Abstract
This project demonstrates how practice-led, autoethnographic-informed research, structured around photographic observation and iterative writing, can recast lived experiences of silence into articulated narrative. Combining visual autoethnography with creative practice, this research was able to give voice to hidden emotional narratives. Born from the liminal space at the intersection of scholarly, artistic and private worlds, this research conceptualises photographs as fragments of untold stories. Artefacts of my research, these photographs act as witnesses to my lived experience of coercive control and are the fragments from which The Unsaid - an original novel for young adults - was created. During this project, cycles of making, reflecting, and reframing provided ways to respond to silence and identify voice, a core mechanism of psychological resilience.This project models a framework for artists and practitioners working at the edges of language. Presented as an artefact - an unfinished draft interleaved with photographic images - this thesis uniquely demonstrates a creative process for the telling of trauma. More broadly, it shows how the use of visual diaries and intuitive photography can help restore agency and voice in contexts where speech is constrained. This has implications for arts-based inquiry, trauma-informed practice, and understandings of psychological resilience.
| Date of Award | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Original language | English |
| Supervisor | Tony EATON (Supervisor) & Jen WEBB (Supervisor) |
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