Dr Patricia Morgan

In her study of the phenomenology of committing violence, at Justice Health, UNSW, Dr Patricia Morgan added arts-based research to support participants expression of their phenomenological experience. This resulted in a photovoice project, an arts-based research workshop, and a 12-minute video that was filmed at the workshop. This video, about lived experience of incarceration, which is illustrated by participants art works, currently has 516 views on YouTube. Art works, stories and poetry created by 9 people who attended the art workshop are featured in the Drawing Free virtual exhibition.

After hearing about multiple human rights abuses in research interviews, Patricia applied for and received funding from the Australian Human Rights Institute to conduct the project’s art workshop. In this day-long workshop, in September, 2024, participants used process art to engage with, and describe lived experience of incarceration. It is important to note that the participants had no prior art training. Also, in using process art they were focused on the process of working with art materials to engage subjective experience, rather than the creation of ‘art products.’ The workshop began with introductions, then participants were taken through a scaffolded process. That is, they moved from preliminary to more advanced process art practices. Participants started with four warm up exercises: Mark Making to Express Thoughts, Colour to Express Emotion, Symbol Making, and Drawing Energy. A self-portrait and poetry exercise followed these practices.

After lunch the participants worked on two longer art works that depicted aspects of their lives, before, during and after criminal legal system involvement. In the first they described their ‘life journey’ and in the second – ‘layers’ of their lives. In the last and longest practice of the day participants drew from those two art works, while bringing together all they had learnt during the workshop about: colour, mark- and symbol-making, and drawing energy, to create a final art work about experience of the criminal legal system. The workshop concluded with a sharing circle, and in the following week the artists participated in a 1-hour, in-depth interview. This page of the Drawing Free exhibition: https://drawingfree.com.au/findings contains project findings drawn from these interviews.

The findings page is divided into two parts, one examining participants experience of the workshop, and the other their experience of incarceration. In the former, which is possibly most relevant here, participants spoke directly about what they found interesting, useful, and challenging about the workshop. In particular they described how much they enjoyed being with others who had similar life experiences to them, and how the art making provided an opportunity to reflect on and gain insight into their lives. Participants words and art works showed how their works, understood as artefacts lifted from subjective consciousness, were used by them as tools of reflection. As a participant said, “Yeah, just your choice of colours, I think they have their own message in the choice of colours. Sometimes, angry, sad, yellow, black, like, that in itself, shows where you’re at emotionally.” Feedback from the exhibition survey is highlighting the way affective/somatic content embedded in participants’ art works can directly engage audiences, by eliciting a deeper, more emotional response to the artist and their work.

Please fill out the exhibition survey if you have the time.

Article and virtual exhibition by Dr Patricia Morgan. The images, stories and poems contained in the virtual exhibition were created by the 9 people who attended the arts-based research workshop run in September, 2024. These participant artists signed a consent form related to the use of their art works.

Photos: DrawingFree, Dr Patricia Morgan, Owen Kane and 9 people with lived experience of incarceration.

Posted by Elyssa Sykes-Smith.

  • Dr Patricia Morgan is an interdisciplinary scholar specialising in applied phenomenology and arts-based research. Patricia has worked nationally and internationally in multidisciplinary research teams focused on social justice, and improving outcomes in education and health for marginalised members of society
  • Elyssa Sykes-Smith is a multidisciplinary artist, educator and climate psychology researcher, and Media Officer at AHNNA