Materializing a Mad Aesthetic Through the Making of Politicized Fibre Art

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dc.contributor.advisorda Silva Gorman, Rachel
dc.creatorReid, Jenna Allison
dc.date.accessioned2019-07-02T16:17:29Z
dc.date.available2019-07-02T16:17:29Z
dc.date.copyright2019-02-26
dc.date.issued2019-07-02
dc.date.updated2019-07-02T16:17:28Z
dc.degree.disciplineCritical Disability Studies
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThe field of Disability Studies not only acknowledges the value of creative production, it also turns to it as a way to craft knowledge. However, this project asserts that it is not enough for the field to support and promote Deaf, mad, and disabled artists by documenting and analyzing our practices through qualitative and/or quantitative research. Calling into question the focus that Disability Studies puts on access and inclusion, this studio-based project interrupts this discourse with the methodological approach of research-creation and the theoretical frameworks of Mad Studies and Critical Craft Praxis. My creative work intervenes in the text, positioning the knowledge created as knowledge in making based in the provocation of change and movement. Instead of looking inward at my own experiences, as mediated through my identity, I make to look outward. I turn to craft, specifically fibre-based practices like quilting and nature-based dyeing, as a way to make sense of the world around me. Craft is what makes me feel things. It forces me to see big pictures, look outside of myself, get raw, question my long-held beliefs, be uncomfortable, desire to do better in this world. Craft can be that space where we come together, commune with each other, hold one another, see the beauty and the ugly together, and struggle through the really tough shit. Key themes that have emerged from this performative research include the significance of commodifying identity as a process of depoliticizing creative work, the transformative possibilities of disrupting simplified notions of community, the role of the audience in the creative process, the role of nature in the vulnerability of craft as object and anti-colonial praxis, and the ability for quilts to be sculptural and layered with meaning. In my final reflection I feel as though I have ended with more questions than concluding statements. And yet with more questions than answers, this dissertation has accomplished what it set out to do: use Mad Studies and Critical Craft Praxis as a way to create ruptures, open up space for exploration, engage with ideas, and create new lines of inquiry.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/36289
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectWomen's Studies
dc.subject.keywordsCritical Disability Studies
dc.subject.keywordsDisability Studies
dc.subject.keywordsMad Studies
dc.subject.keywordsFibre Art
dc.subject.keywordsTextile Art
dc.subject.keywordsOutsider Art
dc.subject.keywordsMadness
dc.subject.keywordsResearch-Creation
dc.subject.keywordsCritical Craft Praxis
dc.subject.keywordsStudio Craft
dc.subject.keywordsStudio Based Research
dc.subject.keywordsArts Based Research
dc.subject.keywordsNatural Dyes
dc.subject.keywordsSurvivor Research
dc.subject.keywordsDisability Arts and Culture
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity Politics
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical Aesthetics
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetic of Absence
dc.subject.keywordsPolitical Art
dc.subject.keywordsPerformative Research
dc.subject.keywordsQuilting
dc.subject.keywordsMaterial Culture
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetics
dc.titleMaterializing a Mad Aesthetic Through the Making of Politicized Fibre Art
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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