Family Straight-Jacket

Family Straigth-Jacket

"Family Straight-Jacket" is an autoethnographic and artistic research project centered around my family, engaging in self-reflection and collaborative learning. Initiated through an informal lunch, the family photo album was used to identify images and later followed by more structured conversations. this study aimed to explore how familial interactions can hinder or facilitate personal growth and significant learning (Rogers, 1967).

Each participant identified life experiences where their capacity for meaningful learning was suppressed. The discussions encouraged reflection on individual identities and how these were shaped or restricted by family dynamics. Drawing on theories from Carl Rogers and Etienne Wenger, the project emphasized that understanding others' experiences fosters empathy, mutual recognition, and deeper personal insight—essential elements for both individual and collective transformation.

The physical artifact—a straight-jacket—was created as a metaphorical representation of these restrictive influences, incorporating conversation excerpts to embody the process of reification.

The project is underpinned by concepts such as culture as ordinary (Williams, 1958) and practice as a social, participatory process (Wenger, 1999). It highlights the role of the ‘indigenous researcher’ (Manny, 2010), who, as both insider and artist-researcher, navigates the tension between familiarity and objectivity. Visual elements helped mitigate bias and deepened the reflective process.

Ultimately, the project demonstrates how autoethnography, grounded in lived experience and creative practice, can generate new understandings of identity, learning, and cultural negotiation within communities of practice.