A Workshop on Disabled Tactile Knowledges with Iz Paehr

[Event banner shows two images of electronic haptic circuit technologies laid atop sand, with the event information at the top and middle]

Buttery as a Cane on Sand, Spiky as our Rage against Barriers: A Workshop on Disabled Tactile Knowledges with IZ PAEHR

Saturday, October 31, 1:00-3:00 p.m.

Free to attend for disabled adults / all supplies provided

Description:

What does access feel like? This workshop moves away from ocularcentrism (or the privileging of sight) and towards Tactile Disabled Knowledges: the shared, expert ways that disabled people understand and make worlds through touch. Together we will work with words, materials and vibrotactile sensations to design with and for touch.

Please bring an object of access or resistance from your everyday life such as: a stim toy, mobility aid, a secret plastic straw collection or a pillow chosen over the pressure of productivity. In the workshop, we will develop tactile descriptions for our objects, and come up with a collective tactile vocabulary.

Words will be one material among many: Iz will bring a sensory tactile blanket that we will fill with tactile vocabularies, textures, and vibration patterns.

Come join if you are curious how the feeling of anticipating a barrier might be transported through touch, or how feeling the ground through the tip of a cane might be transported through rhythm. The workshop is open to everyone, no technical or formal design expertise is required.

Where:

This event is in-person at Tangled Art+Disability gallery (Toronto/Tkaronto).

Address: 401 Richmond St W, S-124, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8

Phone: 647-725-5064

Click for a Visitor’s Guide on how to get to the gallery, including how to access the elevator and staired entrances

Accessibility info:

1. Masking is required for this in-person event unless you need to be unmasked to fulfill an access need.
2. ASL and CART will be provided.
3. Read more about accessibility practices at Tangled: https://tangledarts.org/accessibility/
4. Please pre-register for the event so that we can ensure adequate space and supplies.

This event is made possible through support from the Mellon Foundation, Tangled Art+Disability gallery, York University's Program in Health & Society, and the Canada Research Chair in Society, Technology, and Disability.