Resources: 

• Film by Christine Sun Kim
• UAL Disability Service Webpages
• #DisabilityTooWhite article / interview with Vilissa Thompson
• ‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary are Having Coffee’ by Khairani Barokka
• SoN Terms of Reference: Mental Health & Creative Healing

Christine Sun Kim

This film resonated with me in a way that cannot simply be a coincidence. As an artists who spends a lot of time researching and experimenting with sensory ideas, her film both raised and answered a lot of questions for me. If art is seen as the ultimate form of free expression, shouldn’t it be accessible to everyone? How should art be viewed/experienced? How can I, as a practicing artist, make my own work accessible to everyone? Christine’s video dismisses the idea that art should be simply a visual construct. We live in a world where matter, everything we see, touch, hear and experience is energy and that same energy is simply a vibration. Our senses react to vibrations around us. Christine bridges the gap between sound and vision by mechanically connecting the two and turning sound vibrations into a visual performance.

“Whilst growing up, I constantly questioned the ownership of sound. People who have access to sound naturally own it and have a say in it.” Christine Sun Kim

I felt impressed to find out more about her and came across a video where she explains the theory behind a series of work she produced for “The World is Sound” exhibition at the Rubin Museum:

Christine states that she “learned to be respectful of their sound, I saw sound as their possession.” This statement made the way in which she reclaimed sound and claimed it her own even more interesting to watch. All too often, it is the ones who have full access to sensory experiences that have the monopoly on life’s opportunities. Not only has she reclaimed sound, she has done so by overcoming hurdles such as having to be taught to communicate by parents who were not native English speakers and had to learn both English and sign language at the same time.

I’m fascinated by the idea of sensory transformation and how it can be used in a creative way. Watching Christine use a variety of materials and processes to visually represent sound was inspiring. Although she is classed as disabled, this has not restricted her in her practice of transforming sound into a visual construct, taking control and ownership of something she was born without and making it accessible to all. Although my main focus has been primarily on how I can also achieve this in my art practice, this is now something I am interested to apply to my teaching practice as well. The combination of being both an Academic and a Creative affords me the opportunity to question how my teaching is being received by my students and teaching in an Arts institution allows for a more creative, non-traditional approach.

From my own personal experience in HE, the focus was heavily on the students ability to produce written work that ‘backed up’ the visual work. As a student, I really struggled to work in this way, as my visual work was almost always stronger that the written pieces that accompanied it. Learning from my own experience, I feel it’s important to have a more open approach to the way students present their work, as learning is not a ‘one size fits all’ experience.

UAL Disability Service Webpages

The UAL Disability Service webpages provide a wealth of contacts and resources from disability screenings to help with accessing disability funding. As well as providing information for students with physical disabilities, I am pleased to see that there are a range of services and assistance available for non-visible disabilities (neurodiversities, mental health etc…) Processes and procedures have been clearly outlined on the website, so that both staff and students are aware of the processes.

As an Academic, I feel it is important to be fully aware of the services on offer as our role extends beyond purely teaching. It is our responsibility to adopt an inclusive pedagogy and be able to connect with our students. I believe that actually getting to know each student personally and making that connection with them will allow for a relationship where if a student needs to use the Disability Service, I will be in a position to identify that need, or they will feel comfortable/confident enough to seek help or advice from me. That being said, I also believe it’s important in my role as an Academic to be able to identify students who may require extra help. There are however, a few questions that I feel need to be considered:

• How do I suggest to a student that the may need help?
• How will that suggestion be received?
• Will it cause embarrassment to the student?
• Is it something that they want to disclose?
• What if the student doesn’t want to seek help, but it’s clear that they need it?

In many cases, the needs surrounding physical disabilities can be pretty obvious, whereas mental health needs might not be as apparent. The Shades Of Noir reference journal “Mental Health & Creative Healing” offers some useful key advice for tutors to assist student from diverse backgrounds in dealing with mental health issues. To paraphrase:

1. Ask how the student is finding the course.
2. Promote UAL peer mentoring scheme.
3. Mention Arts SU and their societies.
4. Build a good rapport with students.
5. Use SoN as a source of reference for students.
6. Tutorials specifically to discuss extenuating circumstances.
7. Monthly meeting with student reps.
8. Find out who the Welfare Officer is from the Arts SU.
9. Inform students on who their college officer is.

I can’t stress enough the importance of being informed. From the perspective of both a tutor and a student, being provided with the tools to manage your own situation is a valuable resource. Nobody wants to feel as if they are not in control of their own physical and mental wellbeing.

#DisabilityTooWhite – Interview with Vilissa Thompson

As a WOC with what is probably classed as a ‘minor’ physical disability, I can agree with everything Vilissa Thompson has said in this interview. I was born with a milder case of Amniotic Band Syndrome and can honestly say from a personal perspective that I have never seen cases of other POC with the same condition represented in any form of media. A few years ago I took it upon myself to highlight my case and posted this image on my social media:

I was initially quite nervous about doing it so boldly, but the responses and messages I received from other people – including POC with the same or similar conditions was quite overwhelming. People were thanking me for being ‘brave’ enough to post the photo. I was also contacted by a mother who’s daughter has a much more severe case of ABS, but was so inspired to see my photo that she no longer felt the need to hide her own hand (her young daughter is also an aspiring artist). Visibility means something. Representation is empowering. The world is so diverse, yet we are only exposed to a very idealistic and controlled fraction of what actually exists.

“There is a lack of representation and diversity within the disability community from the organizations that are supposed to empower us as individuals…there is a lack of diversity in those voices and those stories.” Vilissa Thompson

The questions that arose as a result of the #DisabilityTooWhite hashtag are particularly relevant within the Arts. If One was asked to name any disabled Artists of colour, I can pretty much guarantee most people would call on Yinka Shonibare first, and then struggle with names after that. Artists such as Stephen Wiltshire, Desmond Blair and Victorine Floyd Fludd are less likely to have been heard of or even featured in mainstream media. I do however, feel that it is not solely the responsibility of the media to highlight disability in POC. As Vilissa stated, we [POC] have a responsibility to make sure we are represented. To sit and wait for someone else to highlight our narrative on our behalf would be naive at the least. I can only speak from my own experience, but I do feel that the black community needs to do a lot more to get involved with the representation of disabled black people – and not just from the medical model of disability:

“The medical model of disability says people are disabled by their impairments or differences. The medical model looks at what is ‘wrong’ with the person, not what the person needs. We believe it creates low expectations and leads to people losing independence, choice and control in their lives.” – Scope

The article and the hashtag has left me thinking about what more I can do to help the cause. I was please to see that the hashtag is still being used and that people are continuing to highlight the issue. I feel empowered to continue showing my hands whilst I am working – I am after all, a mixed media artist, so it’s not exactly something I can hide! If making myself visible and being completely unapologetic about it helps just one other person to do the same, then it’s a step closer to the goal.

Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having coffee while chronically ill’ – Khairani Barokka

I found Khairani Barokka’s reflections on her tour of ‘Eve and Mary are having coffee while chronically ill’ very insightful. I have several friends and family members who suffer from chronic pain and other invisible disabilities, yet on a few occasions I myself, have been guilty of looking at them and thinking “but you don’t look ill…” This thought could possibly be down to my own subconscious societal programming, where we tend to only see a disability as something obviously physical and obviously visible. This piece made me think about my own approach and attitude towards people suffering with these illnesses and how I can be more aware and sympathetic to their situation.

Artists and Creatives are blessed with the ability to use their craft to highlight and address various issues in almost any way we feel inspired to – we have access to creative licence and are in many ways, exempt from every day societal norms. Khairani Barokka was able to create a performance where the experience went beyond her own and she made use of the opportunity to make her show accessible and relatable to her audience.

Her experiences of her pain not being taken seriously are, unfortunately, a common occurrence amongst WOC and black women in particular. A 2018 report by MMBRACE highlights the sad fact that black women are disproportionately more likely to die during childbirth. Some people claim that this is down to racial bias in the healthcare system and black and brown women not being taken seriously or listened to – an issue that carries across the board, not just in maternity settings.

One of the first Shades of Noir articles I read when I started this course was the Shades of Noir Terms of Reference: Mental Health & Creative Healing. I found the resources and case studies insightful and relatable. When you are dealing with your own physical or mental disability, there is always the danger of feeling that you are an authority on that illness because you are living it.

This blogging task has raised and answered a lot of questions for me. I’ve been left to ponder my own biases surrounding disability and mental health. I am able to look at the issues that have been highlighted from both an insider and outsider perspective. I think that for a long time, I have worked on the assumption that my artistic and teaching practices are empathetic and inclusive simply because of my own personal experiences of disability and mental health issues. I now realise that there are so many other ways I can make my work more inclusive to both body and mind. With regards to my art practice, yes, I create primarily for myself, however, I am fully aware of the engagement my work generates. It’s made me think more carefully about who is engaging with my work and what are they taking from it – it is, after all, an extension of myself. In reference to my teaching, I feel impressed to make sure I connect with my students on a personal level wherever possible. Regardless of ability or disability, our primitive response to other human beings remains the same – we respond to a persons energy. It’s something that can either isolate and exclude, or create openness and connection. I choose the latter.