As an access doula, I had the opportunity to work closely with the Criptech + Gray Area Metaverse collaboration and provide my expertise in access design. One of the accessibility measures that we implemented was the use of clear masks from BendShape Barrier™, which were recommended by Lindsey Dolich Felt, the Leonardo Disability, Access and Impact Lead.
Calling Up seeks an Assistant to the Executive Producer (Remote) “If you have come to help me you are wasting your time, but if you
Rihanna halftime show was giving Squid Game Realness and I am here for it.
Awesome conversation about Woke in the Liberated Equity Diversity Inclusion Clubhouse Room. Really appreciated reviewing the history of the term, how it’s being used today and ideas about healing for justice producers. First used in the 1940s, the term “woke” has resurfaced in recent years as a concept that symbolises awareness of social issues and movement against injustice, inequality, and prejudice. James Baldwin said To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. Supremacy Culture wants you to be in denial. It pathologizes the word “woke” so that you’ll stop thinking. Not talking about racism is not the same as being anti-racist. To be in denial of supremacy culture is to be in support of it. Everyday we do not dismantle supremacy culture we increase its power. It’s killing us. Get woke. Stay woke.
You will encounter a variety of different types of Agents of Supremacy Culture. Some of them will stalk you online and say things like being woke is a bad thing. They need us to be in denial of our own oppression. There are also people who make money spreading things like disinformation, misinformation, and other types of propaganda like Tucker Carlson. Sometimes, we might discover we have been acting as an unwitting agent of supremacy culture by treating ourselves badly due to our own internalized biases.Resist getting recruited into Supremacy Culture by society and yourself!
VR, AR and spatial audio present significant access frictions and barriers for disabled users and creators. The CripTech Metaverse Lab, a collaboration between Leonardo CripTech Incubator and Gray Area, will gather ten disabled creatives to collectively experience immersive artworks, generate participatory aesthetic access, and create new speculative artworks culminating in Gray Area Festival 2023. The lab will imagine new creative pathways for experiencing metaverse artworks amongst participants and future audiences. The findings from this research lab will be shared via the publication of a white paper in Leonardo journal, an online research archive, and culminate in a series of talks, performances, and an exhibition for the 2023 Gray Area Festival this Fall.
Claudia Alick taught a masterclass in creating your own personal access riders and creating access riders for your dance troupe.
Access riders are documents that detail information about an individual’s access requirements. They can stop endless conversations about access by offering a considered and detailed list of what might be needed when, to enable employers, colleagues, and others to simply know how best to support someone without assumptions and guesswork. These articles introduce what an access rider is, where and how it can be used and what you might want to include in yours.
Calling up Justice integrates the role of The Access Doula as a design and facilitation role for live performance in digital and physically shared spaces. It is more empowered and centered than an access coordinator. This role is for folks who want to help monitor the gathering, looking for ways to help enhance access. They negotiate access with all cross-disability participants. This role is flexible by necessity and political inclination. The Access Doula serves to legitimize support-giving by naming it while reframing ideas around access in this hybrid virtual moment.
Calling Up Justice uses the Just Transition framework in much of it’s work. We highly recommend these resources from Movement Generation. They offer this framework as a humble point of departure for folks interested in building collective vision and action towards Ecological Justice that does not separate humans from nature, or social equity from ecological integrity. For more on Just Transition framework and strategies from MG and others: Read MG’s Just Transition Zine; Visit Climate Justice Alliance’s webpage on Just Transition and
check out their Just Transition Framework Adaptations page that showcases powerful adaptations of Just Transition framework by different communities in various languages, creative formats, and sector-specific lenses.
