diverse body mind ecologies
intra-connected - porous assemblages
exploring ableism through an animist lens
intra-connected - porous assemblages
exploring ableism through an animist lens
This exploration has been particularly inspired by the work of Fiona Kumari Campbell, whose writings & thought broaden the scope of disability studies. She identifies how ableist frameworks attempt to obsessively categories & define disability & how the concept of ‘normal’ is constructed through a process of negation. This process of categorisation creates the ‘ideal human’ by naming what it is not. The ‘ideal’, ‘normative’ human is slippery, ever changing & thereby impossible for anyone to attain. It is created at the expense of all humans & indeed all life - with every-thing embroiled in culturally defined jostling on the 'value' - 'am I /we/they/enough' - bell curve. Defining a solid separation between what is 'human' & what is not - opens the door to oppression of every description as well as the narrowing of our lived experience of being human. As part of this process of separation, categorisation & placing in a hierarchy of value & worth, the disabled & chronically ill are subjected to obsessive data gathering, constant unnecessary describing of their condition to everyone from government departments to random acquaintances & the need to prove the 'permanent' nature of their state, repeatedly, in order to qualify for care. By separating 'others' & the ecologies we are part of - we allow for care to be diminished & all too often, for harm & destruction to be perpetuated.
The closer we look, the more we realise that ‘we’ ALL are in a state of flux.
We are ALL porous assemblages interwoven with the ecologies, cultural narratives & physical realities we exist in. We ALL require care! We ALL require different varieties of care. We are ALL intra-dependent on each other & the other-than-human. Our normative concepts of the value of independence, a separate solid self, blind adherence to a narrow definition of capacity as the gauge of our worth, are delusional constructs which separate us & inspire a deep fear of dependence, intra-dependence & death.
In response to questioning what it means to be human through ableist & animist lenses - a process of de-centering the human has developed in my life & creative work & has seen me creating work in collaboration with birds, cicadas & rivers as well as humans from around the globe. Can these perspectives loosen the grip, muddy the water, create some porosity in the normative, ableist, frames which are currently complicit in the ecological & social crises we face?
We create NOTHING alone.....
The closer we look, the more we realise that ‘we’ ALL are in a state of flux.
We are ALL porous assemblages interwoven with the ecologies, cultural narratives & physical realities we exist in. We ALL require care! We ALL require different varieties of care. We are ALL intra-dependent on each other & the other-than-human. Our normative concepts of the value of independence, a separate solid self, blind adherence to a narrow definition of capacity as the gauge of our worth, are delusional constructs which separate us & inspire a deep fear of dependence, intra-dependence & death.
In response to questioning what it means to be human through ableist & animist lenses - a process of de-centering the human has developed in my life & creative work & has seen me creating work in collaboration with birds, cicadas & rivers as well as humans from around the globe. Can these perspectives loosen the grip, muddy the water, create some porosity in the normative, ableist, frames which are currently complicit in the ecological & social crises we face?
We create NOTHING alone.....
