Visual Poetic Inquiry

An interesting part of our project has involved using methods from the creative arts to conduct our studies. We have learned that using artistic methods can be an exciting way to engage researchers and stakeholders in research.

One of our early studies involved running focus groups with adults about how they manage HIV and self-care, in partnership with Terrence Higgins Trust and supported by Blue Sky Trust. Three of the INTUIT team members invited participants to reflect on their personal and shared experiences, and later analysed the research data.

We used a novel method called ‘Visual Poetic Inquiry’ to compose visual poems from our analysis, produced as animations that could be easily shared with our stakeholders. Through this format, focus group insights could be communicated in a performative way that retained some of the emotional expression of individual participants, in their original words. The researchers were also able to capture their analytic response in a creative and emotionally engaged way.

Below are the Visual Poetic Inquiry outputs (animations), followed by a brief description of the methods that we used, and examples of work from different stages of the analysis.

Meanings of Self Care: Visual Poetic Inquiry animation for INTUIT project
By Bakita Kasadha, Caroline Claisse, and Abigail Durrant

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

To persevere: Visual Poetic Inquiry animation for INTUIT project
By Bakita Kasadha, Caroline Claisse, and Abigail Durrant

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Understanding Care Provision: Visual Poetic Inquiry for INTUIT project
By Bakita Kasadha, Caroline Claisse, and Abigail Durrant

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Visual Inquiry: In response to composed poems

Two of the visual collages created by Caroline Claisse, in response to a poem Meanings of Self-Care, composed by Bakita Kasadha

Visual response, by Claisse, to the poem To persevere by Kasadha

Visual response, by Claisse, to the poem Understanding Care Provision, by Kasadha

Poetic Inquiry

A ‘Collective Poem’ composed by Bakita Kasadha responding to data collected from focus groups conducted with Claisse and Durrant in collaboration with HIV charities, and specifically to a key theme emerging from a collective analysis by these researchers of what was discussed with participants.

An ‘Individual Poem’ composed by Bakita Kasadha responding to data collected from focus groups conducted by Claisse, Kasadha and Durrant in collaboration with HIV charities, and specifically responding to an individual participant’s account of experience.

A ‘Collective Poem’ composed by Bakita Kasadha responding to data collected from focus groups conducted with Claisse and Durrant in collaboration with HIV charities, and specifically to a key theme emerging from a collective analysis by these researchers of what was discussed with participants.