Working with ‘Buckinghamshire Culture’ as a collective of 5 artists to create new works based on the exploration of Paralympic and Disability Arts archives in Buckinghamshire. 

Main Attempt

 My artwork is inspired by Steve Cribb, whose printed digital artworks are held at the National Disability Arts Collection & Archive (NDACA).

Steve Cribb was an artist, London Councillor, coin and money collector and a disability campaigner who campaigned for accessible public transport. Cribb originally painted with a paint brush but when their dexterity became more limited they started to create digital art using an early Mac computer. Like Steve, I tend to create digital artworks due to limited dexterity. Cribb created digital artworks about their experiences of being disabled as well as digital artworks of flowers at Kew Gardens. In my work for the exhibition, I used ‘Unreal engine’ to create a digital artwork, a virtual gallery of Cribb’s and my work, a digital artwork using modern day technology. To make the work I visited Kew Gardens and took 3D scans of flowers and a pinecone ,as well scans of coins from Cribbs collection which are now at the British Museum. The background is an AI generated image.

In the exhibition you will see a recorded video game play where Cribb and I are Metahumans, my character helps you navigate the space. You can also hear AI generated recordings of Cribbs disability focused essays and hear Collective member Noor-e’s as well as my own audio descriptions.

To play the game online please visit https://arcanemirage.com/project/4441 -you will need a keyboard to play using the arrow keys.

Also included in the exhibition are two tapestries using a Stoll machine, created in response to Cribb’s work. ‘First attempt’ which is a collaboration of mine and Cribbs work and ‘She was wearing a small bag around her shoulder’ is in the style of Cribb and is a direct quote from my PIP assessment.

AI recordings of Steve Cribb essays and other writing.

Movement

Made in collaboration between Jess Starns and Arden Fitzroy.

Movement depicts several possible nuances between disabled people and sports. The stories reflect the ways we interact with the world and navigate perceptions of our abilities and bodies. In the film, we hear from Jess Starns, Arden Fitzroy, and Ellen Renton. We also learn more about classification forms, and the inclusion (and subsequent removal) of dyspraxia as a classification in the Paralympics. For the visual imagery, we foregrounded archival photography of Paralympians, and videos by Jess Starns. In the background, ever-scrolling and ever-shifting, is a screen capture video of Arden Fitzroy’s iPhone photo gallery, containing hundreds of photos taken throughout the residency-giving us glimpses of archive finds from across Bucks, group photos, travel snaps, and a truly impressive number of selfies presented unapologetically by their subject. In this way, photographic ephemera in an older format interacts with photographic ephemera of a present format. And the more things change…