Christine Sun Kim – A film
A really fascinating film about the work of artist Christine Sun Kim. She makes sound art and is hearing impaired. The film shows her working process creating visualised sonic environments. She explores and expresses ideas connected with sound by making the sound detectable visually or tactilely. This seems to be an essay in grasping that which might seem unreachable, making visible that which is hidden. The film also speaks of the way that artistic inquiry subverts the norm and allows us to find new ways to express notions which might seem inexpressible.
This artwork seems directly related to Christine Sun Kim’s identity. It raises a question regarding how artists who are part of a minority culture may feel implicit pressure to speak about their identity, to be its representatives. It seems that there is a danger that this is the expectation for artists who are part of minority groups. As educators I feel that we need to tread the line carefully between empowering students to discuss their identity while making sure that students don’t feel an expectation that their identity has to be the primary source of their work.
Understanding Visual Impairments-Claudette Davis Bonnick.
Davis Bonnick is a Lecturer in garment cutting at LCF. She embarked on a project to explore the possibility of making garment cutting accessible to students with visual impairments. Through a research project she found that it was indeed possible to do this with only some relatively straightforward adaptations for the students. This suggests some really exciting opportunities giving access to visually impaired students in Fashion. Also, I imagine, it could challenge the ways in which we produce and consume fashion
This made me think about how we are so visually oriented in much of the practice at UAL. The performance program, where I work, is certainly heavily dependent on visual work. So many of the ways we ask student to create, communicate and interact are visual. But then I realise that there is also lots of potential for providing access for visually impaired students, and indeed for opening up avenues for performance and design for Performance that are not so visually oriented. I imagine that the policy now would be to make adjustments to our delivery to accommodate partially sighted students in order to facilitate their learning. The problem with this is that the opportunities/adjustments have to already be installed in order to attract students in the first place. We would need to make the investment of time and money into creating properly accessible curricula in advance. Why would a student wish to venture into a situation that was not prepared for them, hoping that proper accommodations would be made and opportunities provided?
Khairani Barokka’s article regarding the challenges of touring her performance while dealing with chronic pain provoked some thoughts. In particular I was struck by how she insisted that her performances were accessible to a wide range of audiences. Text versions of the show easily accessible for D/deaf audiences and wheelchair accessible. She enforced this rigorously and made a point of prioritizing this accessibility. While this is great, and indeed an example to the wider performance community, it does make me think how I tend to see this kind of inclusion in performances limited to performances by disabled performers or specifically targeted toward a disabled audience. When will we see inclusive practice as a standard in all public arts events? Shouldn’t this start In the Arts University?
Within my technical team at CSM we are producing video records of student acting work as an outcome during the pandemic. A family member of one of the acting students is hearing impaired and in order to give this person access to the video, it will be subtitled. This is positive, however, it is an exception, not a standard. In fact, we are told that the acting agents, who are primary viewers of these acting “showreels” would be “put off” by subtitling. Wouldn’t it be better if the influencers and power figures in a cultural industry ,like these acting agents, would demand inclusive content rather than be “put off” by it?
How do I/we start to change these attitudes and ways of working that are so embedded? I realize now that I let things slip by without realizing that they need to be challenged.
I thought perhaps there is a parallel could be made between Kim and Barokka’s work in this way. Kim’s work has dignity because she doesn’t see her disability from a deficit perspective. Similarly, we can say agents are resistant to subtitle and shrug, Or we could make subtitle or audio description as differentiating part of the performance to any ordinary tapes. I have sent a few of those myself as an actor. Hence transforming the position of powerlessly waiting for the discretion of some agents’ moral fibers for allowing disability the spotlight into asserting disability as essential imagination of an artist. Kim’s archive work on her site has work of this nature. The starting point is from us educators to open our own imagination and face problems alongside the disabled peers to reframe their disability as a benefit, rather than an obstruction to overcome. Accountability and agency can be found in every situation is something we have to believe as a starting point.