Arts-based qualitative research offers participatory, multimodal ways to surface lived experience, and the Journey Lines zine provides a concrete example for researchers and community organizers. According to spacing.ca, the Journey Lines zine centers queer trans Black and people of colour (QTBIPOC) cyclists through contributions in writing, illustration, linocut, and sound, which offers replicable methods for researchers seeking non-extractive practices. This post translates the Journey Lines launch and methods into actionable design and AI-enabled analysis patterns for qualitative teams.
Key Takeaways
The Journey Lines zine demonstrates an arts-based qualitative research process that invited QTBIPOC cyclists to self-represent through multimedia contributions, according to spacing.ca.
- The Journey Lines project launched in spring 2025 and paired a print zine with a participatory launch event, according to spacing.ca, with the published article appearing on July 23, 2026.
- The co-editors paid contributors $150 each to create work for the zine, according to spacing.ca, which the editors named as necessary for ethical participatory practice.
- The zine emphasized safety, mutual care, and cross-movement solidarity as recurring themes across contributors, according to spacing.ca.
What happened and how the zine worked
What happened: According to spacing.ca, three co-editors (Rachel Wang, Sylver Sterling, and Jess Nachman) produced the Journey Lines zine to center QTBIPOC cycling narratives.
How it worked: According to spacing.ca, the team secured a LUSH Charity Pot grant over a year before the launch and used those funds to pay contributors $150 each, which the editors said was essential to meaningful participation.
Participation and formats: According to spacing.ca, contributions included written essays, visual art, linocut prints, and a soundscape accessed via QR code, and the in-person launch in spring 2025 used a "fireside" co-creation format to make contributors collaborators rather than subjects.
Constraints and ethics: According to spacing.ca, the editors designed the project to avoid extractive research practices by inviting contributors to co-create the event and by paying them, and the editors emphasized mutual care when sensitive topics such as violence and policing were shared.
Findings Snapshot
| Date | Metric | Value | Implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| spring 2025 | Launch format | In-person "fireside" event with contributor-led sessions | Participatory launch deepened ownership and attendance, according to spacing.ca |
| 2026-07-23 | Publication date | Article published on spacing.ca on July 23, 2026 | Documented public record and media reach for the zine, according to spacing.ca |
| 2026 (contributor details) | Contributor compensation | $150 paid per contributor | Monetary payment used to reduce extractive dynamics and support artists, according to spacing.ca |
| 9 years | Design experience | Sylver Sterling reported 9 years of design practice | Experienced design leadership shaped zine visual coherence, according to spacing.ca |
Implications for qualitative researchers and arts-based projects
Arts-based projects should treat contributors as co-creators: According to spacing.ca, the Journey Lines editors framed contributors as collaborators in planning the launch and design.
Compensate contributors to reduce extraction: According to spacing.ca, paying $150 per contributor enabled the editors to attract and ethically engage artists who might otherwise be excluded.
Design multimodal data collection deliberately: According to spacing.ca, Journey Lines included text, image, printmaking, and sound, which creates richer, more varied datasets for thematic and cross-modal analysis.
Safety and context matter: According to spacing.ca, contributors repeatedly raised safety and policing as themes, signaling that analysis must code for structural and intersectional risk rather than only road-safety metrics.
How Evidano helps arts-based qualitative research
Problem: Multimodal contributions are hard to synthesize
Solution: Evidano is an AI-powered qualitative data analysis platform that helps researchers analyze interviews, open-ended surveys, and documents.
Evidano feature mapping: Evidano ingests text, image metadata, and audio transcripts (with speech-to-text features) and aligns them into thematic datasets so teams can compare themes across media.
Problem: Participatory projects need traceable consent and compensation records
Solution: Evidano supports secure uploads and metadata tagging to record contributor consent, compensation notes, and provenance within the dataset.
Evidano feature mapping: Use Evidano's secure project workspaces and exportable audit trails to document payments (for example, the $150 payments reported by the Journey Lines editors in the spacing.ca interview).
Problem: Teams need fast synthesis and visualizations for stakeholder reports
Solution: Evidano generates thematic summaries, frequency tables, and co-occurrence networks that turn multimodal zine contributions into actionable insights.
Evidano feature mapping: See the platform's features for thematic coding, cross-segment analysis, and visual exports suitable for public-facing zines and funder reports.
FAQ: arts-based qualitative research
What is arts-based qualitative research and how did Journey Lines use it?
Answer: Arts-based qualitative research integrates artistic creation into data collection and analysis to surface lived experience directly from participants.
Supporting detail: According to spacing.ca, Journey Lines collected written pieces, linocut, illustrations, and a soundscape, and the editors treated contributors as co-creators, which is a core arts-based approach.
How much should I budget to ethically compensate contributors in a small zine project?
Answer: Budgeting for direct payments to contributors is recommended and the Journey Lines editors paid $150 per contributor, according to spacing.ca.
Supporting detail: According to spacing.ca, the editors said that paying contributors was "necessary" to pursue the project ethically and to avoid extractive dynamics.
How can researchers analyze multimodal zine content at scale?
Answer: Researchers should transcribe audio, tag image metadata, and code across modalities so themes can be compared quantitatively and qualitatively.
Supporting detail: According to spacing.ca, Journey Lines combined text, visual art, and sound; combining transcription with thematic coding lets teams surface patterns like the safety theme the contributors repeatedly raised.
Can AI tools be used without being extractive or unethical in participatory research?
Answer: Yes, if researchers secure consent, document data provenance, and keep control and ownership with contributors.
Supporting detail: According to spacing.ca, Journey Lines emphasized co-creation and care; pairing that practice with secure, private AI tools and transparent workflows preserves participant agency.
Conclusion & Next Steps
The Journey Lines zine models arts-based qualitative research that centers participant voice through multimodal contributions and paid, co-created participation, according to spacing.ca.
Researchers should budget for compensation, design participatory launch and feedback processes, and plan cross-modal analysis to capture themes like safety and solidarity that the zine surfaced.
If you run arts-based projects and want AI-enabled synthesis, consider tools that handle transcription, thematic coding, and provenance tracking; see Evidano's features for relevant capabilities.
To try these workflows on your next zine or participatory arts project, Try Evidano for free.