Date of Award

Summer 8-16-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

Intermedia

Advisor

Susan Smith

Second Committee Member

Bethany Engstrom

Third Committee Member

Sheridan Kelley Adams

Abstract

According to the CDC one in four adults in the United States have a disability, but the disjuncture model of disability would strive to move the definition of disability away from an individual's identity. Focusing on task failure, the disjuncture model sees someone as disabled any moment they are unable to complete a task. Therefore, disjuncture accepts disability not as something that could, but does happen to everyone.

I have always loved working with children with special needs, but it was always frustrating when I witnessed them feel isolated or other-ed due to how they were generally defined by the label of disability. Bringing forward an awareness of the disjuncture model of disability can help to remove some of this social discrimination as more people learn to redefine disability and apply this reworked vocabulary word to themselves.

Yes, we are all disabled at some point in life, but there are ways to heal disjuncture. For example, a piece of technology, no matter how high or how low, can be used to heal disjuncture with no need to alter an individual body or identity. Have you ever been unable to open the impossible plastic packaging which encases a new pair of scissors because you don’t have scissors? Perhaps using car keys or wedging a spoon between the layers of plastic may help to gain access. Or what about being unable to open a jar that has been sealed too tightly? Running the jar under hot water could ease the seal and using the bottom edge of the shirt you are wearing could add a little extra grip. Look around and search, there could be a low tech or even low-cost item right in the same room that could help at this moment.

In these moments where you struggle to complete a task, creativity should be one of the tools you reach for to heal your disjuncture. Creativity allows for us to not just think of a new way around, but even to reinterpret the traditional use of any object. Especially when encountering a disjuncture that not all humans face on a regular basis, this may call for using a tool that not all humans would think to in such a scenario. In their book Creativity in the Twenty-first Century: The Added Benefit of Training and Cooperation Naama Mayseless and co-authors Saggar, Hawthorne, and Reiss share how creativity can help humans not just in a particular moment, but long term as well (2018). They write “Creativity is considered the driving force behind innovation and human progress and has benefits to mental health and wellbeing” (Mayseless et al., 2018, p. 244). Creatively coming up with new ways to heal disjuncture can help an individual as they no longer have to accept task failure as the end outcome and something which will inhibit them - there is space for success. And by sharing these new solutions within a community, others can learn and rework ideas leading to ideas that can help so many more people work past initial failure.

My research and large-scale interactive installation utilize disjuncture theory to redefine and reconceptualize disability and move the definition of disability away from the binary of individual identity or social discrimination. In this reworking, task failure determines who is disabled. Visitors entering the installation space worked through several staged interactions, playing, and discovering how creativity and unconventional items together can help to find solutions to overcome existing obstacles that interfere with the completion of tasks. This project carefully considered different access points to the space before handing over the work to engage with a larger community. Those who entered the toolbox identified obstacles around them, tested ideas, and worked with others and their creative ideas to help accomplish and redefine the limits that were originally perceived to fall around them and restrict how one could exist.

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