Sand // Snow: An autoethnographic investigation of a homing process
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School of Arts, Design and Architecture |
Master's thesis
Location:
P1 OPINNÄYTTEET D 2016 Hewitt
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Authors
Date
2016
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Language
en
Pages
72
Series
Abstract
This master’s thesis explores the question of: how does one create a sense of home in multiple and different places and cultures? By studying, in depth, my experience of homing myself within a foreign culture, while trying to understand what retains that underlying connection to my native culture. The research was motivated by a strong desire to understand what constitutes home for people who lead a, somewhat, nomadic existence. The concept of nomadism within the thesis is defined by the relationship between movement and place and situated within a context of privileged movement. Within the thesis, moving and nomadism are always approached from a prosperous Western background where movement is a positive experience and conscious choice. The thesis utilises autoethnography and arts-based research, consisting of embodied writing and embroidery, to investigate the ways in which I foster a sense of familiarity and home, mainly within Newcastle, Australia and Helsinki, Finland. The data is constituted by embodied stories and embroidered works that communicate, inform and interact with each other in order to convey a deeper enquiry and understanding of my homing process. The interplay between the embodied experience made visual through the embroidery and the embodied experience articulated by the stories are equally important. Both types of embodiment produce different knowledge. The stories communicate embodied experiences which have been processed, understood and reflected upon after knowledge had already formed. While the embroideries reflect an in-the-moment knowing where tacit knowledge and intuition were relied upon to create works that examine the key components of each embodied experience. By combining autoethnography and arts-based research, I dissect thought patterns and processes which occur intuitively within me in order to make them communicable and relevant to others. The research findings acknowledge that home will always be an individual human experience, as no two people will ever home themselves in exactly the same way. However, in a world where movement, mobility and nomadism are becoming the norm, it is important to understand the numerous ways in which home is created, felt and lived.Description
Supervisor
Tavin, KevinThesis advisor
Kallio-Tavin, MiraGöthlund, Anette
Keywords
home, contemporary nomadism, autoethnography, arts-based research