Exploring Embodied Experience via Videoconferencing: A Method for Body Mapping Online

Abstract

Faced with a series of COVID-19 related lockdowns in Australia across 2020 and 2021, and anxious about the safety of our research participants, we developed a novel approach to body mapping, an arts-based research method typically undertaken in-person. We produced a facilitated body mapping workshop hosted via an online videoconferencing platform. Workshops brought together 29 participants with disability, mental distress and/or refugee background who used body mapping to represent their embodied experiences of stigma and discrimination. These workshops generated rich data, and participants reported a high level of satisfaction with the process. In this paper we describe our novel approach to body mapping, and share practical tips for others who wish to undertake body mapping remotely. We outline strengths associated with this method: increased accessibility, enhanced connection between participants, the formation of a space to explore challenging subject matter, the production of rich data, and the creation of diverse body maps. We also discuss shortcomings and challenges which those considering the method should be aware of: increased logistical burden, demands related to space, IT difficulties, the danger of over-sharing, and diminished cohort sizes. To our knowledge, this is the first paper to report on body mapping facilitated via web-based workshops. Here, we seek to provide practical advice and useful insights for others hoping to utilise body mapping online.

“It’s Like Having an Uncontrolled Situation”: Using Body Maps to Understand the Embodied Experiences of People with Hidradenitis Suppurativa, a Chronic Dermatological Condition

“…The COVID-19 pandemic impacted in-person research methods and several body mapping studies had to adjust their approaches accordingly. These included mailing materials to participants and hosting the workshops online (Vaughan et al 2022;Santarossa et al 2023) and designing a chatbot that helped participants design a digital body map (Van Schelven et al 2023). To our knowledge, our project is the first to design a body mapping study during the height of the pandemic and adapt the method to a population already living within pandemic-era restrictions.…”

“…She said, "I feel like I am in a prison and someone locked [me] in… and br[oke] the key… Because, um, we don't know how to deal with this, how to control it." Many participants used materials they had available to them at home; the research team did not mail body map materials like in other studies (Vaughan et al 2022;Santarossa et al 2023). As such, several participants used common household items and office supplies like highlighters, pencils, and pens, and thus their color palette to illustrate body maps was more limited.…”

Beyond Reactionary: Sage Practices for Intentional Reflexivity in Online Qualitative Data Collection

“…Detailed data collection response approaches to overcome online transition obstacles had global reach, and were often contextualized by country, such as being specific to India (Banerjee et al, 2022), Indonesia (Mulyono, 2021), Iran (Yoosefi Lebni, 2023), Malasia (Chia, 2020), or Mexico (Cisneros-Cohernour, 2023). Some scholarship focused broadly on the transition to qualitative data collection (Coffey & Kanai, 2023;Frömming et al, 2023;Newman et al, 2021;Perry, 2023;Rahman et al, 2023;Roberts et al, 2021;Tremblay et al, 2021;Vindrola-Padros et al, 2022), while other articles narrowed to specific aspects of online data collection sources such as embodied mapping (Rieger et al, 2022;Vaughan et al, 2022;Zaragocin & Caretta, 2021), focus groups (Lathen & Laestadius, 2021), interviews (Chia et al, 2022;Heiselberg & Stępińska, 2023;Opara et al, 2023;Tomás & Bidet, 2023), online journals (Rudrum et al, 2022), or researcher reflexivity (Greene & Park, 2021). In short, the methods literature that emerged from the pandemic provided focused, contextual, and mode-specific guidance, with far less available in terms of overall considerations based on lived experiences.…”