Caehryn Tinker is in the fourth year of a part time PhD at the School of Art and Media at The University of Brighton, their research focuses on collaborative character and narrative drawing as a way for practitioners to support autistic young people with their wellbeing. Here they report on their experience of presenting at the Graphic Medicine Conference 2024 funded by the CAW PGR Mobilities fund.
My research focuses on collaborative character and narrative drawing as a way for practitioners to support autistic young people with their wellbeing. During the process of collaboratively creating drawings together, the practitioner and the young person enter into a fantasy world through creating characters and the imaginary places they meet. Issues relevant to the young person can then be introduced into the narrative for them to consider. As a visual creative method, this avoids direct personal questions, which can feel uncomfortable for some autistic young people.
I was lucky to receive funding from the CAW PGR mobilities fund to attend the Graphic Medicine Conference in Athlone, Ireland, in July 2024, to give a short presentation about my research. Graphic medicine is the intersection between comics and healthcare. The drawings completed with young people in my research are sequential narratives and therefore included within this genre.
The conference theme was magic, and I feel that character and narrative drawing creates a magical space in between reality and fantasy where it feels safe to express thoughts and ideas as well as consider issues without real world consequences. At the conference, it was exciting to meet other artists, academics, health practitioners from many different countries and hear about the different ways they used comic drawing to express aspects of health and wellbeing. I also met other autistic practitioners like myself who support autistic young people with their wellbeing. After listening to my presentation, they told me that they wanted to try my drawing method with the young people they support as a way to give them a voice, as well as help them express their thoughts and emotions. Parents of autistic children also approached me to say they would try the drawing method with their children. I felt as if I had found the relevant audience for my research.
Attending the conference was an invaluable opportunity to communicate my research very concisely to an audience hearing about it for the first time. I also felt very encouraged by the real world connections and impact my research made.
–– Caehryn Tinker
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