The short film about the multidisciplinary American artist Christine Sun Kim(2011) reflects on her lifelong deafness, and how she navigates and explores the world and idea of sound in her creative art practice. She explains how she interprets and understands sound through her art practice using the mediums of performance, drawing and sound art. She poignantly reveals the challenges and distresses she encountered learning to live with being deaf, especially learning sign language and communicating with her Korean born parents whose second language is English. The artist was taught to believe that the sound world was not part of her own world and the experience of literally not owning sound and voice meant that she became situated and positioned outside of society, at the margins. Evidently Kim experienced extreme sadness, isolation and loneliness in her life while learning to cope with the world around her. I found it very interesting that her own lived reality provided her with the means of experience and expression that helped establish a powerful opposing narrative. Sound was actually a more significant part of her life than people thought and sound was something she thought about and recognized intently. This was explored further in a TED talk(2015) Kim gave where she talks about observing how people respond to sound through ‘sound etiquettes’ or social codes and the ‘Do’s’ and ‘Don’t’ related to sound. For instance, not closing doors too hard, not chewing too loudly and not scraping cutlery across dinner plates and recognizing that sound was in fact as much part of her own life as anyone else’s. It is clear that this experience has given the artist a distinct and individual gaze which she explores, representing sound in visually exciting and thought-provoking ways. Learning more about Kim and her practice shifted my interpretation of what sound is and can be. I learned to comprehend how movement in deaf culture has an equivalence to sound and to consider sound as something not just translated through the ears but something this is,“ felt tactually, experienced as a visual, or even as an idea” (Kim, 2015), allowing me to perceive sound as something that is more complex and a rich multi-sensorial experience. Part of my role on the BA Styling and Production for BA Fashion and Hair and Make-up for Fashion courses involves the preparation of lectures on different subjects. Through what I teach and the material I gather, I encourage when appropriate the concept of researching and delving into one’s own personal ‘archives’ of everyday objects like postcards, family photographs, letters, clothing and textiles for example. These are rich sources of primary research, which I think are embedded with story-telling possibilities that can be developed into individual and culturally specific stories for visual ideas and projects. This is something I would like to explore further when I get the chance to do the SIP. Through her practice Kim shares with us her creative journey with sound and also bares witness to her autobiographical story that reveals a message of personal empowerment and even you could say an act of healing. I feel that when my students are given the opportunity and support, they embark on their creative journey in quite a similar way. In my experience of the kind of projects that are undertaken on the units I work on, many of the students demonstrate their profound longing to explore, create and to share ideas that are communicating different perspectives that relate to unique identities and backgrounds. I know when I studied Documentary at University, I was keen to explore ideas of my own Scottish, working-class identity and especially the power of ‘Tartanry’ on contemporary ideas of Scots and Scotland. Many students would identify and be motivated by Kim’s yearning for her specific disability to be seen differently and to change people’s attitudes. Some students have focused on their own visible and non-visible disabilities, such as deafness and perceived sigma of wearing hearing aids, auditory verbal hallucinations and associated negative media representations and general social and cultural misunderstandings, as well as projects about longer-term mental health conditions like anxiety. I perceive in the discussions and the projects that follow that sharing projects rooted in auto/biographical narratives is something that many students value and eager to explore. This way of working can give them the confidence to recognize the worth and importance of bringing different ideas of identity to life, and how subjective experiences can be explored for creative fashion projects with powerful individualistic outcomes that have something new to say. When I am preparing and presenting topics, I try to include examples of former students’ work because I think it helps students grasp more clearly what is required, but also this brings the student’s identity and value into the classroom.
I want to be confident that my teaching practice is being inclusive and is removing barriers for all of my students. Bhagat and O’Neill’s chapter on disability and learning discusses how university practitioners can make their teaching and learning environment more inclusive if they, “…pay attention to the embodied, lived experience of disabled students for ‘there is a vital need to continue to seek out, listen to, and act upon the views of disabled students…” (Bhagat and O’Neill, 2007, pg.8). For better success for students at university they declare that all students should be seen as having ‘learning differences’. In effect this could influence and “…attack the whole concept of physical normality…” (Bhagat and O’Neill, 2007, pg. 2007& 8), and in the process I believe can help dismantle the dominant ideas and narratives that keep people with different needs repeatedly excluded and marginalized. I feel that I am progressing my practice in an inclusive direction and try to seek out diverse and different stories but beginning to see that things are being missing and I need to build my diversity competence further. Delgado and Stefancic in ‘Critical Race Theory: An Introduction’ state that stories created by people from diverse and minority groups can have the effect of letting those outside these groups expand their thinking and, “… bridge the gap between their worlds and those of others. Engaging stories can help us understand what life is like for others and invite the reader into new and unfamiliar world” (Delgado and Stefancic, 2017, pg49). The
Styling and Hair and Make-up students have this unique access to explore personal narratives and encouraging this kind of work even more is hopefully one thing that supports a sense of belonging, and allows a more compassionate and inclusive teaching and learning pedagogy to happen and grow.
Undertaking the work for the Blog on disability, has however made me recognize that I need to do more to take account, understand and share narratives relating to disability in fashion. I have become conscious of the fact that on the course I work on, I cannot recall watching a lecture by a member of staff or an industry presentation by a visiting practitioner that has engaged with disability identities in Fashion. To expanding my own diversity competence, a consideration of ideas of diversity and inclusion would requires an emphasis on equality, to fully appreciate how some identities are being included/excluded in my own fashion discourse. The British disability equality charity ‘Scope’ reports that in the UK nearly 19 percent of working age adults have a disability but looking through most fashion magazines and campaigns it obvious that people with disabilities are absent from the fashion landscape and wider cultural representations. The Irish disability advocate, teacher and author Sinéad Burke has become a vocal critic of the fashion industry, and uses her platform to campaign for greater visibility, inclusion and equality for people with disabilities. Sinead herself has appeared on the cover of UK Vogue(2020), as one of the magazines most influential women in the UK and Ireland. Recent campaigns by Gucci Beauty (Weinstock, 2020) featured Ellie Goldstein a model born with downs syndrome, and Tommy Hilfiger(Webb, 2021) own ‘Adaptive’ clothing line featuring model Ashley Young who wears a prosthetic arm. These are a few recent examples, but there is a growing demand for the fashion industry to do more to address the various needs of people with disabilities and to move beyond what seems to be a periodic and tokenistic engagement. (Burke, 2020, Casey, 2020, Jackson 2017 and Kent, 2019). On the courses I work on, I think that ideas of diversity generally can be addressed too narrowly at times, and if we are not careful we could end up reinforcing the idea of an ‘ideal’ fashion subject. If we as a team are not permitting our students to see, learn from and fully understand people with different needs, and to deepen their understandings of disability and diversity in fashion, then we end up being responsible for continuing a lack of recognition and visibility, contributing to exclusion, discrimination and prejudice. Problems those with disabilities have experienced historically and continue to encounter in the present day.
I see a tangible connection in the three accounts of disability detailed by Christine Sun Kim, Khairani Barokka and the Vilissa Thompson Interview with Huffpost, in that they all desperately want to raise awareness and encourage a progressive and nuanced understanding of disability and the embodied multifaceted identities of the people who live with some form of disability. These accounts detail their own intersectional, individualised, situated knowledge and experiences and in the process reveal a great deal of emotion and pain. These are young people who have had to endure and live with mainstream narratives that misrepresent, misunderstand or exclude their experiences with multiple levels of disadvantage. The lack of access to an equivalent level of ‘social currency’ afforded to people without disabilities has created deep wounds and their feeling of injustice are profoundly felt, but throughout these accounts of lives lived at the margins, there is much hope for a better future. In the reimagined possibilities in Kim’s account of her deafness and journey of discovery, of Borokka’s call for hidden disabilities to be recognised and of Thompson’s emphasising the lack of cultural diversity and representations of disabled people of colour, Kim, Borokka and Thompson are challenging a world where ‘Ableism’ and even ‘Whiteness’ has been allowed to dominate the narrative. They strive to shift and disturb regressive and dominant assumptions we might hold about people with disabilities and to begin to appreciate disability as something that is complex and to be valued as part of our individual human diversity. In the process the experience of those on margins comes into the centre. These powerful testimonials reveal aspects of my own privilege as someone who does not identify as having a disability. I can see that I am not thinking or tackling subjects like this with contextual complexity, and as a result my teaching and learning space maintains the idea that these kinds of identities ‘do’ and ‘should’ sit outside of fashion’s discourse. To enact positive change for everyone we need to see who does and does not have value in society and culture and how we can be actively supportive in the empowerment of those that have historically endured less power. Standing side by side with those who have been sidelined and supporting them on their journey to claim much needed visibility and power is to be on the side of justice and to allow everyone the opportunity to be seen, heard and valued as themselves. To do this, I can see that we have to shed some of those ingrained certainties held in our minds, and work towards the revamping of knowledge and our thinking about the world. This kind of action can hopefully help us connect and build the trust needed for a heightened teacher-student relationship.
The ‘Shade of Noir TOR: Disabled People: The Voices of Many’ and the ‘UAL Disability website’ contribute greatly to expanding my comprehension of what constitutes a ‘disability’ in the first place. These resources are able to support me as an associate lecturer in attaining a considerable amount of knowledge on the subject and also affording me the confidence to apply appropriate and current inclusive language around disability debates. The Shades of Noir ‘Disabled People: Voices of Many’ publication is rich as a resource and helpfully situates the many discussions and thoughts around disability from a vast array of voices. I appreciate and find extremely useful how throughout the TOR’s there are numerous references that point the way to supplementary research on the subjects under review. I think these narratives can encourage teaching staff to think of ideas of diversity more fully and promote the broadening of their teaching material, making it richer and more inclusive. These stories could shift both the teaching and learning perspectives toward a deeper understanding and awareness of disability and identities.
As an associate lecture, I have not been fully engaged with all of the support that is available for students. If I have concerns regarding a student, I pass this information onto my Unit leader, and understand there can be confidentiality concerns. There is a great deal of information that I am not party to, but AL’s should be urged to engage with the full support that is on offer to students, even if there are things they will not deal with directly. UAL’s Disability website provides an overview of support on offer to students and breaks down terminology that I think AL’s so often do not understand. Understanding, for instance, the difference between an EC and ISA and having a better grasp of what constitutes as a disability is valuable information, but also the understanding of the correct protocols means that AL’s can direct and support students with their concerns with less hesitance and far more confidence. I work on first year units and these aims to orientate new students to university life, and I think right at the start of a student’s academic journey would be the perfect opportunity to share the UAL Disability website and information.
The article ‘An Inquiry into disabilities: Intersectional Identities’ by Rebekah Ubuntu in the Shades of Noir Disabled People: The Voice of Many publication was a sad and thought-provoking read. Rebekah, a multidisciplinary artist and lecturer, discloses many devastating and traumatic events endured by growing up in the UK care system, and numerous mental and physical disabilities. Rebekah documents the necessary strategies to navigate a background where critical awareness of their own intersectional identity of being black, working-class, Queer, non-binary and disabled was lacking, and their multiple disadvantage exacerbating the sense of marginalisation. Through sound performance, Rebekah found a platform and counter-narrative approach to challenge and make sense of the overwhelming experiences of isolation, exclusion, ignorance and discrimination. Through this engagement they demonstrate immense courage, strength and power in resistance. Rebekah’s, practice employs the method of ‘speculative fiction’, in this instance Afro-futurism. Employing Afro-futurism’s iconography and its themes of liberation and utopian futures, Rebekah disrupts the experiences and histories of the past and through reimagined narratives and counter-storytelling can transform and create new empowering and progressive force and future. This piece demonstrates the important role of the creative process in helping develop new knowledge, and it affirms how engaging with things from your own unique lived-experience can help to build a more stable self-perception and identity.
Many of students I have taught on the Styling and Hair and make-up have created projects inspired from their own experience of living with different types of disabilities. I have mostly felt confident with how I have addressed and supporting those students with their individual and personal undertakings. The research on attainment shows that students want to be valued and Prize being seen as “… ‘an individual’ with multi-faceted experiences, and they appreciate learning interactions where their unique talents and experiences are valued” (Cureton, Cited in Steventon, Cureton and Clouder, pg.69). I had up until this point considered my teaching practice to be informed from this kind of inclusive position, but the resources used throughout this unit and Rebekah’s story especially highlight my own absence of insight and comprehension regarding intersectional identities, and disabilities in particular. I realize I have not been making, and adequately reflecting on, the broad and complex connections of Intersectionality and the layers of disadvantage and inequality faced by specific people in society and some reflexivity could strength my engagement. Rebekah’s piece reveals the dichotomy faced with dealing with past traumas and making visible that which is invisible. Firstly, Rebekah understands explicitly that for change to take place there is a need to shine a light on disadvantage to begin the process of altering perspectives about identity differences. On the other hand, Rebekah points out that the act of making oneself visible for those that have experienced profound and life altering racism and inequality is not a straightforward or easy choice. Rebekah has found a way to explore particularities of disabilities and intersectionality, only reachable through the engagement of a fantastical and escapist lens where a ‘cocoon’ of safety can be found. In this ‘cocoon’ the reclaiming, exploring and the protecting of the authentic self is negotiated and empowerment and self-healing is achievable.
Jenell Johnson and Krista Kennedy’s article on the subject of disability and the risk of visibility/invisibility for minority and marginalized groups declares how, “Visibility brings with it risk, always demanding a calculation of the potential value of revealing oneself… visibility and invisibility have radically different effects, and, depending on the situation, they can empower as well as disempower” (2020,pg161). When I am encouraging and supporting my students with their own identity projects, I have begun to grasp that I am inclined to focus on the potentially empowering idea of visibility and how it is needed if new possibilities, perspectives, understandings and equality are to happen. In these exchanges, I am not considering how visibility is much more complex and not at all times empowering. To move forward with these exchanges, I can see that this needs to be conducted with greater insight and sensitivity if the environment where the student is to benefit and feel secure can be created. If I want to truly understand outside of my frame of reference, Friere reminds me that “…without dialogue there is no communication and without communication there can be no true education”( Friere, pg. 92-93).
The article ‘Safe Spaces; What are they and Why do they matter?’ in Mental Health & Creative Healing edition of The Shades of Noir argues for the inclusion of safe spaces for minority groups who experience racism and inequality in a world where white Eurocentric narratives so often dominate. This is the need for a safe setting where ideas, the sharing of vulnerabilities and personal stories of lived experience of intersectional identities can be shared in an open-minded environment without any fear of prejudice. This article highlights how the orthodoxies of knowledge in the teaching and learning environment so often exclude and how there is a need to hold in our minds intersections and layers of identities when having conversations. The new ‘Radical Model’ of the disability movement, demands an understanding of the spectrum of disabilities and a holistic approach to comprehending intersectional disadvantage and discrimination. Through this wider comprehension we can change the taken-for-granted assumptions and can come to see disability, the world and ourselves so differently.
Engaging with the resources for this Blog has expanded my knowledge but makes me conscious of the need to engage and educate myself with a more radical approach and deeper criticality in my teaching practice. Thinking through how my own postionality and often eurocentric knowledge bias can limit progressive dialogue and understanding of others. This shows me how I need to be on the look out and disrupt patterns of behavior and thinking that create an uneven learning environment for my students. In ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ Freire contends that, “…true solidarity with the oppressed means fighting at their side to transform the objective reality which has made them these “beings for another” (Pg. 49 Freire). If I am to achieve genuine inclusivity and equality, there is a requirement to increase my own diversity of thought and plurality of perspectives if a sense of belonging, value, care and support is to found for each and every one of my students. It is hard to fulfill your potential when nobody sees you are missing from view in the first instance.
Bibliography…
Barokka, K. (2017) ‘Deaf Accessibility for Spoonies: Lessons from Touring Eve and Mary are Having Coffee’, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22(3),pp. 387-392. doi.org/10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778
Bhagat, D and O’Neill, P. (2007) ‘Inclusive Practices, Inclusive Pedagogies Learning from Widening Participation Research in Art and Design Higher Education’. United Kingdom: CPI group.
Blahovec, S (2017) ‘Confronting the Whitewashing Of Disability: Interview with #DisabilityTooWhite Creator Vilissa Thompson’ HUFFPOST, 6 December. Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confronting-the-whitewash_b_10574994 (Accessed: 13August 2021).
Burke, S (2020) ‘ From The Archive: Sinéad Burke On How It Feels To Be The First Little Person On The Cover Of Vogue’. VOGUE (Sep). Available at: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/sinead-burke-september-2019-issue (Accessed: 10 August 2021).
Casey. C (2020) ‘What To Wear – The Missing Voice In The Fashion Industry’. Forbes (Sep). Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecasey/2020/09/22/what-to-wearthe-missing-voice-in-the-fashion-industry/?sh=32baf7191086 (Accessed: 10 August 2021).
Cureton, D. (2016) ‘STUDENT ATTAINMENT in HIGHER EDUCATION: Issues, controversies and debates’. Edited by Steventon, Cureton and Clouder. New York: Routledge.
Delgado, R and Stefancic, J. (2017) ‘ Critical Race Theory : An Introduction. New York : University Press.
Friere, P. (2000) ‘The Pedagogy of the Oppressed’. Rev.edn. New York: Bloombury Publishing Group.
Jackson. L (2017) ‘Does Fashion Care about the Purple Pound?’. The Guardian (Sep). Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/sep/04/fashion-care-disabled-people-purple-pound(Accessed: 10 August 2021).
Jalili, K. (2017) ‘SAFE SPACES: What are they, and why they matter?’, Shades of Noir: Mental Health and Creative Healing, pp. 26-27. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/mhchtor (Accessed: 11 August 2021).
Johnson J & Kennedy K. (2020)’ Introduction: Disability, In/Visibility, and Risk’. Rhetorical Society Quarterly, 50(3), pp. 161-165. doi.org/10.1080/0277394.2020.1752126
Kent. S (2019) ‘Fashions Long Road To Inclusivity’. Business of Fashion (October). Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/news-analysis/fashions-long-road-to-inclusivity/(Accessed: 10 August 2021).
Kim. C. S. (2015) ‘The Enchanting Music of Sign Language: TED Talk’. August 2015. Available at: https://www.ted.com/talks/christine_sun_kim_the_enchanting_music_of_sign_language?language=en#t-289558 (Accessed: 25 August 2021).
Selby. T (2011) ‘Christine Sun Kim’. (9 November). Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqJA0SZm9zI(Accessed: 5 August 2021).
Khairani B. (2017) ‘Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill’, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 22(3), pp. 387-392. doi: 10.1080/13569783.2017.1324778
Scope. (2021) ‘Disability Facts and Figures’ Scope, Available at: https://www.scope.org.uk/media/disability-facts-figures/(Accessed: 16 August 2021).
UAL. (2021) ‘Disability and Dyslexia’. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia (Accessed: 14 August 2021).
Ubuntu R. (2020) ‘AN INQUIRY INTO DISABILITY + INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITIES’, Shades of Noir Disabled People: The Voices of Many, pp. 174-177. Available at: http://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people(Accessed: 13 September 2021).