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The Disability Arts & Activism Archive (DAAA) is a research creation project documenting the disability organizing history and disability arts history across what is colonially called British Columbia.
Starting with one-on-one interviews with marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill* organizers and artists who have substantial expertise** in disability arts and activism in BC; engaging marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill artists to create multi-media Interpretations of these interviews; and presenting the collected data, interviews, and Interpretations, as well as a timeline detailing dates of interest regarding disability activism and arts shared by Interviewees, as an archive on a publicly accessible website.
*The DAAA defines disabled/crip/Mad/ill as: experiences of or identification with Madness, mental illness, chronic illness, chronic pain, neurodivergence, limb and facial difference, physical disability, sensory disability, d/Deaf or hard of hearing; with the understanding that claiming Disabled as an identifier is complicated for many for community, cultural, or individual reasons. This definition is neither exhaustive nor prescriptive, nor does it encompass the full breadth of every cultural and community expression of body-mind difference. Individual experiences of disability vary as does the language one uses. There is room for prospective Interviewees or Artists who recognize their experiences as disability/disabled without necessarily using any of the language in the DAAA’s definition.
**The DAAA uses the phrase “lived expertise” in lieu of the more common phrase “lived experience” to emphasize that marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill people’s experiences “[inform their perspectives], what [they] look at and questions [they] ask…[that] someone else might overlook and fail to grasp the significance of”, and that these perspectives are comparable to the expertise one may develop through formal academic education.
Project participants for the projects so far include marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill organizers and artists as Interviewees and Artists who create artworks based on the interviews.
Much of documentation, research and presentation of disability activism is connected to academic institutions, centering cisgender, white, disabled men and therefore lacks the nuances of disability activism led by people living in poverty and existing in multiply marginalized communities. The DAAA aims to create a living archive of disability activism and arts history through a “ground-up” historical approach (i.e. archival work done through a critical lens) by fellow marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill people for the empowerment of marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill people, and the knowledge translation to the larger communities and relevant stakeholders, that will be developed by and accountable to the community that it endeavors to represent.
Further online community participation in the database is a future goal of the archive.
6 one-on-one interviews with marginalized disabled/crip/Mad/ill organizers and artists took place in 2022. Each artist was interview by project lead Q.
6 seperate disabled/crip/Mad/ill artists were paired up with interviews from Interviewees to create new artworks in reaction to the interviews.
The interactive timeline will be detailing dates drawn from the interviews as part of our Digital Documentation of Disability Activism History of BC project— in which art was made or communities mobilized.
The Disability Arts and Activism Archive and website preview launch event was held on April 22nd, 2023 (click here for the event link).
This event was hosted by Q, the project lead. It featured the project's web designer, Taz Soleil, speak about their experiences in disability art and the creation of the website, and artists and project interviewees, Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa, Sara Spilchen, Regan Shrumm, and Miki Aurora, who talked about their unique experiences of disability movements, art, and activism and how it all came together in the Digital Documentation of Disability Activism History of BC projects.
The event was held online via Zoom and live streamed on Youtube. The recorded version is available through the Youtube video below.
Follow us on social media and join our mailing list for future participation opportunities.
Disability Arts &
Activism Archive