Disability Arts History Australia

Items

• "Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin (2015). Disability media participation: Opportunities, obstacles and politics. Media International Australia, 154 (1), pp. 78-88."
  This article discusses participatory media from a critical disability perspective. It discusses the relative absence of explicit discussion and research on disability in the literatures on community, citizen and alternative media. By contrast, disability has emerged as an important element of participatory cultures and digital technologies. To explore disability participatory cultures, the article offers analysis of case studies, including disability blogs, ABC's Ramp Up website and crowd-funding platforms (such as Kickstarter).
• "Gerard Goggin, Christopher Newell (2003). Digital disability: The social construction of disability in new media. Rowman and Littlefield."
  Media representation of and for the disabled has been recharged in recent years with the expansion of new media worldwide. Interactive digital communications--such as the Interact, new varieties of voice and text telephones, and digital broadcasting--have created a need for a more innovative understanding of new media and disability issues. This engaging analysis offers a global perspective on how people with disabilities are represented as users, consumers, viewers, or listeners of new media, by policymakers, corporations, programmers, and the disabled themselves.
• "Bree Hadley, Donna McDonnald (2019) Introduction: disability arts, culture, and media studies - mapping a maturing field. In Hadley, B & McDonald, D (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of disability arts, culture, and media. Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 1-18.”
  Reads, in part "In this book, an internationally recognised collection of established and emerging scholars, artists, and activists from across the US, UK, Europe, Asia, and Australasia come together to trace the development of disability arts, culture, and media studies in recent decades, flag current interests, and forecast future concerns."
• "Bree Hadley, Donna McDonald, Sarah Austin, Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin, Lachlan MacDowall, Veronica Pardo, Eddie Paterson, with collaborators Dave Calvert, Jori De Coster, Shawn Goh, Alice Fox, Ann M. Fox, Andy Kempe, Petra Kuppers, Justin Lee, Alex Lubet, Sarah Meisch Lionetto, Ann Millett-Gallant, Laura Misener, Bronwyn Preece, Megan Strickfaden, Joanne Tay, Matthew Reason, Nancy Quinn, and Sarah Whatley (2019) Conclusion: practicing interdependency, sharing vulnerability, celebrating complexity - the future of disability arts, culture, and media research. In Hadley, B & McDonald, D (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of disability arts, culture, and media. Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 362-372."
  "In this chapter, the authors conclude The Routledge Handbook of Disability Art, Culture, and Media studies by reflecting on the past, present, and potential future of disability art practice debated throughout the book. Based on research currently underway in the work of many of the Australian contributors, and including reflections from the global contributors, this concluding chapter reflects on what the disability arts, culture, and media practice and research of the future might look like, do, and achieve in the public sphere."
• ”Bree Hadley, Donna McDonnald (Eds.) (2019) The Routledge Handbook of Disability Arts, Culture, and Media. Routledge International Handbooks. Routledge, London; New York.”
  “In the last 30 years, a distinctive intersection between disability studies – including disability rights advocacy, disability rights activism, and disability law – and disability arts, culture, and media studies has developed. The two fields have worked in tandem to offer critique of representations of disability in dominant cultural systems, institutions, discourses, and architecture, and develop provocative new representations of what it means to be disabled. Divided into 5 sections:- Disability, Identity, and Representation; Inclusion, Wellbeing, and Whole-of-life Experience; Access, Artistry, and Audiences; Practices, Politics and the Public Sphere; Activism, Adaptation, and Alternative Futures - this handbook brings disability arts, disability culture, and disability media studies – traditionally treated separately in publications in the field to date – together for the first time.”
• "Katie Ellis (2016) Disability Media Work: Opportunities and Obstacles. London: Palgrave."
  Reads, in part "Elevates disability media discussions beyond representation and access by considering employment and discriminatory attitudes in the media industry"
• "Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin, Christopher Newell (2005) ‘Don’t Talk about Me... Like I’m Not Here': Disability in Australian National Cinema. Metro Magazine: Media & Education Magazine.146/147, pp. 152-159. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.043842788583710"
  Reads, in part "Disability is a central cultural identity and category in Australia, but this is not often realized. We seek to make a contribution to conversations and critical analyses of disability in Australian culture through an exploration of a privileged national cultural form, namely film. The trope of disability looms large in late twentieth century Australian cinema, and yet cultural comment on these ‘disabled’ scripts and performances has not yet considered a disabilities studies perspective. Accordingly, in this article we combine our different perspectives on disability and film into an account of how specific films use disability. In particular, we analyse key films from the 1990s as examples of powerful displays of bodies and personhood." References a range of films, including Proof (Jocelyn Moorhouse, 1991), Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992), Bad Boy Bubby (Rolf de Heer, 1993), Muriel's Wedding (PJ Hogan, 1994), Shine (Scott Hicks, 1996), Moulin Rouge! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001), My One Legged Dream Lover (writer Kath Duncan with dir. Penny Fowler-Smith, Christine Oslen 1998), Pins and Needles (writer Genni Batterham with dir. Barbara Chobocky, 1979), Riding the Gale (Genni Batterham with dir, Hugh Piper, 1987), Dance Me to My Song (writer Heather Rose with dir. Rolf De Heer, 1998), Heather Rose Goes to Cannes (Chris Corin, 1999), Myself When Fourteen, (Ivor, Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1989),Film of Circles, Squares, Triangles, Lines and Dots (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1981), Rainbow Diary (Arthur and Corinne Cantrill 1984), House Gang (Mandy smith, 1997), Quentin Crashes Big Brother (Quentin Kenihan, 2002), Quentin, World at My Wheels (Quentin Kenihan, 2000), Ability Trek (Jacob Baldwin 1998)
• "Katie Ellis, Gerard Goggin, Beth Haller, Rosemary Curtis ed. (2019) Routledge Companion to Disability and Media. London & New York: Routledge."
  Reads, in part "An authoritative and indispensable guide to disability and media, this thoughtfully curated collection features varied and provocative contributions from distinguished scholars globally, alongside next-generation research leaders."
• "Liz Ferrier (2000) Vulnerable Bodies: Creative Disabilities in Contemporary Australian Film. In Ian Craven ed. Australian Cinema in the 1990s. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203045022"
  Reads, in part "The internationally-acclaimed film Shine is one of a number of contemporary Australian movies which portray embattled artists or performers. Reminiscent of earlier works such as Starstruck (1982), Man of Flowers (1983), Malcolm (1986) and Sweetie (1989), and several more recent productions – Proof (1991), Strictly Ballroom (1992), Bad Boy Bubby (1994), The Adventures of Priscilia, Queen of The Desert (1994), Muriel's Wedding (1994), Cosi (1996), Lilian's Story (1996), and Jane Campion's New Zealand/Australian films, An Angel at My Table (1990) and The Piano (1993) – it depicts a disadvantaged individual overcoming setbacks through the passionate and eccentric expression of his creativity. The film and the cycle to which it belongs offers a peculiar vantage point from which to examine the problems and possibilities of Australian cinema in the 1990s."
• "South Australian Film Corporation (2018) Disability Screen Strategy"
  Reads, in part "Launched in 2018 under the SAFC’s Delivering Diversity umbrella, FULL TILT is the SAFC’s initiative for an inclusive approach to skills development for screen content makers with disability, and a starting point for driving change across the industry to achieve greater inclusion for practitioners with disability to develop their craft."
• "Bree Hadley (2019) Disability arts in an age of austerity. In Hadley, B & McDonald, D (Eds.) The Routledge handbook of disability arts, culture, and media. Routledge, United Kingdom, pp. 347-361."
  "Is the current “age of austerity” (Summers 2009) impacting on art, culture, and media practices by and about people with disabilities, and, in particular, on art-based protest practices by people with disabilities? In recent years, much has been written about austerity as neo-liberal economic, political, social, and ideological agenda (Harvey 2005; Barnett 2010; Seymour 2014). Much has been written about the way groups effected by local and global governmental shifts towards austerity are protesting, presenting themselves, and being represented by others (Fritsch 2013; Goodley, Lawthom, & Runswick-Cole 2014; Runswick- Cole & Goodley 2015; della Porta 2015; Kokoli & Winter 2015; Beresford 2016; Dodd 2016; Giugni & Grasso 2016; Berry 2017). The question of whether disabled artists are adapting their practices to address these changing cultural circumstances has received less attention (Hadley 2017) and is thus the topic I focus on in this chapter."
• "Katie Ellis (2019) Disability and Digital Television Cultures Representation, Access, and Reception. London & New York: Routledge."
  Reads, in part "Disability and Digital Television Cultures offers an important addition to scholarly studies at the intersection of disability and media, examining disability in the context of digital television access, representation and reception."
• "Katie Ellis, Tama Leaver, Mike Kent, M, eds. (2023). Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games. London and New York: Routledge."
  This book explores the opportunities and challenges people with disabilities experience in the context of digital games from the perspective of three related areas: representation, access and inclusion, and community. Drawing on key concerns in disability media studies, the book brings together scholars from disability studies and game studies, alongside game developers, educators, and disability rights activists, to reflect upon the increasing visibility of disabled characters in digital games.
• "Screen Australia (2023) Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, equity and inclusion in Australian TV drama. Screen Australia"
  Reads, in part "Screen Australia has released new research into diversity on Australian screens, titled Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama. A follow up to the landmark 2016 study, Seeing Ourselves 2 examines the diversity of main characters in 361 scripted Australian TV and online dramas broadcast between 2016 and 2021, how this compares to the Australian population, and what has changed since the previous Seeing Ourselves report."
• "Radha O'Meara, Laura Dunstan, Anna Debinski, Catherine Ryan (2023). Disability and Screen Work in Australia: Report for Industry 2023. In Disability and Screen Work in Australia: Report for Industry. Melbourne Disability Institute, University of Melbourne."
  Disability is a key vector of inequality in Australian society. The screen industry has the potential to create meaningful change, in our workplaces and working practices, for our colleagues and our audiences. We need to pay more attention to disability and take more action to include disabled people in our industry. Disability equity, inclusion and accessibility training tailored to the screen industry can make a significant impact. Consultation, innovation and funding can transform industrial structures to create a more inclusive and sustainable industry for all screen workers. We must normalise talking about and providing access requirements to support disabled workers. The findings of this research reflect the need to build greater understanding, transparency and accountability in order to fully include disabled workers in the Australian screen industry.
• "Sarah Austin, Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin, Lachlan MacDowall, Veronica Pardo, Eddie Paterson, Jax Jacki Brown, Morwenna Collett, Fiona Cook, Bree Hadley, Jess Kapuscinski-Evans, Donna McDonald, Julie McNamara, Gayle Mellis, Kate Sulan (2019). The last avant garde? In B. Hadley, D. McDonald ed. The Routledge Handbook of Disability Art, Culture, and Media. London & New York: Routledge, 251-262."
  "“The Australian Research Council project Disability and the Performing Arts in Australia: Beyond the Social Model – known to collaborators as the last avant garde – is mapping disability performing arts in Australia. We open up this chapter, and our ongoing research project, with the words of the late Tobin Siebers. In researching disability and performance here in Australia, we also acknowledge that since Siebers’ 2010 text, we have seen new experiments and emerging companies pushing the bounds of how bodies feel – in a sector which embraces differences in bodies, but also in thinking, in neurodiversities, in being, in articulating, in appearing, in sensing, in intersectionalities, and in the experiences for audiences. As such, this chapter aims to explore ‘disability aesthetics’ not as a set of specific techniques, themes, or politics, but in order to position disability at the centre of ‘future conceptions of what art is’ and what it can be.”
• "Janice Rieger and Megan Strickfaden(2019) “Dis/ordered assemblages of disability in museums.” In The Routledge Handbook of Disability Art, Culture, and Media, edited by Bree Hadley and Donna McDonald, 48–61. London & New York: Routledge."
  "Museums are spaces of power and care. They are institutions that present assemblages (Deleuze & Guattari 2002), which are reconstructions and representations of history and societal values, and thus are partial realities that curate human existence. These assemblages cannot ever represent the totality of human existence because it is never possible to do so, and yet these assemblages are embedded with power because choices are made about what ought or ought not be represented within museums (Ott 2013; Bennet 2017). The nature of partial realities is that, at their centre, these are still representations that tell stories of what one would imagine to be the most significant events related to a place (nation, city), with a particular focus on a societal event or issue (war, art, sports, nature, human rights, etc.) and peoples (e.g. immigrants, migrants, First Nations or Indigenous peoples, etc.). Persons attending museums rely on the expertise of historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers to present materials within the museum that focus upon and represent societal values. Most museum visitors are not aware of the power that museums hold, although more and more museum visitors push against narratives which they do not feel to be adequate representations of the places, events, issues, and peoples of society (Hooper-Greenhill 1992, 2000; Anderson 2004; Janes 2009, 2010). Where there is power, there is also care. Historians, curators, archivists, conservators, and exhibition designers take great care in how they assemble materials within museums."
• "Australia Council for the Arts (2014) A Million Dollar Commitment to Artists with Disability. Australia Council for the Arts. 28 October 2014"
  Reads, in part "Australia Council Chief Executive Officer Tony Grybowski made the announcement today at the Arts Activated Conference in Chatswood, Sydney. Mr Grybowski said the decision to extend the dedicated arts and disability funding was made after a successful pilot was run earlier this year."
• ”Bree Hadley, Janice Rieger, Katie Ellis, Eddie Paterson (2024) Cultural safety as a foundation for allyship in disability arts. Disability & Society, 39(1), pp. 213-233.”
  "In this article, we argue that cultural safety, respect, and trust is a precursor to good allyship in the creative industries. We outline factors that influence feelings of safety or non-safety for disabled arts and media makers, and the way the legacy of the medical model makes it difficult for many arts and media workers to appreciate and enact enablers of safety as part of an allyship relationship."
• "Bree Hadley (2007) Review - Mirage, by Igneous, Australian Stage Online"
  Reads, in part "In Mirage, a performance installation by Brisbane-based multimedia company Igneous, dancer James Cunningham uses a combination of dance and data projection to draw the audience into a strange new perceptual space, in which body parts can be transposed, twinned and mirrored, providing new capacity for movement in the face of challenges to a body’s conventional structure and integrity. The work, like Cunningham’s previous collaboration with multimedia artist Suzon Fuks on The Body in Question (1999), is based on Cunningham’s experience after a motorcycle accident in 1992 left him paralysed in his left arm. Both works touch on the perceptions and realities of the human body as it reacts, recovers and rediscovers its potentialities in the wake of injury"
• "Bree Hadley (2022) Disability and the Arts, Creative, and Cultural Industries in Australia. Australian Academy of Humanities"
  Reads, in part "There are five interrelated factors that support arts workers, arts organisations, and the arts sector at large to develop improved policy, protocol, and training practices."
• "Kath Duncan, Gerard Goggin (2002). 'Something in Your Belly': Fantasy, Disability and Desire in My One Legged Dream Lover. Disability Studies Quarterly 22 (4), pp: 127-144."
  In this article we explore fantasy, disability and desire in the groundbreaking 1998 Australian TV documentary My One-Legged Dream Lover. Based upon self-reflexive documentary conventions, the video uncovers journalist-cum-freak raconteur Kath Duncan's explorations into the world of amputee fetish. Duncan is a double congenital amputee. She says," I've tried most things men, women, sex toys, unusual locations, dominance and submission games but I wanted to know what it was like to be desired because of my impairments." Gerard Goggin is a temporarily able-bodied (or TAB) academic with his own history of queer desire and a personal investment in exploring issues of difference. Duncan's and Goggin's collaboration includes accessing each other's edgier fantasies, aiming to give voice to some of the negotiations, anxieties, pleasures, and risks we have taken, speaking across the chasm of our personal histories, different genders and respective bodies.
• "Screen Australia (2016) Seeing ourselves: Reflections on diversity in Australian TV drama. Screen Australia"
  Reads, in part "Whose stories are our TV dramas exploring? Screen Australia has benchmarked current levels of diversity in Australian TV drama and explore the challenges and opportunities involved in making TV drama more broadly representative of Australian society."
• "Bree Hadley (2014) Disability, Public Space Performance, and Spectatorship: Unconscious Performers. London: Palgrave Macmillan."
  "Why would disabled people want to re-engage, re-enact and re-envisage the everyday encounters in public spaces and places that cast them as ugly, strange, stare-worthy? In Disability, Public Space Performance and Spectatorship: Unconscious Performers, Bree Hadley examines the performance practices of disabled artists in the US, UK, Europe and Australasia who do exactly this. Operating in a live or performance art paradigm, artists like James Cunningham (Australia), Noemi Lakmaier (UK/Austria), Alison Jones (UK), Aaron Williamson (UK), Katherine Araniello (UK), Bill Shannon (US), Back to Back Theatre (Australia), Rita Marcalo (UK), Liz Crow (UK) and Mat Fraser (UK) all use installation and public space performance practices to re-stage their disabled identities in risky, guerilla-style works that remind passersby of their own complicity in the daily social drama of disability. In doing so, they draw spectators' attention to their own role in constructing Western concepts of disability. This book investigates the way each of us can become unconscious performers in a daily social drama that positions disability people as figures of tragedy, stigma or pity, and the aesthetics, politics and ethics of performance practices that intervene very directly in this drama. It constructs a framework for understanding the way spectators are positioned in these practices, and how they contribute to public sphere debates about disability today."
• "Katie Ellis (2008) Disabling Diversity: The Social Construction of Disability in 1990s Australian National Cinema"
  Reads, in part "This book critically examines numerous 1990s Australian films with reference to socio-political influences to approach disability as a problem with society rather than as one within a damaged body."