Self-mapping: The power of self-produced “Self” images as a stimulus to action and empowerment

Self-mapping is a self-reflection paradigm in which the self-mapper, through self-produced images, documents their thoughts about intellectual journeys, professional/personal aims, courses of action, mapping milestones (“memes”), as well as the navigational points to achieve the goals. Self-mapping methodology places the “self-as-researcher” inside a creative process, in which the “self” identifies institutional requirements (e.g., toward candidature, promotion, publications, etc.) and symbolically visualises the progress toward identifiable end-goals. This chapter explores the importance of images and visual media in placing the self within contemporary instructional cultures of an individual’s reality. It argues that the images are specific, purposeful, and personal rather than auxiliary to other forms of visual meaning-making. The process empowers self-mappers to participate in a visual culture of “a future self” that is of their own creation.