#audience

Vermon’s Journey

TuesdayLeave a comment

Where I started….

I entered this quarter with no knowledge of Disability Studies but with experience surrounding disability. I had little to no expectations for the content I would encounter. I assumed I would enjoy learning about the discourses surrounding disability. Then we watched “The Kids are Alright” and I remember thinking, “Oh my god! am I an evil, horrible ableist?” I was immediately untrusting of the content and creator which sparked a small internal crisis. At this point, I knew I was in for a bumpy ride the rest of the quarter.

The journey, itself.

I believe about every other week something we discussed in class triggered me. Sometimes I hid it well, other times I think it was obvious I was incredibly upset. This was a class that I either viscerally hated or was enamored with. This is mostly my fault. I engaged with a topic that triggered me repeatedly, sometimes bringing it into readings where it was not present. I am, of course referring to focus of my project, normalcy.  I have identified it to be almost the root of evil but also the supporting structure for most things we discussed. This only reinforces my first main takeaway from the quarter, understanding the audience is key to effective communication. There have been a few instances where I have misjudged my audience this quarter. Our discussions in class have made me more conscious of how “[a] message changes or gets lost very easily depending upon the audience” and my way of approaching my intended audience. I tend to dedicate a lot of energy to considering my audience’s needs, agenda, and values. I dedicate even more energy towards this as learned I need to consider a potentially unintended audience. There has have been a couple issues such as Masquerade, Prosthesis, and language that have highlighted that occasionally it is the unintended audience who hold more power over the discourse or situation surrounding an issue than the intended audience. Thus, it is negligent to just simply ignore a potentially unwanted interpretation of your message. This is also why contextualization is important, especially when engaging critically with a text. As demonstrated by anything written by Dolmage, context is vital when dealing with abstract concepts. In a particularly comedic moment, I gave another classmate a quote with a contextualizing sentence attached to help them interpret an abstract sentence. I had wanted to hear someone else’s thoughts on the concept he was referring as it seemed very out place in his rhetorical flow. They asked for context. I had thought I had given context, but it was not enough. To be honest I am not sure I could have given this classmate anymore context because the context I gave was all I had myself.

Arriving at the Destination.

I am happy the journey is over. I am really exhausted. It was a fun but tiring trip. Lastly, I want to touch back upon “The Kids are Alright”. My concern over holding abelist veiws was not unwarrented. It would be odd if I did not hold some abelist veiws because I have grown up in a violently abelist society. This is something we all will have to struggle against and engage in self-critique to overcome.

The Artist’s Embrace of Oneself

Isabelle SLeave a comment

The documentary provided a raw, poignant view of the creative process of disabled performers who took the stage in 2012 to share their stories as disabled people. The yearly show explored disability and race, gender, sex and sexuality, and featured many artists of color and LQBTQ artists. The documentary itself, fully titled Sins Invalid: An Unashamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility, was directed by one of Sins Invalid’s founders Patricia Berne, was released in 2013 and detailed the performances’ development, the performers’ thought process behind their parts, and the importance of such a show. 

Sins Invalid features a variety of acts, with some done entirely independently and solely for the performer. In one performance, a disabled man takes a bath and uses a sponge to clean himself. The performance is done entirely alone and independently, which a few of the other more intimate performances do. However, what really stood out to me was the performances that had multiple people in them. One performance features Nomy Lamm, a singer and amputee, dressed in a bird costume in a nest of human prosthetics. She layers her voice to create a song, and is soon joined by another performer who clasps hands with her. The performance is heavily symbolic, and has a huge focus on unity and community. The importance of group performance is emphasised in Keywords for Disabilities, “Performance”, where author Petra Kuppers explains that such performances, “moves out from the individual and towards communal action, and a staged performance becomes a way of presenting disability in public” (138). The final performance featured in the documentary starts with a man in a wheelchair being caught in a fight between a bipedal individual. It is halfway through the performance when this individual disappears and the man in the wheelchair is lifted into the air, using his arms to hold himself atop a wooden beam. The performance ends with the projection of a cross over his form, evoking imagery of crucifixion. This performance is a result of the combined efforts of group and individual performance, and conveys a harrowing connection of abuse and violence on the disabled community. These performances, which we see the behind the scenes of in the documentary, are performed annually, with different stories and performers taking the stage each year. 

“This space[…] is for me” says E. E. Smith. The concise declaration really doesn’t beat around the bush. These spaces, these performances, are one of the few spaces for the diabled to feel fully welcomed and accepted. The in-your-fact descriptions of sex and sexuality, of the instability of their place in an ablist world, the fear or violence and containment, they are not only necessary — to be seen and heard —  but they mirror many of the worldviews that the audience holds. 

There is something powerful in finding yourself surrounded by your community. A magical sort of emotion as you feel true belonging in the face of invisibility and oppression. When you talk to a stranger about your personal experience and realize that you are not alone; they feel what you feel and think what you think. That you no longer have to hide. Much like the audience in Smith’s writing, the audience of Sin’s Invalid would become a part of the performance itself. Not only do you see the unfiltered performances of diabled people, but you are a part of the space itself, with each audience member having their own unknown — and previously unacknowledged — stories.

Sins Invalid emphasises that the performers do not perform for the audience, and rather are performing for themselves, to create art not for it to be objectified by a view, but instead encompassed in the minds and bodies of the artists. Performing for yourself, for the sake of expressing yourself, is an extraordinary way to create art. Artists are often uncomfortably aware of their audience, and this usually impacts the creative process in some way. What will the viewers think of this? Will they accept it? Will they hate it, jeer and boo me off stage? The artist freeing themselves from the expectations put about by the audience are able to focus solely on their art. And for the case of Sins Invalid, this resulted in an enchantingly unashamed show.

It is impossible for film to capture the experience of seeing the live performance. There is so much different about being there in person, seeing the entire expanse of the stage and feeling the entire room vibrate with the voices of the performers, to see the curtains sway open and closed, that cannot be truly captured in film. The act of becoming one with the audience could even itself be a part of the performance. Actors could enter the audience, break the fourth wall, there are even performances entirely made up by the audience. John Cage’s 4’33” is a completely silent musical performance, where the sounds of the auditorium make up the music itself. The audience’s breathing and shuffling, quiet whispers and coughs. Being a part of the audience completely changes the experience, so I feel like as a viewer of the film, I have yet to fully see the true performance. Because of this I give the documentary a four out of five stars.