Disability

Christine Sun Kim

I was struck by the

• Frustration of having ideas you want to express but not the means to do so

• Dominance of verbal language

We need to help students find the right communication methods for these ideas to be expressed.

The necessary pedagogy would need to include:

Trial and experiment

Experience and Physicality

Multiple platforms, materials and methods

Spontaneity and flexibility 

In response I would like to create a series of sessions which feature almost no verbal language which utilise the characteristics above.

I also feel like the object-based teaching encountered in the last unit would be relevant (Dr Kirsten Hardie, Wow – The Power of Object-based Learning and Teaching) as well as a project I heard talked about at an Illustration Symposium (Siddhi Gupta, Kalakarm Curriculum: How can illustration facilitate art in education?) where whole swathes of curriculum were based on tiny visual starting points like a ‘dot’.

Sessions could be shaped around mark, shape and texture:

Mark – dot, line, squiggle

Shape – circle, square, triangle

Texture – smooth, hairy, rough

My colleague (Ros Wilson) used a phrase, regarding looking and making that feels related too ‘the granularity of noticing’. Also, in Illustration one of our focus’ is communication. Perhaps, in sessions you only communicate using materials, experience and making in response to questions or discussing particular subjects? And maybe the whole thing could be under the term – Granular Communication. This film could be used when explaining the reasoning behind the session.

UAL Disability Service Webpages

I was most interested in the film which includes the:

• Social Model of Disability idea  – People being disabled by the world they live in

• Comment that says ‘I have to explain my whole life story to get the help I need’

I wonder if myself and the staff team are proactive enough in keeping  in mind and acting on the requirements of various students ISAs (Individual Support Agreements) We could devote a staff meeting at the beginning of each unit to review whether we are addressing the support needs collectively and individually.

Confronting the Whitewashing of Disability: Interview with Vilissa Thompson

I was struck by:

The black community advocating for civil rights and equality while not including disabled voices and experiences  

I always work to make all learning materials culturally and ethnically diverse but I wonder if I work hard enough to include disabled voices? And when I do include examples, such as Yinka Shinibare or Ntiense Eno-Amooquaye do students know that they are disabled and see them as part of conversation and discourse?

In response I need to be more conscious of this aspect of diversity when I am creating learning materials and include images of creators wherever possible. This can be difficult in presentations but I could make a reference list that includes images of all contributors.

I could also create a collaborative project based around amazing work by inclusive organisations in the illustration field who work with disabled artists and disabled artist of colour. I could approach IntoArt who work in Peckham (https://intoart.org.uk/). They say:

‘Our vision is for people with learning disabilities to be visible, equal and established artists. Intoart’s artistic programme creates opportunities for production, leadership and audience engagement.’

The project could particularly engage with the IntoArt archive (https://intoart.org.uk/archive/) and the areas:

Animals and Storytelling

Figures and Storytelling

Landscape and Storytelling

These would be most relevant as storytelling is a key part of Illustration. Students could reflect and respond to an area. It could culminate in an exhibition which included original IntoArt works (if permitted) student reflection and artwork. This would enable conversation around the inclusion of disabled voices in art and design and ethical illustration practice. As well as building links and dialogue between the institution and surrounding community.  It could be called Storytelling from the Archive and involve 4 stages: study, reflect, apply and share.

There is also a point later in the article where Thompson talks about the way that seeing disabled black girls on television only in the ‘charity model’ and ‘raising money’ can negatively affect self-esteem and ‘one’s ability to connect with all of their identities’. This project would be useful in confronting this as it situates disabled people and disabled people of colour as creative leaders and knowledge/culture generators to be learnt from.

Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary are having a coffee’ by Khairani BarokkaI

• ‘As a teacher of performance and literature myself, learning from hindsight, I’d propose an intersectional, disability-aware exercise for production classes. I would ask students how, if they lived with chronic pain, they could continue to perform and produce whilst placing an undisputed premium on holistic self-care in complex circumstances, whilst maintaining an artistic practice.’

• ‘I do at times desire acknowledgment that this trauma happened, and that it was trauma I had no choice but to undergo to achieve my dreams. ‘

I could conduct a similar challenge-awareness workshop where students could explore, analyse and problem-solve challenges they face. This would allow those with a disability to acknowledge and explore their situations if they choose to and as equals with their peers. Everyone would be able to bring their lives into the classroom.

SoN: Disability

In Praise of SheWolves

Zuleika LeBlow

• Applying imaginative narrative to Lupus and chronic symptoms

• Annoyance with the butterfly motif representing lupus, something that doesn’t express experience

• Tiredness at explaining condition endlessly

This highlighted for me the importance of showing disabled students and practitioners as powerful protagonists in their own stories with agency and choice.  It also clarifies the value in having their real and difficult experience acknowledged; and this acknowledgment not being in the need to talk about their conditions all the time.

This will contribute and reinforce my approach to supporting ISA students in tutorials. It is vital that I make sure my students know and are often reminded of the variety of options, routes, services and methods available to them. They want to be seen, to create and to imagine and I need to make sure they consistently see a way to do so. This is the meaningful acknowledgement of challenge that is truly needed.

SoN: Mental Health

Why Healing is Valuable Work

Shivani Seth

Healing as work and not something extra to work feels radical. What is also valuable is the way Seth explains her journey and progress towards not only knowing but believing within multiple overlapping contexts – as a woman, as a woman of South Asian descent and a citizen within a particular economic system.

This will be invaluable as the basis of a workshop. I could get students reflect and name their current methods of self-care and consider how they can plan and structure their own work routines with self-compassion. I could also combine this with ‘A Note from Jhinuk Sarkar’ in the ToR on Disability where Jhinul talks about how she created the written piece we’re reading in the context of her dyslexia.