This document discusses how two research methods, creative practice and autoethnography, can provide new insights into understanding the bipolar experience. Creative practice involves textile installation, digital video/video installation, website development, and digital drawing. Autoethnography encourages writers to connect personal experiences to broader social and historical contexts. The author maintains a blog called "Cracked Mirrors and Angel Pie" to experiment with different writing styles derived from media sources and personal narratives to explore representing the bipolar experience. The current work will act as a pilot study to refine the creative and writing practices for a future PhD application focusing on how these methods can provide new understandings of living with bipolar disorder.

1. How can two relatively new research
methods,
creative practice and autoethnography,
provide new insights into the bipolar
experience?
Diana Brighouse

2. Creative practice
• textile installation
• digital video/ video installation
• website development
• digital drawing
• collage

12. Autoethnography
• Carolyn Ellis & Art Bochner, USF
• Norman Denzin, Illinois
• [autoethnography] urges writers with sociological imagination
to connect biography and history, to join the personal with the
public.
• use of first person narratives as legitimate academic writing form

13. Maintaining the digital thread – establishing a blog

14. http://www.crackedmirrorsandangelpie.com
Established through Wordpress, in the public domain.
Notice of new post emailed to blog followers,
also automatically tweeted on my twitter account.
No further attempts to publicise the blog (at the moment
– point for discussion)

15. http://www.crackedmirrorsandangelpie.com
Evolving writing practice (supervised by Jess Moriarty)
Initial stimulus usually comes from media (radio news programmes, newspapers)
‘Journalistic’ blog, approx. 800-1400 words
Now starting thematically linked, more personal narratives –
experimental styles (dialogue, monologue, sentence length etc)
how should these be published? (short stories, blog, only for thesis)

16. Timeline
• ‘data’ collection (collage and writing) until Dec 2014
• applications for PhD funding Dec-Feb 2014/15
• current work will act as pilot study for PhD
• enabling creative practice and writing practice to be refined
• research question unlikely to change
• second semester 2014/15 write up MRes, complete final optional
module