Research through a Camera Lens: A Rhizomatic Search for Lode’s Code

Abstract

Every family culture is ruled by unspoken codes. Throughout the short film Lode's Code, Marieke Vandecasteele (the first author) searches for these codes within her own family in a visualethnographic way. In traditional research, families with a family member with a disability are often pinned down to individual categories linked with linear explanations. Vandecasteele's search for the code of her brother Lode and for her own position in the parental nest-with leaving home as a red thread-resulted in a hybrid animated documentary where subjective experiences prevail over the search for explanations. It shows how layered codes intraact in the family machine and can (be) move(d). This paper focuses on the rhizomatic process of making the film. How were the keys to Vandecasteele's family code shaped and what was the role of animation film as a medium? An in-depth discussion shows how poetic research of this kind offers opportunities within the interdisciplinary research domain of Disability Studies to let the complexity inherent to a family with a member with a disability emerge in all its richness and multilayeredness.

Re-touche

“…And immediately afterwards: "What is wrong with your brother?" This is the dominant tone of research around family and the disability label: the focus on labelling, family stress, family burden, and coping strategies as popular key words (Blancher et al, 2005;Damiani, 1999;Hassall et al, 2005;Nixon & Cummings, 1999;Roper et al, 2014;Sharpe & Rossiter, 2002;Smith & Elder, 2010). The ABCXfamily stress-coping model, originally developed by Reuben Hill (1949), has had an impact on the Family and Disability field.…”

“…Images are open to multiple interpretations, they can make people look at things differently. I have chosen to move away from animated film-the medium with which I am familiar, and which I used for my autoethnographic family research (Vandecasteele et al, 2019)and dive deeply into another visual arts-based practice: the world of making collages (Leavy, 2015). I experimented with different printing techniques, combined with stitching and using a patchwork of fabrics.…”

‘Obuntu Bulamu’ – Development and Testing of an Indigenous Intervention for Disability Inclusion in Uganda

“…In our work, in the development and testing of the 'Obuntu bulamu' intervention, we aimed to give voice to unheard processes, forces, and families' and children's voices using artistic and academic research processes. Disability researchers have explored integration of artistic processes and academic research to narrate adult and children's experiences in childhood and disability studies without focusing on individual voices (Van Hove et al 2015;Vandecasteele et al 2019). In the past visual ethnographies were used by anthropologists and filmmakers to describe cultural practices, ways of living, and belief systems in the Global South.…”