Disability

Cristine Sun Kim
I have been following the work of Christine Sun Kim for a long time. While taking the time to watch this video, I was thinking about the different textures of sound D/deaf people make, experience, enjoy and create. Why would one create certain sounds and what attracts them? Sun Kim mentions vibrations and visceral approaches, but I am sure there are loads more beyond that. How does it feel to make a sound if you cannot hear it? As an able bodied person, I am not able to gage what that is like, but I am trying to think of how external stimulus from the inside of my body. I am thinking of the feeling of the inside of someones mouth when they talk or shout, the feeling of a loud clap or jumping around. While watching the video, I was also thinking about how it must have felt to not feel ownership over sound; to not be allowed it and how many barriers the artist must have overcome (systemic, social, internal, emotional etc) to arrive to the feeling that sound is theirs to play with, test, make, celebrate and own.

Within and beyond disability, I wonder how one can support learning that leads to this level of agency and self empowerment. One could be to ask students to engage with something that they feel they were never allowed??? This could also be just a thought experiment. Another would be to translate content from one mode to another: from sound to vibration, from image to sound, from still to moving, from written to spoken. a third would be to provide material in different modes: such as delivering a lecture accommodated with subtitles that can be recorded and re-watched.


Disability and Dyslexia Webpages:
I do not have training working with students with disability.
I can direct students to to disability and dyslexia support, firstly in a general call out to a big group (if anyone thinks this would be useful to them…), or asking in individual tutorials ‘what would support your learning?’
-questioning the term disability and its roots: what is disability and who defines it?
-managing expectations, primarily time related, as I am aware they are quite busy.
-mention the statistics that showcase how many people live with disabilities as the first way of removing stigma.

DisabilityTooWhite:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994?guccounter=1

Thinking about how I would apply the knowledges gained from this article upon my own teaching practice, the points that I can take away are suggestions on:
1. the representation of disabled people of colour and expanding the notion of people of colour to include those with disability.
2. to share and celebrate empowering pictures of disability (without them relating to charity)
3. to acknowledge my own privilege, but to also ask students to acknowledge theirs, and make space for people to share their experiences.
4. speak up when things are not okay and amplify the voices of others by holding space for them

I am not sure how to answer the question: How could you integrate the research/work your students do on this subject into your teaching/professional practice?
It could be interesting to pose questions to the group for them to answer anonymously, such as: what can the course do to support your learning? or what helps you learn?
There are a lot of students that make work about mental health / disability. It is insightful to engage with their bibliographies. I wonder if there could be a session where students share such resources?
Sharing work in different formats (the crit, the silent crit, the screening, the photoshoot, written feedback) to accommodate students with different strengths.
Hold an open conversation in small groups


Shades of Noir:
While flicking through the pages I found out that there was an Intersectional Creatives database, which I was not aware of. I chose to read an articled featuring Hamja Ashan. Hamja’s work is incredible.
-Using fictionalised scenarios to raise awareness (sci-fi, mythology etc).
-Inviting practitioners that have been referenced by students to come give talks, or support students in inviting their favourite artists / practitioners (aka their heroes)
-engaging with grassroots approaches, rather than institutionalised processes
and inviting personal connection. This could be a task in the curriculum?
-empower students to engage with non-academic contexts that they feel are relevant to them and invite those contexts into the academic space
-be aware of fatigue and burn-out. make space for rest within the curriculum? or range the activity in modes and intensity in ways for students to have time for recuperation (ex. a making task / a conceptual task, an individual task / a group task, a silent task / a noisy task, an indoor task / an outdoor task)