Background: Interest in using multimodal, arts-based methods in the context of health-related research has been increasing recently. Its value lies not only in its ability to unearth complex, rich and nuanced data but also in how the process/processes can simultaneously facilitate the accessibility of evidence (MacGregor et al. 2022; West et al. 2022; Archibald & Blines 2021; Ball et al. 2021; Boydel 2019; Fraser & Al Sayah 2011). From a new materialist perspective, knowledge is not merely an independent, tightly bound entity to be used or consumed but is rather a dynamic construct that can adapt and change as it is applied and used in everyday contexts.
Objectives: The objectives of this workshop include engaging in collaborative arts-based techniques to make sense of a specific case of systematically reviewed evidence, i.e., Factors that influence parents’ and informal caregivers’ views and practices regarding routine childhood vaccination: A qualitative evidence synthesis (Cooper et al. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021, Issue 10. CD013265. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD013265.pub2), and to demonstrate how this process can facilitate the production of embodied knowledge through active engagement with the evidence in tangible, material ways.
Description: (1) Workshop participants will be introduced to the workshop and divided into subgroups (5 minutes); (2) each group will engage in a performative exercise based on an aspect of the reviewed evidence (20 minutes); (3) each individual will respond to their performative experience through a mark-making exercise using charcoal and/or ink on paper (20 minutes); (4) each group will be prompted through a process of cutting up their group’s drawings and reassembling parts of it through collage to re-represent the evidence in graphic form on A3 paper (25 minutes); and (5) each group will present their graphic translation of evidence to the larger group (20 minutes). What will result could be regarded as an example of how multimodal arts-based engagement with systematically reviewed content in the context of healthcare can make the evidence more accessible—and hence also applicable—to those engaging with it, as well as how creative representation of evidence can possibly enrich the communicative potential of empirical data.

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