Christine Sun Kim – 10 min short film (Nowness)
I found Christine Sun Kim’s film showing how her hearing impairment has fed into her art practice beautiful and inspiring. She has ‘lent into’ her deafness, using it to make performative art that subverts expectations of what is sound and what is noise and how deaf people interact with both. She creates art that celebrates the experience of being hearing impaired, and how it has given her unique approach to creating sound based art. Her biography on whitespace.cn says:
“She highlights what is constantly present and yet unnamed by us all through naming and then deconstructing preconceived ideas about sound and communication through their parameters, social values, and linguistics.”
This celebration of her disability as a gift, that allows her to express herself and interact with the world in a wholly original way, was very powerful to me. It feeds into ‘The Affirmation Model of Disability’ that I read about in (2020) Shades of Noir, Disabled People: Many Voices, “Evolution of Disability Models. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” pp. 58-63
I would encourage my students to approach any documentary project that they embark on featuring people with disabilities to watch this film and think about the Affirmation Model of Disability. Let’s celebrate how disabilities give someone a unique perspective that we can all learn from. Bringing this into the classroom can help create an inclusive space and encourage an inclusive art practice.
I have a deaf student in my year group that I would love to share this film with, but rather than single her out, or send it to her outside the group, I will find a way to work viewing the film into one of our regular teaching sessions. I will also share this with my teaching colleagues.
#DisabilityTooWhite article/interview with Vilissa Thompson
This article reminded me a lot of key passages from “Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race” (Eddo-Lodge, 2017) where she powerfully dissects how White Feminism discludes and discounts the voices and experiences of women of colour. Thompson highlights the lack of representation and diversity within the disability community and how that adds to the marginalization of people of colour. The article references particularly the lack of representation of disabled people of colour on TV or in film and how this inattention to intersectionality in the experience of disabled people is damaging.
Intersectionality is very common within the cohort I teach. The convergence of race, gender, sexuality and economic and social background are realities for many of my students. Creating a space where students can express and explore their experience of intersectionality within a supportive peer group is very important. I currently have a first year student who is making a documentary photography project on people who share her experience of growing up as a ‘queer, black, young adult’. Having read this article I wonder if I should have given her more space to speak out in class about this, rather than seeing it as just another personal project. Lots of my students in this group are making work based on difficult personal subjects, but I wonder whether her desire to explore her intersectionality and share it with the class deserves more attention and more focus. I took it for granted that all my students understand the concept of intersectionality and that we are in a safe space to explore these issues, but this does not acknowledge the struggle that these students have likely experienced and their bravery in sharing it with the class. It also assumes that the rest of the cohort understand these terms and their meaning which in hindsight is not necessarily the case.
Lack of representation is a big topic and on one hand it feels like things are finally changing with TV series such as Bridgerton and the His Dark Materials series casting more actors of colour. We are also see far more people of colour and far more depictions of non-hetero normative relationships on TV. I’ve also see far more representations of disabilities. However I feel that its the voices of people from these marginalised groups who should be listened to on whether these changes are far reaching enough.
‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee’ by Khairani Barokka
Khairani Barokka writes very honestly and movingly about her experience of touring a one-woman show all over the world whilst chronically ill. I was particularly interested in the lengths she went to in ensuring that her shows were accessible, from putting the script on a Google Doc to giving D/deaf or hearing impaired audience member iPads and iPhones to read the poetry, to projecting the URL to the google doc onto a wall.
Her article also touched on the intersectionality of being a ‘brown woman’ with a hidden disability and how appalling she was treated by different institutions. One passage particularly stood for me:
It behooves us to understand that accessibility should extend to all – those behind the scenes, performers, as well as audience members – with multiple D/deaf and disabled identities, and more than one impairment. My story serves to show the need for us disabled and D/deaf arts practitioners to uphold such sensitivities ourselves, to recognise the need for advocacy for D/deaf and disabled communities in the arts outside of our own experiences. It is also a reminder to, as my case illustrates, never forget nor underestimate the need we all have at times to ask for help, to treat self-care as paramount, and to do justice to our needs in our own work, particularly if we don’t see ourselves represented, and if we put pressure on ourselves as representation.
I have one deaf student, many students with dsylexia and several students with ADHD and autism along with lots of students who are struggling with their mental health. Whilst their ISA’s, should they chose to share with me, do a good job in letting me know what they need. I need to make more of an effort to understand how their disability impacts them. It is sometimes hard to have these conversations if the student has chosen not to share their ISA with me, but with so many students presenting such a range of disabilities this Inclusive Practicse unit is going to be extremely useful and important for my practice. Barokka’s article gives valuble insight into the additional struggles that artists with disabilities face and how much there is to learn in creating accessibility in the arts.
UAL Disability Service Webpage and Terms of Reference, Shades of Noir, (2020) Disabled People: Many Voices, “Evolution of Disability Models. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” pp. 58-63
The Social Model of Disability at UAL – short animation
This wonderful animation was made by UAL graduate Gabriele Lorusso and was posted on the UAL Disability Services Webpage. It beautifully illustrates the Social Model of Disability with simple and impactful graphics. It sets up a view of disability in relation to the construction of the world around us. Inviting us to reflect on whether we expect disabled people to fit into a world that is not designed to be inclusive to different abilities, rather than ensuring that our world fits all.
This led me to the Shades of Noir, Terms of Reference article titled “Evolution of Disability Models. Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.” This lays out evolving views of disability from the earliest ‘The Religious Model’ that frames disability as punishment for a sin through to ‘The New Radical Model’.
Learning about these models put a framework to different attitudes towards disability that I’ve seen played out from my childhood onwards. I remember how the London 2012 Paralympics changed the conversation about disability and seemed to mark a shift in attitudes. My positionality as an able bodied, woman who before becoming a lecturer had almost never interacted with the disabled community means I have a lot to learn. Reading this issue of Terms of Reference was a much needed education and I found several articles interesting and useful. Negotiating the UAL Disability Services website has given me a better idea of what help is available and what challenges still remain.
Hi Alexia,
I found it interesting to read about your students feeling comfortable to explore intersectionality in their work. How do you create that safe space?
And I was also wondering how you make your classes/teaching accessible to disabled students? The materials for the blog post got me thinking about how we can make teaching more inclusive as a default and I was wondering what your experiences are or if you have anything useful to share given your student groups seem very diverse.
Hi Anna, thanks for your comment. What I’ve found regarding safe spaces is that the students are a big part of making the group seminar a place where tough issues can be explored. In the unit that I’m currently teaching, with the student exploring intersectionality, the group have been asked to create a photo project in response to the theme ‘Hopes and Fears’. This has led to many of the students exploring personal topics including; dyslexia, self harm, anorexia, loss of a parent and growing up black and queer. They are working together collaboratively to create a magazine so the group dynamic is extremely important. From the first week we talked about how students may want to respond to the theme by exploring challenging personal projects and how we could ensure that everyone felt supported and safe doing so.
I spent a lot of time in the first few weeks talking about group dynamics, much more so than I did about the photography or magazine making. I priortised this above anything and they group were immediately enthused by this opportunity to work together and make something meaningful. Week by week we explored the students responses and week by week I could see how they felt more and more comfortable to go to some really deep places. This isn’t the case with every student, but for those who wished to explore these issues the group were outstanding in their support of each other. At the end of the day all I can say is that I opened the space and they stepped into it. All credits goes to the students themselves and I’m so inspired by their support and commitment to each other.
I’m learning a lot about to how ensure my teaching is inclusive but I think I still have a long way to go. We do the obvious things – making slides available before the sessions. Keeping text readable and brief. Making recordings available. I also do a lot of one-to-ones with students throughout the year making sure I’m available when needed even if its outside of schedule KIS hours. But I think there is a lot more to do as I’m learning on this unit. I’m also talking with my colleagues about how we can spot students who are struggling early on and connect them with the disability team as soon as possible. I have a 3rd year student with undiagnosed ADHD and we only talked about it last week, too late to put any help in place for him. He kept being refered to the mental health team which wasn’t helping. I was asked to do a series of one-to-ones with him to help him edit his final major project and I realised after a couple of sessions that there was a neuro-diversity issue. I tentatively brought it up with him and he told me his whole family have ADHD and that he’s always suspected that he has it too. Myself and his year lead tutor feel devastated for him that it wasn’t picked up earlier. So this is a big conversation in our department right now.
Hope this responds in some way to your excellent comment. Thanks Alexia
Hi Alexia, thank you so much for taking the time for such an informative reply. It is extremely helpful to read about how others are creating these safe spaces for students. I agree, there is still so much to learn how to support students individually. A lot of emotional labour sometimes though – I am also in discussion with my team how we can set up sustainable support structures.
I think a really important aspect of working with disabled communities is “Nothing about us Without us” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_About_Us_Without_Us). This is a slogan that started with the disability rights community and then branched out to other civil rights issues. I think this concept is probably quite relevant to photojournalism as it is important that “subjects” are treated as co-authors. Have a look and let me know what you think!
Hi Toby, thanks for your comment and for sharing “Nothing about us Without us” with me. You are right this is especially relevant to photojournalism students. We have several units dealing with the ethics of representation particularly when working with marginalised groups. Traditionally in photojournalism the ways of working were centred around the photographer as ‘witness’ – often a white, straight, male – who was ‘giving a voice’ to those who couldn’t speak. Thankfully this practice is no longer the dominant voice in photojournalism and documentary storytelling. ‘Participatory Photography’ as its called, is now seen as best practice and it encourages an approach whereby the photographer and the contributor work together to tell the story.
Consent, ethical storytelling, an understanding of unconsicous bias and the power dynamics that come with being infront of or behind the camera are big topics on this course. For a lot of students its an entirely new of looking at photojournalism and it can shake their assumptions to the core!
Our course leader, Jess Crombie is a leader in ethical practice and works with NGO’s in her professional career, which has ensured that these isses are predominant in our programme.
However this is not to say that all the work is done. Disabled voices are still very much neglected in this field and lots more needs to addressed in making photojournalism accessible to neurodiverse and disabled communities who want to be in front or behind the camera.
This unit is giving me much to think about and I’m looking forward to working on my artefact. No idea what it will be yet though!