Artistic approaches
Collaborative artistic methods including illustration and photography accompanying research to generate alternative narratives and visual stories.
Artistic Methods in Urban Care Research
Artistic methods — including drawing, portraits of residents and non-human subjects, and photographic explorations of urban transformations — accompany the research process, generating alternative narratives and visual stories about the city and its inhabitants, while fostering dialogue on making academic research more accessible to a wider public.
Collaborations have been established with photographer Muthukia Wachira and illustrator Njung'e Wanjiru.
Njung'e Wanjiru - Illustrator
Based in Nairobi, Njung'e Wanjiru is an illustrator, graphic recorder, animator, and filmmaker. Through visual communication, he tells stories focused on social issues and African culture. As a freelance professional, he has experience working with international organizations, nonprofits, and the cultural sector. Within the Urban Care project, Njung'e participates in workshops and field visits, creating live visuals and illustrations that help communicate ideas across disciplines and between researchers and non-academic audiences, including residents and professionals.
His personal artistic projects and exhibitions can be explored on his website: https://njungewanjiru.com/work
Muthukia Wachira - Photographer
Muthukia Wachira is a Kenyan film photographer working in urban spaces, observing and documenting how people live, build, and relate to their environments. Through his sensitive and engaged eye, he captures urban life, residents' portraits, and the dynamics of local economies and urban boundaries. He believes photography can offer a different way of seeing and feeling these spaces, and he actively engages with the artistic community, creating accessible works that blend photography, video, and sound. As part of Urban Care, he carries out a photographic exploration that questions urban spaces and residents' practices, allowing us to reflect more broadly on the links between visual production and scientific research, and to offer a sensitive experience. His work considers how these photographic narratives can be situated within a wider visual history of the studied environment and how photography can highlight a plurality of perspectives.
His artistic projects can be viewed on https://www.behance.net/Brikicho# and https://www.instagram.com/thukiia/?hl=fr
