#Sketch of Major Project

Arntzen Sucks and It’s Zine Time

unsureunderwaterobotLeave a comment

Three years ago, I helped with the annual Global Health conference on Western’s campus. The theme was Criminalization of the Body, meaning we investigated why, how, and in what ways certain demographics experience marginalization of the body. One of the demographics we spent time on was the disabled community. Ironically, the conference was held in Arntzen Hall, arguably the most ableist building on campus. From there forward, I took notice of the potentially inequitable structures on campus, and I was appalled by what I noticed (that I don’t have to navigate in my bodymind).

For my project, I will be compiling a zine that elaborates on the ableist characteristics of Arntzen Hall. Arntzen Hall was built in the late 60s and still stands as one of the most trafficked buildings on campus. It houses the largest lecture hall on campus, making it a hub for intro classes. Arntzen Hall stands as an example of the discriminatory rhetoric of space at WWU. There are countless other examples that piece together a message for Western staff, students and visitors, and that message is, “if you don’t fulfill our constraining, ableist ideals, you are not welcome here.”  

The zine I am making will break down these institutionalized ideals and offer insight on rhetoric of space. Rhetoric of space is so important to me, personally. I find deep relation to the space I inhibit and value in the power of design. In class, I was struck by the chapter in Disability Visibility, The Beauty of Spaces Made by and for Disabled People. This chapter emphasized the importance of space and what it tells us. Space means so much more than just the architecture of a building the design of a sofa. It is atmospheric and transcendent. It is rhetorical. And for that reason, I will be looking at not only physical space, but educational and social/relational space as well.

My final product will be handmade! I will cut a piece of printer paper, fold it, and fill each page with nuggets of gold from my research. Because a zine can only hold so much information, I hope to write a short essay elaborating on my findings as well.

So far, I have done research and light sketching. I know the general format that my zine will take and am gathering the content. I spent some time researching rhetoric of space, the inequitable systems of education, and inclusive spaces. I recently went to Arntzen Hall and did some firsthand investigating. I recognize that my observations came from a singular place of ignorance. I can only gather the information I think to gather! I play a part in this research in a way that may prevent comprehensive data. I am working through that as I continue to gather data. In a true research project, I think I would hope to include perspectives of folks with disabilities, but because of timing and my current capacity to take on more work, I will have to settle with my perspective only.

Moving forward, I will finish compiling research and piecing together what I learn reading with what I experience in Arntzen Hall. I will be concise in my summary and explain my findings through storytelling and images on the 8 allotted pages of a typical zine.  

Current summary of zine: 

  • Page 1: Title Page – Image of Arntzen Hall 
  • Page 2: Intro to Arntzen, Rhetorical Space, and Disability Studies 
  • Page 3: Outline summary of what will be included 
  • Page 4: Breakdown of physical space 
  • Page 5: Breakdown of intellectual space 
  • Page 6: Breakdown of social/relational space 
  • Page 7: Reinforce what was learned  
  • Page 8: Closing notes and sources 

Where I’m At So Far

Isabelle SLeave a comment

My project is about online disability communities and how memes are used to create rhetoric and foster relatability and understanding. I also want to look into how online crip space and anonymity play a part in these communities. I want to present the information through a digital form, either through a text-image based post much like the posts I’m seeing in my research, or through a video essay, where I would use a more conversation voice in my writing. I would be writing a script instead of an essay.

With some of my research so far, I’ve found out a lot of things I didn’t really consider. A really interesting part of this project that I found out was that there seems to be two spheres of communities in these spaces. There are a lot of posts that are informational, that are more oriented towards non-disabled people, or people who are new to the online community. They could be helpful to newly-disabled people or people who need information on how to support their disabled friends. The second sphere is more focused towards people in the community. It is founded on the basis that the information found in the first sphere is already known fairly in depth. This foundation is used to have more nuanced discussions, share more specific experiences, and where a lot of the memes are found. For instance, the migraine memes use words like, “brain fog” and autism memes discuss “masking” without feeling the need to explain these words because it is expected of the audience to already be familiar with these terms — usually the audience is people within these communities. There is a generalized knowledge based on common experiences that is used to create relatability and quickly convey a lot of rhetoric. It is the context of this rhetoric that allows it to take shape. I wasn’t all that aware of these two spheres, or at least I didn’t really notice them until I was doing research for this project.

The main struggles I’m facing is choosing if I do a video essay or not, and also the social media aspects of this assignment itself. While it is enjoyable to see these online communities, I also find social media really draining and don’t really use it personally. Depending on what app I use, there are drastically different vibes and a lot of posts could be discussing really bad negative experiences. Which is not to take away from the actuality of these experiences, but a lot of apps are arithmetically going to be focusing on the most extreme or polarizing posts, so often it is difficult to find posts about pride without them being touched by negativity. There is also the immediate nature of social media that is to be considered, in-depth discussion could be harder to come across on instagram and twitter, because the format of the apps are limited. Reddit is more likely to have long posts, and things like podcasts and video essays are more in-depth as well.

I’m going to show to memes in class though. If I can.