Remote Graphic Elicitation: A critical reflection on the emotional affordance and disruption management in caregiver research

Graphic elicitation, an arts-based method that focuses on participant-led drawing activities, is often conducted with the researcher in situ and discussed in an interview setting, either during or after drawing. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns have meant that using graphic elicitation in its current form required a re-evaluation. Reflecting on a research project that undertook graphic elicitation remotely, this paper considers the emotional affordance and disruption management of the method in caregiver research. While informal caregiving may be an emotionally fraught topic for the participants, we demonstrate how graphic elicitation explores emotions and experiences with sensitivity and care. Furthermore, we show that graphic elicitation enabled us to acknowledge the pandemic but maintain focus on caregiving itself. The caregivers were responsive to the method and found it rewarding and insightful, albeit with some initial hesitancy and ingrained perceptions of arts-based outputs. Through our discussions, we show the potential for remote graphic elicitation in geography as a method to explore potentially sensitive, emotionally charged topics like caregiving.