LEGIBILITY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR INVISIBLE CARE
Translating family micro-adjustments into relational maps and exhibits
Ayano Iwasaki ¹
1 Parsons School of Design, The New School — iwasa617@newschool.edu
KEYWORD
#invisible care #relational labor
#relational labor #legiblity infrastructures
#boundary objects
ABSTRACT
This exhibit explores how small adjustments made during difficult family conversations can be noticed and discussed without becoming clinical measurements or caregiving advice. It draws on a seven-day log of fourteen remote calls and twenty-one interactional events. These are presented through L1 event cards, an L2 accumulation map, and an L3 light-based artifact. Moving between the three levels reveals recurring patterns and what remains after them, while keeping the work grounded in one family relationship.
CREATIVE PROCESS
I began by isolating moments of instability rather than reproducing full private conversations. Each event was described through four elements: condition, relational move, outcome, and residue. I then carried the twenty-one events from L1 cards into an L2 temporal map and a proposed L3 sequence of light. This shift from individual records to pattern and atmosphere shaped the three-part exhibit.
IMPLICATIONS & NEXT STEPS
The project asks how overlooked care can become discussable without being exposed or turned into instruction. Classmate feedback showed that the three levels need one another, and that abstraction can protect privacy while making the experience harder to understand. Review with caregivers, mental-health professionals, and general audiences will examine misreading, voyeurism, and aestheticisation.
References
Abou Seif, N., Wood, L., & Morant, N. (2022). Invisible experts: A systematic review and thematic synthesis of informal carer experience of impatient mental health care. BMC Psychiatry, 22, 347.
England, P., & Folbre, N. (1999). The cost of caring. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 561(1), 39–51.
Estradé, A., et al. (2023). The lived experiences of family members and carers of people with psychosis: A bottom-up review co-written by experts by experience and academics. Psychopathology, 56(5), 371–382.