Intro

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[ Background Conversations ]

0:08

>> Yeah, I’m going to talk about my work,
but first I’d like to do an exercise

0:11

that I usually do when I get to know
new groups of people, just to see —

0:14

get a sense of who’s in the room,
what your voices all sound like.

0:18

So, if everybody — if I could
invite you all to close your eyes.

0:25

I’m closing my eyes, too.

0:27

I promise.

0:28

And so, what I’m going to do is I’m going
to say my name, and then I want someone else

0:35

from the crowd to say their name,
and then someone else say their name,

0:38

until everybody said their name once.

0:40

And we’re going to keep our eyes shut until
everybody in the room said their name.

0:43

And I’m going to start off the chain reaction.

0:46

I’m just going to take a second to breathe,
to get comfortable in the non-visual space.

0:58

Carmen.

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[ Inaudible Comments ]

1:04

>> Martha.

1:05

>> Alicia.

1:06

>> Helen.

1:08

>> Margie.

1:09

[ Inaudible Comments ]

1:13

>> Nadia.

1:13

>> Max.

1:15

[ Inaudible Comments ]

1:19

>> Shannon.

1:19

>> Julia.

1:20

[ Silence ]

1:25

>> Taneisha.

1:26

>> Vanessa.

1:27

— all assumed spellings.

1:32

>> Is that everybody?

1:33

You can open your eyes.

1:37

There’s always someone that waits until the end.

1:39

I’m glad that I got you two last ones,
before I told everyone to open their eyes.

1:43

Okay. So, I started like doing creative
work maybe in 2007, but I didn’t think

1:52

of myself as an artist at that time.

1:54

I was a writer, and I just was
trying to think through this idea

1:59

of what it means to be someone who is disabled.

2:03

And I was doing these experiments to
help me better understand my own position

White mobility cane

2:08

within my community and how like
adopting a white mobility cane sort

2:14

of changed my position and
my relationship with others.

2:18

So, you know, initially I was using
a typical like white and red cane.

2:22

I really felt like this — like
as a symbol, it classified,

2:26

and it put me into a separate category than
my like friends and, you know, my peers.

2:31

So, I was always felt like
it really didn’t identify me

2:35

in the way that I wanted to be identified.

2:38

So, one of the first things that I did was
peel all the red and white tape off my cane,

2:42

and it was just this black graphite underneath,

2:45

and I replaced the handle
with this wooden handle.

2:47

And I thought of this as sort of
a way to like turn down this —

2:51

the volume on the signal that
the cane usually is transmitting,

2:56

which is this person needs help.

2:58

And yeah, I — you know, sometimes they
do need help, but I’d kind of rather just

3:03

like ask people when I need help, instead of,
you know, having people just kind of grab me

3:08

and try to help me across the street when
I’m, you know, these interactions are often

3:12

like too quick for me to even know what to say,

3:16

and I just wanted a way to
like disrupt that a bit.

3:19

So, this really helped, with the black cane.

3:24

And one of the first experiments that I did was

3:29

that I made a 15-foot cane,
and I brought it here.

3:41

So, yeah, so I would go on walks with this.

3:49

My first walk was in — on Commercial Drive
in Vancouver, on like — during rush hour.

3:58

And so, I would like, you know, I took up the
entire sidewalk when I was using this thing.

4:02

People had to like jump out of my way.

4:06

And really, I became an obstacle for
other people to have to negotiate.

4:13

So, and I really think that, you
know, usually when I’m using a cane,

4:19

there’s like this forcefield around me.

4:21

People kind of stay away, but
they always are attracted to me,

4:25

like it’s a magnet, almost,
for unwanted support.

4:29

But with this cane, I really felt like
it just exaggerated that whole dynamic

4:34

of like distancing that I felt with the cane.

4:45

And it was, I mean, it was more
of an antagonistic project.

4:50

Like I don’t — yeah, it was coming at
a time where I was feeling frustrated,

4:54

because I was learning — my walking
route’s in Vancouver, where I grew up.

4:59

But I had to like relearn all these walking
routes, how to navigate them with a cane.

5:03

And I kept bumping into things
and obstacles, and it really felt

5:07

like the city wasn’t build
with my access in mind.

5:10

So, I don’t know, with this — I just kind of
wanted to claim some space and just like, yeah,

5:17

really become an obstacle and have others
have to negotiate for their own movement.

5:24

This is a project from 2013, a performance
where I replaced my cane with a marching band.

Marching band

5:37

I — yeah, so I — it really started as a joke
conversation with my best friend in Portland,

5:43

where we were just kind of discussing like the
various things I could replace my cane with,

5:47

and landed on this idea of
replacing it with a marching band.

5:51

And like I really love this idea,
so I kept telling people about it.

5:55

And but a month later, I was
telling this curator and, you know,

6:02

a week after that conversation, he said, oh,
you know, by the way, I have five marching bands

6:07

who are interested in working with you,

6:09

and they were all high school marching
bands from Santa Ana, California.

6:14

I ended up working with this band,

6:16

the Great Centurion Marching
band, from Century High School.

6:19

And it took about six months for us
to develop sort of this performance,

6:26

and we would meet on Skype, and they would
interview me about the kinds of things

6:30

that I might encounter on a walk, the
kind of obstacles that I might bump into,

6:35

and then they went off and developed
musical cues to indicate various things.

6:39

And like right before the performance,
we did like this really quick rehearsal

6:47

in the high school parking lot, and
we just played out various scenarios,

6:49

like pretend I’m stepping from
the sidewalk onto a busy street.

6:54

What happens?

6:56

And like the Marching Band
Director would direct band members

6:58

to different things, like obstacles.

7:02

And yeah, we kind of just improvised, and
downtown Santa Ana, where we were exploring,

7:09

was really unfamiliar to
me before this performance.

7:12

And throughout the performance, we just kind

7:15

of like became this responsive
kind of like support network.

7:20

And were moving pretty intuitively.

7:23

Yeah, I found my way into like an underground
parking structure, to like a cafe, art gallery,

7:33

and people would also just like be really
happy that there was like a marching band,

7:38

so they just joined the crowd
and walked with us.

7:42

This is from a performance
from that same project.

Mobility Device

7:48

It’s called Mobility Device.

7:50

And it says from September in
New York City on the high line.

7:54

So, with this iteration, I was
working with the Hungry March Band.

7:59

They’re, you know, the high school band was
playing like football, like hype music, so —

8:07

and that’s what their repertoire consisted of
— and, you know, I’ll just give you an example.

8:15

It was like da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da
da-da-da-da-da da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

8:22

And that was kind of the song they played
for like our whole hour-long performance.

8:28

And it would slow down and speed up,
based on like how fast I was walking.

8:35

You know, it was fun to play
around with, as well.

8:39

But for this performance in New York, this
band’s been together for over 13 years.

8:44

They actually started as a band playing
the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island.

8:48

And they have their own repertoire.

The Band

8:52

There’s no band director, but they advertise
themselves as a band that plays any gig.

8:56

So, I kind of challenged them on
that and said, “Hey, how about this?”

9:00

And they were up for it.

9:02

So, we were rehearsing in this space
in Williamsburg from last October.

9:07

And again, just going through various
scenarios I get myself into when I’m walking,

9:13

and then they develop these kind of
strategies for addressing those things.

9:18

So, what the band does when
I’m encountering a staircase

9:22

that leads upstairs or down
and various obstacles.

9:27

And the — since there was no band leader,
every band member in the band had practice being

9:35

at every position in our formation, so they
could each respond to whatever we encountered.

9:41

Yeah, so this is from 2015.

See for Yourself

9:44

It’s a performance where I
replace my cane with a megaphone.

9:48

And instead of letting the cane like
speak for me, I speak for myself —

9:52

use the words that I use — to describe myself.

9:55

And really put that call to support
out to the the people around me.

9:58

So, this first performance was just for myself.

10:03

It was an improvised process,
just with a small camera crew.

10:08

And, you know, I don’t use words like blind or
visually impaired to describe myself because,

10:15

you know, I think those terms still privilege
visual experience, and at a point in time,

10:20

I made this choice to shift the value from the
visual to the non-visual, to really, you know,

10:26

kind of explore what I could
discover through my non-visual senses.

10:31

And now, you know, I think of
myself as a non-visual artist,

10:34

someone who uses their non-visual senses
as a way of navigating their surroundings.

10:39

So, in this performance, I was
just saying like, “I can’t see you.

10:44

I hope you can see me.

10:46

I hope I don’t bump into you.”

10:47

I would find myself at the corner of a —
or at a crosswalk, just asking, you know,

10:54

someone there that can help me cross
the street, and I’d have to wait there

10:58

for quite a long time, until someone showed up.

11:03

People have actually like been parked at a
crosswalk and then like got out of their car

11:07

to cross me across the street before during this
performance, which I think it’s interesting,

11:13

how it like just — I mean, other
people have yelled at me as well,

11:16

because they just don’t know what’s going on.

11:19

So, yeah. And I really thought of this as like a
way to reclaim that social function of the cane.

Design for One

11:26

So again, use my own language to [inaudible].

11:35

This is a project that I did with this
engineering college just outside of Boston.

11:41

And the whole idea around this was
to like redesign like the cane.

11:48

So, like — and the designer that invited me

11:51

to do this project really embraces
the — this concept of design for one.

11:56

So, instead of making the next like, you know,
iPhone or consumer object that, you know,

12:02

everyone can use, they interview someone
and make one object for one person.

12:09

So, you know, what one’s hopes for
usability are or like what they want

12:14

in the device that they’re developing.

12:17

And so that’s a process we went through.

12:19

So, students interviewed me about
like my thoughts about the cane

12:24

and how I felt it classified me
and distanced me from others.

12:28

And we just like played with
this idea of alternative canes.

12:31

And what you’re looking at is a studio
sort of where groups of students are

12:36

like making basic prototypes around this idea.

12:39

And one of the groups was just working
with what they had in their dorm room,

12:44

and they had a bunch of like guitar
equipment and like effects pedals

12:49

and like delay and looping pedals and amps.

12:53

And so, what they did was like put
a contact mic at the tip of my cane,

12:57

and then just tapped a cord to it.

12:58

And then output it to an amp, and so
I would be able to translate texture

13:04

into sound as I scraped or tapped my cane.

13:06

And then, I could play with
that sound with the pedals,

13:09

like with the effects and
delay and looping pedals.

13:14

The students made like 300 cane ideas.

Caine Ideas

13:19

They developed this list of 300 possible
cane ideas, from like a cane that had —

13:25

like would leave a trail of ink when
you’re using it, to a cane that was just

13:32

like an extension of my vest, basically, that
was like these like cat whiskers that would

13:38

like touch things, and I would get
feedback based on what I was encountering.

13:45

Yeah, all sorts of designs.

13:46

But only a few of those were
developed into basic prototypes.

13:50

And one of them that I’m going to show a
short video of is called the Wander Cane,

13:55

and it would take the user where it wanted to
go, rather than letting the user, you know,

13:59

have the agency where they wanted to go.

14:03

[ Video playing ]

14:20

These are the kinds of videos that got like
every month or so just about done playing

14:24

in studio around these different concepts.

14:28

[ Video Playing ]

14:43

That was short-lived.

14:44

And this is one of the students working on
the modulation device that produces the sound

Modulation Device

14:49

that was made with the pedals,
the Fender guitar pedals.

14:54

[ Video Playing ]

14:59

And so he’s working on like the delay or working

15:01

on the effectiveness of the
contact mic in the delay.

15:06

And so this student like
actually built this like three —

15:09

a reverse 3D printed, housing
for the contact mic,

15:15

so it could sit like comfortably
inside of the tip of the cane.

15:21

So, they just — yeah.

15:21

Just playing.

15:22

Oh yeah, you can go to the next one.

15:26

This is just when it was fully
developed, another student using the cane.

15:33

[ Video Playing ]

Cane

15:42

And this is what the object looks like now.

15:46

It’s supposed to be portable, but it’s kind
of heavy, and I can like put it on my belt,

15:54

but yeah, it’s — the idea is that
like I will redevelop this design,

16:00

and then it will be more portable, and I
can just like throw it into my suitcase.

16:04

And I tried to send this — well,
I sent it to Australia for a show,

16:09

and some of the internal components came
loose, so I need a more robust model, I guess.

16:16

And the idea is I’d be able to connect
to any sound set-up, so I could like work

16:21

with a composer or a musician, who could
like mix the sounds that I’m making live.

Walking Tour

16:30

This is an image from a walking tour
that I’ve been doing, since 2010.

16:35

It is a non-visual walk, where people line
up behind me, link arms, and shut their eyes.

16:41

And I take them on like about an
hour-long walk or longer, sometimes.

16:45

I don’t think of this walk as like a walk in
my shoes or like a simulation of my experience,

16:52

because there’s like a lot that I
can’t share with people in that way.

16:55

I really think of this more
as like time in which we’re —

17:00

intentional time spent with your eyes closed,

17:03

time where you’re exercising
your non-visual senses.

17:07

We don’t usually get to exercise our
non-visual senses in our daily routine,

17:11

so this is just like time in
which we get to do that together.

17:16

The walk that you’re looking at now is
at Haverford College in Pennsylvania.

17:21

And usually, what I’ll do is, I’ll map
a route and walk it multiple times,

17:25

until I feel comfortable bringing
like a group of people with me.

17:29

But for this walk, it’s relatively easy
landscape, so I just chose the destination

17:34

for where I wanted the walk to end, which
was like the campus track and field track.

17:40

And I just problem-solved my way there, with
the group of people who came for the walk.

17:45

And if you knew where you were going,
and you started from our starting point,

17:50

you might get there in five minutes, but
for this, we took an hour and 45 minutes.

17:57

And that’s part of the project
— the performance as well.

Performance

18:04

This is a group at the California College
of the Arts in San Francisco in 2012.

18:11

This is a walk I did a couple
of years ago in New York City.

18:14

This is the same group, at the California
College of the Arts, and this is the first time

18:25

like a large group of people came to one
of my walks, and this is about 50 people.

18:30

Since then, I’ve led walks for up to
90 people, and we really like kind

18:35

of like disrupt public space,
when we’re that large of a group.

18:38

So, like people are waiting
for us to cross the street.

18:41

Sometimes, people honk at us.

18:44

We — yeah, and I really think, too, when —

18:48

I mean, even if it’s like a modest group
of people, like it really is about a group

18:52

of people coming together and
just kind of finding a way

18:56

to support each other in this sort of activity.

18:59

I’m delivering like information
from the front of the line,

19:04

like about obstacles and different things.

19:06

And then every second person is
repeating those directions or those —

19:12

that information, sort of like a
game of Telephone that abstracts

19:16

by the time it gets to the end of the line.

19:19

And also, people are just like letting
others know about what’s relevant to them.

19:24

Like say they encountered a step, and they’re
like, oh yeah, I just walked up that step.

19:29

Just be careful.

19:30

And sometimes, the chain breaks, and I
tell everyone to keep their eyes shut,

19:37

and I separate myself from the
front, and then reconnect the chain.

19:42

This is a project that I did
in 2013 at the Guggenheim.

The Touchy Subject

19:50

I proposed this project,
called the Touchy Subject,

19:53

which was about touching artwork in the museum.

19:57

And so, as part of the process,
I negotiated for the ability

20:02

to touch objects from the collection.

20:04

And then I worked with staff members in
this training program, where we spent times

20:09

with our eyes shut, touching these objects.

20:12

And then, you know, kind of discovering
what we could find out about these objects,

20:17

like different kinds of knowledge about these
things, that we could know with eyes closed.

20:25

And we developed this methodology for touching
that kind of like, you know, made it a practice.

20:34

And the next day, we offered tours where
anybody who was interested could go on a tour,

20:44

where they would link arms — it
was very similar to today, actually,

20:48

without the touch element today, but
anyone who’s interested could link arms

20:52

with a staff member, and shut their eyes,
and then their hand would be directed

20:56

to like tactile points of interest.

20:59

So, like the objects that
we had from the collection,

21:02

as well as like the building
itself and, you know,

21:05

the Guggenheim is like a big sculpture, really.

21:09

And for some people, since like the Guggenheim
is also like this tourist destination,

21:15

it was some people’s first time experiencing
the museum, and it was with eyes closed,

21:20

feeling their way through, so it really
shifted their perception of that place.

Model Contemporary Art Center

21:26

This is from a series of projects
I did in Ireland a few years ago.

21:31

It — at the Model Contemporary
Art Centre in Sligo, Ireland.

21:35

And I just responded to my own
experience there, while I was there,

21:38

and I found it really difficult
to navigate the space on my own,

21:41

because there’s just a confusing lay-out.

21:43

So, what I did is tie bed strings to the
things that already existed in the space.

21:48

So like hand rails or like
a table leg or something.

21:52

And then these red strings indicated
my most used routes, while I was there.

21:58

So like, from the elevator to the cafe,
from the cafe to the restroom or, you know,

22:06

where else I needed to go in the museum.

22:09

And I just used these as like tactile way
finding — a tactile way finding system.

22:14

And it was something I just could
like tie up and put — take down.

22:19

And yeah, it was also like a kind of line
that indicated my movement through this space.

Art Gallery

22:29

Another project that I did there was this,
where I found a gallery that had like paintings

22:36

from the permanent collection,
and they’re all hung

22:38

at like a typical height for a standing viewer.

22:41

So, I requested they all be lowered, so
they’re just really close to the ground,

22:45

so people would have to like problem solve
their way to comfortably view the work.

22:53

Yeah, and so — and it really was an
effort to like trouble or, you know,

22:58

complicate that typical access
or that common access.

23:04

And while it kind of like was doing that,
it also opened up access for young people,

23:13

people who are wheelchair users,
and it just invited more —

23:17

so, the average time for someone — that someone
spends with an artwork when they’re walking

23:21

through a gallery and just looking
at work, it’s like around 20 seconds.

23:25

But like this kind of encouraged people
to just like sit down and lie down

23:29

and spend time looking at these works,
which I thought was interesting.

23:32

So, I’m going to leave it there.

23:35

I do have more to share, but
we have a lot to do today.

23:39

So, I think I’ll just maybe take a couple
of questions, if there are any, first.

23:43

And then we can get on with our tours.

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