Disabled Environments

TERRA COGNITA:
DISABLED ENVIRONMENTS WORKSHOP & GROUP COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION

Sept. 17-22 | Goldsmith Hall | UT Austin
Reception: Sept. 18 | 5-7pm

"People are not ‘disabled.’ A disability is a consequence of design flaws in the environment." – Alan Cantor

Disabled Environments is a workshop and exhibition for Artists and People with Disabilities (who may or may not be artists).

Disabled Environements is organized by:

Steve Ausbury and John Slatin, Ph.D.; Director of Institute for Technology and Learning (ITAL)
Consultants: Celia Hughs, Executive Director, VSA Arts of Texas; Chris Strickling, Producer, Actual Lives
Terra Cognita Coordinator: Cara Fealy-Choate
Co-Facilitator: Anna Carroll, interaction design

The goal of the Disabled Environments Workshop is to construct works for an exhibition of multimedia, multi-modal installations about the experience of disability in everyday life. We also hope to initiate and sustain a collaborative process that brings together people with disabilities and artists (who may or may not have disabilities). The works will be exhibited at Goldsmith Hall on the University of Texas campus.

“I'm blind. I have retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that produces nightblindness, tunnel vision, color deficiencies and in many cases (not all) total blindness.

I'm blind. With my right eye I see only light and shadow; there's too little retinal function to make the cataract worth removing. The field of vision in my left eye is down to a couple of degrees; in the "center" of that field I can see a little in good light.

I'm blind. I'm having a complete visual experience right now. Like you, that is, I'm seeing what there is for me to see, what's in my capacity to take in. I'm hearing what I can hear (radio babbling in the background, whirr of computer fan, voice of JAWS the computer robot reading what I type as I type, hum of air conditioner, jangling of dog tags as Dillon shifts his position in the bedroom behind me). I feel what I feel (fingers on keys, back pressed into desk chair, left ankle crossed over right). I am not seeing my not-seeing. We're all in the same boat, all having a complete experience. But it's not easy to rest in this thought. The not-, the dis-, is always waiting in the wings, ready to ambush you the instant you run into something in the world that throws you back upon yourself and reminds you of what you can't do because you can't see/hear/touch/recognize/think it as other people apparently can. There are street signs because most people can read them from far enough away at 30+ miles per hour... I can't imagine that anymore–that is, I can't imagine what it's like to inhabit the world as someone who sees faces as in the crowd as more than petals on a wet, black bough. The challenge for each of us–with or without disabilities–is to imagine our experience in all its fullness, to inhabit it as fully as we can.”— John Slatin, co-organizer

“As my work is essentially about how people practice and produce space, the issue of John Slatin's blindness and his articulation of that experience (or non-experience), became a way for me to rethink environment. For example, John's use of landmarks as a method of wayfinding seemed infinitely more poetic than my tiresome streetsign reading. His acute descriptions of surfaces, textures, smells and sounds invited me to re-establish a connection to tactile, aural and olfactory sensations. Describing visual phenomena to John turned out to be more than an exercise in translation, it was a mini-performance that inspired my powers of reportage and narration.

Installation artists view built and natural environment as material; it is alterable, ownerless, and loaded with flaws. Exposing flaws in the disabled environments in which we typically live, work, play, send e-mails, go to the bathroom, transport ourselves across the city, etc., is a critical step in their reformulation. In our case, this reformulation will begin and end with the inclusion of people with disabilities.

In his brilliant film on labor history in Butte, Montana, filmmaker Travis Wilkerson quotes an old IWW slogan: "An injury to one is an injury to all." It's easy to forget that built environment doesn't simply happen, it's carefully planned, designed, budgeted and constructed by real people with real motives. The fact that the same environment is harmful to many people means that it's harmful to all of us. The fact that the environment is made by people means that people have the power to change it.” – Steve Ausbury, co-organizer

participants: Beverly Baejema/Michael Connor/Joyce Dawidczyk/Cheryl Green/Adam Griebel/Laura Griebel/Celia Hughs/Maggie Jochld/Elana Logsdon/Cindy Massey/Michelle Mayer/Pedrameh/Jackie Passmore/Danny Saenz/Chris Strickling/Debbie Williams

disabled environments is co-sponsored by the institute for technology and learning (ITAL). for more
information: www.ital.utexas.edu | 512-495-4288.

vsa arts of texas promotes the creative power of people with disabilities. vsa arts is an international, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting artistic excellence and providing educational opportunities through the arts for children and adults with disabilities. for more information: www.vsatx.org | 512-894-7334.

actual lives is a week-long community-based writing and performance workshop designed for adults with disability to produce autobiographical writing and then translate those writings into performance. for more information: 512-894-7334.