Project guidelines for ‘Through my eyes’- a research project on disability and identity
Download the guidelines here or read the version below.
1) the outline of the project
This project seeks to better understand the experience of disability for women with disability through photography to address negative attitudes around disability. Participants (artists) will work together with other members of the research group (artists and researchers) to create a group body of work that will be displayed at a public photographic exhibition in 2020.
2) how photos will be used
The photos and personal descriptions of the photos will be used on a website, in an exhibition, in scholarly papers and in presentations. All artists are encouraged to actively participate in any presentation or article as desired.
Every photo will be fully credited with the artist’s name and © symbol.
3) your role as recognised artists and authors.
It is essential that you as the artist are recognised and given credit for your work. After the research has finished, you may want to co-author a scholarly article with the research team. This process is intended to be collaborative, with everyone bringing their own expertise to the project.
4) who will be working with you
The study is being carried out by the following researchers:
Prof Katherine Boydell (Black Dog Institute)
Dr Angela Dew (UNSW School of Social Sciences)
Diane Macdonald (PhD candidate in the UNSW School of Psychiatry)
Up to 9 other artists with disability
5) where the workshops will take place
You will need to attend five meetings at the Black Dog Institute in Randwick Hospital Road, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick NSW 2031, Australia. The meeting room is accessible by wheelchair.
6) the length of the project and of individual workshop sessions
The study should take approximately three months to complete, from March 2019 to May 2019.
Meetings will be held on:
Saturday, 16 March 2019: 10am to 1pm
Saturday, 30 March 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 13 April 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 4 May 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 18 May 2019: 10am to 1pm
Saturday, 30 March 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 13 April 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 4 May 2019: 10am to 12pm
Saturday, 18 May 2019: 10am to 1pm
After each meeting, you will need to take some photos on your identity – this should only take between one to three hours, depending on your schedule. Diane, a professional photographer, will visit you each week as necessary to assist in any way needed. At each meeting we will review and discuss feminist photographers work as well as your work you recently completed.
7) what do I, as artist, need to do to complete this research?
For meetings 2, 3, 4, and 5 – you will need to send Diane via email 5 – 10 (maximum) photos (your best photos). Play around with the camera and edit your photos, deleting or filing as necessary. We will discuss the photos as a group and get feedback from each other. After that, we look at some more feminist photographers’ work and then you will take more photos during the next week.
At the last meeting we will decide which 2-3 photos from each person works towards a group exhibition. These photos will need descriptions.
At the last meeting you will also select 10 photos with descriptions for a personal booklet. This is for you to have a personal tangible remembrance of this project.
8) final outputs and endpoint
At the last meeting you will choose up to 10 of your photos with descriptions as your final photos. These will be used in:
A personal booklet that will contain all 10 photos and descriptions.
Of these 10 photos, 2-3 of these photos will be included in the group exhibition. You will decide which photos you want to include.
In addition to photos, other outputs will occur through this project:
You will be interviewed twice though two short 10-minute video interviews by Diane.
Your discussions with your fellow artists at each meeting will be recorded by researchers through note-taking during and immediately after each meeting.
You will be photographed during the meetings of the process and individual artist’s portraits will be taken by Diane.
At every stage, you will say whether you agree with the process and it will not affect the overall outcome. You will never be forced to do anything; the power will always rest with you.
Your active role in the research will end in May 2019. You will not need to do anything after this period. However, there will be opportunities to become involved in presentations or articles if that interests you.
We are hoping to have a public exhibition in May 2020 and will keep you informed as events develop and other opportunities for presenting or co-authoring develop.
The photos and records that we hold will be destroyed by the research team five years after publication of the results. Your photos are yours to do with as you please.
Thank you for being part of this exciting and interesting project. Please see the project outline below.
Week 1 - Politics of appearance, difference and the body
Jes Sachse - whose work addresses the negotiations of bodies moving in public/private space, poked fun at American Apparel’s every woman campaign that did not include disability.[1]
Catherine Opie - A common social/political theme in her work is the concept of community. Opie is interested in how identities are shaped by our surrounding architecture.[2]
Cindy Sherman - intensely grounded in the present while it extends long traditions in art that force the audience to reconsider common stereotypes and cultural assumptions.[3]
Week 3 - Exclusion, inclusion and visibility in the community
Birthe Piontek - Individuation is a recurring theme in her photographic work: the ways people struggle to belong yet be different at the same time. Procuring objects from around the house and posing with them in different areas.[4]
Tomoko Sawada - explores ideas of identity, status, culture, individualism, and conformity through traditional and contemporary cultural methods of portraiture, explores the way assumptions about personality are largely driven by Japanese cultural responses to gender, job occupation, and other socio-cultural stereotypes.[5]
Zanele Muholi - subverts the typical representations of African Americans, documents the journey of the African queer community as a record for future generations, without negativity or focusing on the prevalent violence.[6]
Week 5 - Femininity, sexuality, relationships and reproductive rights
Nan Goldin - Themes are love, gender, domesticity, violence and sexuality; has affectionately documented women looking in mirrors, girls in bathrooms and barrooms, drag queens, sexual acts, and the culture of obsession and dependency. The images are viewed like a private journal made public.[7]
Belinda Mason – documents sexuality, looks beyond misconceptions, works within the disability community, including Aboriginal women and homosexuality.[8]
Liora K - a simple style, which involved feminist statements about autonomy, bodily control, and women's rights written across bare female bodies, was easily digestible, immediate and visually startling. She focuses on illegal abortions and covers everything from rape culture to slut-shaming.[9]
Week 8 – Equality, power and power imbalances
Sarah Maple - is bold and brave, photographing what it is to be a woman and a Muslim in 21st century Britain with a sense of humour.[10]
Lalla Essaydi - explores the ways that gender and power are inscribed on Muslim women's bodies and the spaces they inhabit. She has stated that her work is autobiographical and that she was inspired by the differences she perceived in women's lives in the United States versus in Morocco, in terms of freedom and identity.[11]
Barbara Kruger - expects the viewer to choose what role they will play. Before feminism, most women artists were invisible to the public eye, denied exhibitions and gallery representation based on the sole fact of their gender. Feminist artists often embraced alternative materials that were connected to the female gender to create their work, such as textiles. [12]
[1] https://jessachse.com/about/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Opie
[3] https://www.theartstory.org/artist-sherman-cindy.htm
[4] https://www.wipnyc.org/past/mwzgjgxddc5sx4s65al79jdlxyy69h
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomoko_Sawada
[6] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanele_Muholi
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nan_Goldin
[8] http://outingdisability.com.au/the-exhibition/
[9] https://www.bustle.com/articles/170566-9-powerful-feminist-photo-series-you-need-to-know-about
[10] http://www.sarahmaple.com/about/
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalla_Essaydi
[12] https://www.theartstory.org/movement-feminist-art.htm#