically displaying her daily/ weekly tasks. Scrapbooking old tickets, pictures, quotes, songs and self observations. She uses this “Fun and refreshing” concept to explore new designs, colour schemes and social media interactions/ growth. Her bullet journal incorporates many different topics of auto-ethnography as we see aspects of her free time, education, tasks and future aspirations/ interactions.

In response to viewing Claires’ page, I’ve created my own bullet journal style plan for the week coming. I chose to feature a sticker I made last week as the main image, this dictated the colour scheme of shades of blue. Looking deeper into my plan shows that this is a stressful week, it feels unnecessary spending time decorating a plan when there’s clearly work to be done. But it was actually enjoyable and a welcome ‘break’ from writing. Exploring personal hobbies and events is one part of auto-ethnography. This hints towards art being a major part of the weekly routine. 

Journaling is one example of auto-ethnography. Bullet Journaling is a popular method of journaling that incorporates more visual characteristics. The display is informal and stylised for visual appeal. When looking at Claire’s 5 year recap reel, this bullet journal becomes an archive of her activities and key events throughout her life, her progression and may help with future plans.  

Archive usage is part of auto-ethnography. To learn more about how artefacts are stored, I visited The Box, Plymouth, and saw how photos, film, and documents were stored. There was clear care taken with organisation and climate control. The preservation of all of these items relating to different themes, will allow people in the future to utalise to support new ideas/ projects or theories.