Co-Creative Multimodal Storytelling on HIV: Activating Images through Reflexive Authorship

Abstract

This article explores ways to foster reflexivity within a co-creative research project so as to “activate” images beyond the ethnographic encounter. Drawing on a multimodal research project centered on exploring autobiographical HIV storytelling in Chile, I explore reflexivity as a shared practice from the outset of fieldwork rather than an ex-post activity, as it has historically been conceived. This reflexive practice led to unexpected outcomes which emerged through co-creative engagement with a multiplicity of mediums and formats. I argue that image-making and storytelling became devices for actively disrupting HIV stigma, thus making it possible to engage in forms of worlding and self-making that extend beyond HIV representations and across different temporalities.