IPU BLOGGING TASK 1 (Disability)

P 25th May 2022

The Materiality of Sound.

After 40 seconds into the video, I began wondering why the main character, Christine Sun Kim had not yet introduced herself, by that I meant spoken. I was waiting to hear her sound. I assumed that that was the order.

The 10-minute video introduces Christine Sun Kim and her practice as an artist. Her practice explores and uses sound (and language) (and its politics/operations of it) as a starting point to create drawings, performances, videos, paintings, and other tactual experiences of sound.

She talks about her understanding/awareness of sound (social attitudes and normative behaviour around sound) by way of watching other people respond to sound – and her practice shows us her understanding/awareness of sound itself by consuming, experiencing, and visualising its materiality and spatial quality.

“let’s listen with our eyes and not just our ears”. – Christine Sun Kim

This statement is very profound, because it opens a dialogue around accessibility, and gives us possible solutions for creating material that is accessible. In this scenario, Kim is inviting us to go beyond the social norm, and overdependence on the ears to listen which has come to be because a certain majority, (in an ableist society) whom the world is organised around responds/experiences sound in this manner.

What is also emphasised in the video (and reflected in the way I responded to the video) is our dialectical understanding of the ontology of something and how it plays a part in one’s identity. In Kim’s case, this dialectic is very concrete because another person literally takes the position of her sonic identity, and without the other, her voice is not heard.

How can I apply the resources to my own teaching practice?

The video itself and the Artist’s practice are a great resource to introduce to students. Students can be tasked to do further research on the artist and make a presentation, unpicking some of the complex discourses in her work.

Students could also participate in a writing exercise where students produce descriptive texts that become captions for popular and historic films.

Students could participate in an exercise where they collect sounds in their locality and explore the materiality of these sounds through a performative praxis.

Making sure any material I produce (whether for myself or others) is readable.

How could I integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?

Using captions in the range of material I show to students. Encouraging students to include captions, that are not simply scripts or direct translations, but delineate the moods, feelings, and other sounds in the space.

Can you cite examples? You will share your thoughts within your groups and comment and share further resources you use in your own context.

A workshop – students work in groups, to produce a short film (informed by different impairments) and produce captions for the film.

Students can be invited to list several invisible impairments and consider how they would respond to them as spatial designers/artists.

Other artists who explore the materiality of sound and /or the multiplicities of senses are Haroon Mirza and Zimoun.

Pushing the Boundaries of Contemporary Sound Art

Models of Disability

Image by Joanna Andreasson, Courtesy of Reason Magazine.Available Via The Social Model of Disability and https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people/4

UAL Disability Services Webpages.

This site is packed with information that is useful for all students at UAL, as well as general knowledge applicable beyond UAL.

For further reading:

Equality Act 2010: https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010
Access, Support, and Facilities for Disabled Students. E.g Applying for DSAs: https://www.arts.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0023/30767/Access-Support-and-Facilities-for-Disabled-Students-at-UAL-PDF-302KB.pdf

UAL and the Disability Service use the Social Model of Disability.

The Social Model of Disability.

The Social Model of disability is a concept that was developed by people with disabilities to take action against discrimination and to centre equality and human rights. This model in the UK emerged in 1975 in discussions held between the Disability Alliance and the Union of Impaired against Segregation.

This model is a way of viewing the world that contrasts with the traditional model which presents disability as an individual or medical problem. The keyword here is SOCIAL.

The organisations viewed disability as a concept that emerged from society, rather than a situation inherent within the body or self: meaning because society does not make provision for all, disability is “visible” . The model brings to the forefront that our world and experiences of it are shaped by society. The model states that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference. Thus, this model puts the onus on everyone to be conscious and act to remove any existing barriers. These barriers can be behavioural or physical; for example, an exhibition space with a high stage that doesn’t use a ramp for wheelchair users, not hosting classes on the ground floor, when the lifts are not working, producing important documents like handbooks, and learning guides that do not consider the neurodiversity of our students, having strict and linear methods of assessing work, etc. These barriers become a systemic form of exclusion when we don’t respond and challenge our biases, privileges, and norms.

The Social Model brings to the forefront the power dynamics and hierarchy that are at play to segregate others based on their difference, with a strong reference to “order”, capitalist structures, and thus “class”.

Furthermore, the social model begins to hint at the intersectionality of disability.

It also hints at the relationality of disability (drawing on the emphasis on the word social)

There are other models of disability such as the Radical Model of Disability.

The Radical Model of Disability

The radical model extends the social model by expanding on the framework of justice and intersectionality.

It affirms disability as a natural part of human diversity, as well as the social but emphasises the political construction of this concept.

Furthermore, because it acknowledges that it is a political system of domination and oppression, it connects all facets of identity in its movement. The oppression and struggles, against black people, woman, the working-class, LGBTQ+ peoples, etc are in the same breath the concerns of the oppression against people with disabilities because the model is concerned with justice and highlights that it is the same system of oppression at work.

Confronting the Whitewashing of Disability.

Vilissa Thompson

Vilissa Thompson, an activist, describes herself as a “macro-minded social worker from South Carolina”. She is the founder of Ramp Your Voice! – an organization that discusses the issues that matter to her as a Black disabled woman, through an intersectional lens.

She started the #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag/campaign which triggered an important discourse regarding the visibility and representation of disabled people of colour in history, in media, etc.

Representation and visibility of disabled people of colour, are especially important because it has an impact on people’s self-esteem. It also helps to encourage and emphasise to disabled people that they are not alone in their identities. The lack of visibility creates a façade that disabled people of colour do not exist and makes it difficult to seek community. This façade also reinforces the lack of recognition of (invisible) disability in our black communities. The celebration and the liberation of people of colour should be in an intersectional lens that celebrates and liberates disabled people of colour too.

Black Activists in the Disability Canon.

(Taken from “Disabled people: The Voice of Many ” – Shades of Noir Journal)

Maya Angelou
Nasa Begum
Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah
Harriet Tubman

A short reflection on the article titled “Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee” while chronically ill by Khairani Barokka (Okka)

Key (New) Terms

Spoon Theory: “Spoon theory is a way for people who live with chronic pain to express how health issues impact their ability to complete everyday tasks and activities” (Becky Bikat Tilahun, n.d.) The term is a metaphor, where the “spoons” represent how much energy one has. It is a self-pacing strategy that emphasizes the need for chronic pain patients to work a certain quota, and at a certain pace.The strategy: You start the day with a set number of proverbial spoons, each one representing the physical and mental energy it takes to complete a daily task or activity. Smaller tasks may represent one soon, whiles larger tasks may represent more spoons. This practice makes you aware and intentional about taking care of yourself.

Spoonies: People who live with chronic pain and subscribe to spoon theory may refer to themselves as “spoonies”. Spoonies or people living with chronic pain can appear healthy and simultaneously be going through a lot of pain.

Disability: This is a complex phenomenon and a consequence, as a result of visible and non-visible impairments or conditions that are heightened and differentiated as a deviant norm in ableist societies.

Disabled: “I take here the social model of disabled as the opposite of “enabled” rather than “unable” ((Okka), 2017). Thus, the term disabled is an experience whereby people or society dis-ables people with impairments.

D/deaf: The uppercase ‘D’ is used to describe people who identify as culturally deaf and are actively engaged with the Deaf community, sharing a common culture and shared sign language. The lowercase ‘d’ refers to the physical condition of having hearing loss.

Khairani Barokka (Okka) (b. Jakarta, 1985) is a writer, poet, and artist. Her work centres disability justice as anti-colonial praxis.

“Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee” was a solo spoken word /poetry-art show in 2014, that toured other cities in the world. With disability justice at the core of her practice, the show was designed to be accessible for hearing-impaired audiences.

The opening line of her article is profound – Pain hides in plain sight.

This pain, physical, this pain mounting in the midst of oppression and insufficient provision for and noticing learning difficulties for instance.

The opening line undermines the ocular-centric attitudes used to justify the presence of pain.

She is almost crying to have a pain felt. She wants someone else to be able to understand and recognise how much pain she’s in – because, since it cannot be seen, it is overlooked. She refers to this (physical) space of communication where one assumes a position to finally experience her chronic pain and fatigue as a gulf, a gap, an empathy gap.

Okka also talks about the cultural attitudes toward pain management in Indonesia. This attitude is similar in many black communities. Invisible impairments are almost always overlooked and downplayed. When students have learning difficulties, they are referred to as lazy, and told that they do not study hard – I recall this during my childhood growing up in Accra. Students’ experience of learning and even assessment is heavily reliant on the ability to memorise and does not consider invisible disabilities consequently.

As the social model and feminist politics will have it, when liberation is sought, it searches for structures and systems to dismantle and deconstruct. Okka’s reflection also looks at the means of production of shows (like hers), so that this emancipation through her practice is not only for her the artist, and the audience, but it “extends to all those behind the scenes, performers, as well as audience members – with multiple D/deaf and disabled identities, and more than one impairment” ((Okka), 2017)

This session/blogging task on disability has been eye-opening and I have enrolled in a staff course titled “Core Principles in Disability Inclusion”. I would like to learn more about how to better prepare the learning space for people with different learning styles and disabilities.

EXTENDED ACTIVITY

relaxing your ankles

and your knees

relaxing your toes

and your hips

relaxing your shoulders

relaxing your spine

relaxing your chest

and your neck

relaxing the front of your neck

relaxing your jaws

noticing the weight of your eyes

noticing your face

relaxing your eyebrows

and the space in between your eyebrows

noticing the weight of your brain

noticing your breath

noticing your breath in your rib cage

noticing your lungs in your rib cage

noticing all the bodies looking after each other.

relaxing your body

relaxing your mind

– 28/07/22

I have chosen to share as an extension of the text above.

I have chosen to share, to share my relief.

I cannot remember, I but I sense that I was in class 4 or 5.

Accra

school.

Monsieur Koffi Leon whipped me, he coupled his two fingers and whipped me on my wrist.

I had scored 7/10 on a class test, and he expected a clean sheet.

because as my home tutor, the extra provision should have helped me remember.

but I couldn’t remember what was taught

I hold my head

I rub my head

I squint my brows

I relax my brows

I raise my brows

I try to relax my mind

I couldn’t remember

he coupled his two fingers and whipped me on my wrist.

now swollen

causing a ganglion cyst to develop on my wrist.

my brown surgical scar helps me remember that he coupled his two fingers and whipped me on my wrist

because I couldn’t remember.

I was relieved yesterday

I gave my body grace yesterday

For the onerous and diligent work, it does for me

onerous, I tell you.

from my head.