Interdependence: On Disability Justice and the (Performing) Arts
Interdependence: On Disability Justice and the (Performing) Arts is a research project led by Carly Everaert and Mira Thompson, resulting in open education resources for use by art academies, universities, schools, and any other body of research and study. The series of three videos and companion material introduce prompts on disability studies and Disability Justice in art and culture.
Thinking within discourses of disability and drawing from personal embodied experiences, Mira and Carly make a start with integrating a canon where disabled artists, bodies, and experiences are represented. They show that a disability justice perspective on (performance) practices can change the way we move through the world.
Episode 2: On Pain Worth Sharing
English with English or Dutch subtitles, 28:19 minutes
The second video-lesson departs from a central argument in “Pain Worth Sharing,” an essay written by Mary Grace Bernard, an artist and scholar living with cystic fibrosis, a chronic illness that informs her daily art and writing practice. In the essay, Bernard explores the work of Bob Flanagan and Johanna Hedva: ”…while each artist reveals their body as personal and political, I concentrate on Flanagan’s way of exhibiting the self and Hedva’s emphasis on displaying the political to show how each artist breaks down the binary that divides public and private space, art and life, performer and viewer, and body and mind.”
The launch of On Pain Worth Sharing takes place on 15 May at VoxPop (Binnengasthuisstraat 9, 1012 ZA Amsterdam) from 15:45. Both Mira and Carly will be there to present the video.
Watch the trailer
Episode 1: On Access Intimacy
English with Dutch subtitles, 13:19 minutes
This first video-lesson departs from the concept of “access intimacy” as coined by the American-Korean disability justice thinker and writer Mia Mingus: “... that elusive, hard to describe feeling when someone else 'gets' your access needs. The kind of eerie comfort that your disabled self feels with someone on a purely access level.” The video-lesson was born out of a series of “Access Intimacy” classes offered to students at the Academy of Theatre and Dance in Amsterdam and a public panel event on disability justice in arts and education.
Watch the trailer
About the videos and how to learn with us
The video-lessons are teaching tools, designed for teachers or other (self-) educators and learners who are interested in the way bodies are historically (under) represented, and invested in creating more awareness of the social, political and philosophical definitions of disability. They were created in collaboration with Studio Akatak (Mats Logen and Karlijn Milder), and supported by Staci Bu Shea, Joy Brandsma and Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca.
Each film is available to all for free, and comes with an English descriptive transcript (text-based document PDF including audio and image descriptions) and a “how to use” manual for education purposes.
To access either or both of the films along with manual and transcript, please email Marilixe at marilixe.beernink@ahk.nl.
Interdependence: on Disability Justice and the (Performing) Arts is funded by the lectorate of the Academy of Theater and Dance (ATD), the AHK thematic Cooperation Programme (TCP) and Platform 2025.
