Impairments in creative education are very apparent in my localised teaching environment, especially if I was to reflect on the days of my own student adventures and tackling my own dyslexia and building upon an ‘academic’ written format to communicate my creative thinking patterns that constructively was bombarded by my ADHD tendencies of boredom and being distracted in other more ‘fun’ things to do or knit.
Being diagnosed in Year 2 of my Bachelor’s with these impairments was shocking, I was around 20-21 years old, and weirdly it was never picked up in my primary or secondary education. Although extremely thankful at the time and the access to the ‘disability service’ (another name was used, that I can’t recall). I was awarded personal help and equipment that really changed my student life, especially the award of an Apple desktop computer! Coming from single-parent, council estate background this was the jackpot award that changed my education journey. With that, I got to understand that I read better under ‘yellow’ lights and that reading white pages can cause me to lose focus or make my eyes fuzzy. This brings me to the ‘UAL disability and dyslexia funding’ the system seems quite clear on what is needed to be done to apply, although it provided a link to the Irish student finance its not fully inclusive of the multi-nationality cohorts we take in, is this provided to international students as well? It does mention;
” Students must also meet the criteria to apply for funding as a ‘Home’ student. The Student Advice Service provides guidance on the Home, EU or Overseas fee and funding categories.”
which makes it more of a hassle to find out information if you are not a home student, a redesign of this page is greatly needed, as disabilities isn’t just a domestic condition its world wide, especially something this important in creative education.
While on this subject of disabilities and impairments, it was interesting to find a sub-title article within the Shades of Noir journal ” Disabled people: The voice of Many”. It cited a list of modern or revised disabilities and impairments that are clearly set out with descriptors to understand that this complex human condition is multilayered and those affected can have singular or multiple impairments that affect all ways of their living life. Fundamentally as a grade 4 technician of teaching and learning, I should be made aware of any students disabilities or learning impairments, not just in the case that my subject area is heavily physical but also if my teaching needs to be adapted or if a student needs a personal learning plan (PLP). The question I ask the department is;
Can the knit workshop host multiple disabilities and impairments?
Using the list provided by the ‘SON’ resource, on pages 68-69 can the department find a solution or provide adequate learning possibilities that cater to any if not all of these disabilities or impairments. Recently I have had the opportunity, weirdly just before this term started during the Easter break of 2023, the UAL insights program had a multi-layered disabled student that participated in the studio activities. This was a huge challenge, as I had a very quick turnaround to consider how I could include a wheelchair-bound person, in a very compact room with fragile and sharp machinery (some machines hold over 200 needles). Luckily I had two options, that not many knit workshops would have, an electronic pedal-based Brother 970 knit machine with its own motor system, or the digital knit-down machines that are operated through computer (CAD) interaction.
The student who was also supervised by her mother chose the pedal-based knitting machine, and with a little help, was able to interact in the same activities as those who we unconsciously build the course for (able-bodied students). Although this was extremely rewarding in the sense of student participation and the social joy of other students (classmates) engaging and thankful that this particular student could engage, it wasn’t until after the experience that reflecting on it, I consider the physical workshop is not fully fit for purpose on disability learning environments and needs a huge undertaking to get our team fully aware of these conditions and how they affect a students learning journey.
“A loss or abnormality of psychological, physiological, or anatomical structure or function, impairments and disabilities may be temporary or permanent, reversible or irreversible, and progressive or regressive. The functional ability of people who are diagnosed as having the same impairment or disability may vary widely.” – World Health Organisation, Impairment.
I believe this statement by ‘WHO’ as well as this resource by ‘SON’ could be the start of some much-needed research departmental wise in Textiles to consider our training and awareness around our teaching practice, our resources and how the physicality of our spaces can dampen a student’s learning experience especially those who have a disability or impairment.
On this topic and on impairments the other resource I resonated with was Christine Sun Kim’s (Aka CK) film ‘ A Selby Film’, the opening scene provided a very generalised pedestrian or as I would consider an ‘average’ person’s morning. It is around 2 minutes and 14-16 seconds in we realise that Kim is deaf and signing to the camera. The beauty of this piece was the explorative journey from childhood and how Kim’s work questions the ownership of sound from their perspective and that able-hearing people don’t own the power of sound. This unique perspective of learning sign, and English and communicating with her immigrant parents provided a strong sense of communication that is now explored creatively around the physicality of sound, using sound as a vehicle to connect to a larger audience to express the meaning behind the sound that is Kim’s medium, which is showcasing performative art due to their impairment. The film provided an insight into Kim’s creative art practice that was extremely colourful and interactive between Kim the artist and the environment it was in, “let’s listen with our Eyes not just our ears” really stood out because of my own practice.
While comparing the physicality of Kim’s practice and my own, something that does make a lot of mechanical sounds, the passing of carriages over 100s of needles or the more alerting systems of carriages crashing into needles. As an able-hearing person, my hearing really plays a massive role in my job, as these alerting sounds provide me with enough information to alert a student to ‘reference check’ (a machine knitting term) their physical area and what they are doing. What I really connected to was Kim’s introduction of capturing the ‘Noise’ pollution of a busy road junction, and how that noise was later translated into works of performative art, Similar to when the machines ‘sing’ and students are awarded physically with crafted pieces of art.
On a more serious note, within our industry, prolonged exposure to this physical mechanical noise has irreversible hearing conditions or losses. While we move into our new campus this is something the Health and Safety team has considered within our work environments, which is a huge luxury for long-time employees and short-term student exposure. I am thankful to see how the physicality of sound and Kim’s work is translated into performance art, it does remind me of a past students’ work on how they recorded their physical actions of sound making around the machine interaction, Hong’s work explored the analogue and digital interactions of creativity and how expressive the actions around knitting are not considered by those participating in the craft. A similarity towards Kim’s outcome, only Hong kept everything in the digital realm but that could’ve been more nurtured around the global pandemic and how that affected a student’s learning environment. They carry this explorative nature within their social media presence of ‘HyperKnit’ which can be found on the social media platform Instagram.
Bibliography
UAL (2020). Disability and dyslexia funding. [online] UAL. Available at: https://www.arts.ac.uk/students/student-services/disability-and-dyslexia/disability-and-dyslexia-funding [Accessed 11 May 2023].
27061696 (n.d.). Disabled People: The Voice of Many. [online] Issuu. Available at: https://issuu.com/shadesofnoir/docs/disabled_people. pg64-71
Quote by WHO on page 70.
selby, the (2011). Christine Sun Kim – 10min. Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/31083172.
Such a beautiful reflection of your own learning disability, the journey or discovery and acceptance but also the state the university is in today. How we are not inclusive enough and it takes an individual lecturer to make sure they are aware of any disabilities and take appropriate action (mostly on their own accord) to make the student comfortable, at ease and able to learn.
The exploration of the short movie is touching, but also very relevant of where the world is now.
Thank you!
Yes, I do see it is becoming more apparent for us as practitioners who teach to investigate or learn to recognise student struggles and adapt our abilities and the environment to their needs!
Hopefully with all this learning, we as a whole build a more holistic environment that will generate a welcoming safe space for everyone.
It gives me hope that the moment to pause and reset that this course provides will encourage positive change in UAL, your blog post here a great example of that… I’m kind of gutted, but Christine Sun Kim was in residence at Somerset House until very recently… her work is really inspiring, especially the edge of communication themed works that literally track the outer edges of hand movements in sign language. It’s quite something to consider the idea being on the edge or in the echo of communication as she illustrates.
Your blog is powerful and compelling, demonstrating the urgent need for inclusive practices in creative education. Drawing on your personal experience of disability, you have created an incredibly evocative narrative. The authenticity of your story, coupled with your in-depth exploration of various academic sources, brings your arguments to life. You highlight the systemic failings of education in terms of inclusivity and propose changes based on your own experiences, making your piece a significant contribution to the ongoing debate.
I thought it was very practical and wonderful that you focused on the machine noise of the knitting machine by referring to Kim’s work and that you linked it to the actual experience of replacing equipment at school.
In the future, it would be wonderful if you could translate this idea into practical teaching practices, such as workshops for students, in response to your question this time.
I have found this piece really touching and how Christine could claim sound for herself. She is an inspiration and it is good to see people with a level of disability looking at the opportunities that are there for them to take advantage of. Your experience of the student in the wheelchair is heartwarming and I am sure stressful for you to think on your feet but knowing you, I am convinced that nothing would have stopped you from giving her this experience. I was struck by my reaction of how exceptional we find your very generous response. I am sure that your own experience of having access via an Apple Desktop once you were diagnosed drove you to make it happen. Hopefully soon disability can be normalised and we find space for everyone to participate fully and contribute too. In sports and comedy we see a more inclusive field so definitely not impossible. People like you will make it happen.