American Able is Awesome

Oh man, I am so thrilled by American Able, a spoof of the ridiculous quasi-porn hipster photos that dominate American Apparel ads, shot by the photographer Holly Norris and featuring "crooked" artist/performer Jes Sachse (side note: it doesn't surprise me that a sly shot at an "American" company comes from a different part of North America, Canada):



The photos fantastically, directly confront the lack of disabled and queer images in pop culture, with a cool and upbeat vibe that almost makes you want to buy those clothes just so you can be as cool as Jes (if only American Apparel realized the potential of going beyond their usual pool of young, thin, women making porno faces/poses at the camera). Read more on Worn Journal and Threadbared (where I first read about it)- two great, smart fashion/art blogs! Image via.

groping

A few stories have crossed my screen/desk/whatever lately that concern blind people and sexuality that seem very weird and misplaced: first, the release of Tactile Minds, a tactile image and Braille text pornography/erotica book by a Canadian graphic designer named Lisa Murphy. This project sounds interesting enough (I really don't know anything about the availability of erotic materials for blind and visually impaired people - though it is notable that Playboy published a Braille edition from 1970-1985), though it was unfortunately mostly covered as a kind of "news of the weird" item, as if no one has ever heard of blind people having an interest in sex or sexy images or whatever [via Jezebel, Village Voice).

This wouldn't be particularly notable, but today I read in the NY Times Magazine of a study that aims to find out what men's "real" preferences in women's body types are by toting around headless mannequins of various dimensions for blind men to grope. Hmm, how many things are wrong with this study?
a) just because blind men are not exposed to the actual images in commercial culture, that somehow means their opinions/preferences are not shaped by prevailing social attitudes about body type and sexuality?
b) the goal of the study was "an attempt to gauge the force of culture, to weigh the learned and the innate, in determining sexual attraction" -- so the blind are not part of culture, and are somehow more "innate" in their sexual desires?
c) if blind people feeling up mannequins is an accurate judgment of men's "innate" preferences, then sighted people judge body shape alone, without any other contextual clues? (without heads, for example - so race, skin color, hair, and facial expression don't factor into sexual attraction?)
d) the study was careful to select only "blind from birth" subjects - but how did it define "heterosexual"? Because that's a totally static category, right?

The study - and the article about it - show the appeal of these tidy, evolutionary explanations of the roots of our desires and preferences:

...sighted and blind men both strongly favored the mannequin with the lower W.H.R. [Waist-to-Hip Ratio], but this slimmer-waisted body received especially high scores from the men with sight, maybe because a life spent amid cultural signals compounds the work of evolution. Still, the gropings of Karremans’s blind offer a glimpse into the ancestral depths of our desires.

Sure-- OR the fact that the two subject groups matched pretty closely could be because the blind men are part of the larger culture? Their slightly less strong preference - could that be because of the compounded cultural messages that de-sexualize blind people and other people with disabilities? Just a guess.

fun ideas for a sunny friday

I always feel a bit touchy around the many "experimental design for the disabled" sites/blog posts/articles you see around.. but these wheelchair designs, selected by mainstream design site Switched, are pretty fun:


A pink-cushioned bent plywood armchair in the style of the Eames Chair, fitted with matching tires and an ottoman, would be hell on the balance but makes a clear (intended) comment about the difference between brand-name design icons and designs for assistive technologies.

Roll.Charge.Light.Protect offers the idea of wheelchair spokes that light up (charged by the wheels, of course) for safer night wheeling. Definitely reminiscent of the many light-up gizmos commuter cyclists choose for helmet, seat, clothes and fenders.

Switched also did a post of design prototypes for gadgets for visually impaired users - interesting that all but one are for computerized readers/sensors of some kind. Designers often fall into the trap of assuming all assistive devices are extremely high-tech, expensive specialty items, and overlook the everyday technologies everyone uses - wonder what potential any of these have to be integrated into mass-market products, as current screen-readers are - on the iPad, for example..

olympic interlude, paralympic prelude

Peter Axelson (image via Disabled Sports USA), an inventor, promoter, and 7-time World Champion in monoskiing, will be one of the U.S.' official delegates to the Olympics closing ceremony on Sunday, Feb 28 (via). Axelson has designed sports equipment for people with disabilities since 1981, when he founded Beneficial Designs and produced his first monoski. Since then Beneficial Designs has produced equipment for alpine and cross-country skiing, surfing, and rowing - releasing each design for open-source use rather than patenting and limiting its availability.
(while looking up images for this post, btw, I came across this great article on the history of adaptive skiing on disaboom)

Then the Paralympics start shortly after the Olympic Games - March 21.
The Paralympics are unlikely to be on NBC - but there is an internet TV channel for them here.
This is a great preview of the Canadian sledge hockey team (they won gold in 2006):



If anyone reading this hasn't seen it, the 2005 documentary Murderball is a fantastic warm-up to the Paralympics.

misc. links

I have just started a new fellowship at the Lemelson Center for the History of Invention & Innovation at the National Museum of American History. It's great to work here, partly because there are a bunch of people working on a Disability History exhibition coming up in the fall (I think) - great because I don't meet a lot of people who work on disability history in my everyday academic life. One of the staff pointed me to this video - from the Disability Rights Commission in the UK - which shows some of the common accessibility issues people with disabilities face through an funny imagined scenario... watch the full version here in 2 parts.

- Remarkable profile of Roger Ebert from Esquire, describing in moving and non-sappy detail his life since he lost his voice.

- Interesting project: DesigNYC (founded by Ed Schlossberg, student of Buckminster Fuller as well as husband of Caroline Kennedy) pairs designers with social causes: examples include an "Eating Healthy in Bed-Stuy" booklet for Bed-Stuy Farm Share; a safer, brighter winter lighting plan for the Broadway commercial district (60th-135th); and several interior/community spaces, including one for a housing project for people w/ mental illness. Article at Design Observer.

- Kansas City Star remembers Paul Levy, activist for accessibility and director of non-profits including The Whole Person Inc., Kansas City; the Coalition for Independence; and Universal Design Housing Network

The Other Disabilities

It's pretty rare to come across much writing/thinking about design for disabilities other than mobility and dexterity impairments: paralysis, arthritis, etc. Here on Design Observer (one of the best design commentary sites around), a reflection on design and OCD by Chappell Ellison, a designer based in New York. Not surprisingly, the essay won a 2009 AIGA Winterhouse Award for Design Writing & Criticism.

Mainly, the essay is a poignant memoir of difficult objects in Ellison's brother's life as he lives with OCD. Laundry baskets with endless holes to clean, restaurant tablecloths rife with germs. But the last few paragraphs address how and whether designers can respond to this particular disease. Universal Design, she (I think?) admits, may not be a useful paradigm, and ultimately it will never be possible to anticipate all of her brother's (let alone the other thousands/millions who have compulsive disorders) object-related concerns. I'm thinking that even Ellison's awareness of such compulsions probably makes her a better designer, aware of the unintended consequences of surface, texture, and form. As she writes,

As a designer, I know that it is impossible to consider every tiny percentage of each special interest group when creating a new product... To create an object for someone who fears tactility and physical interaction is the sort of assignment that turns a designer’s world upside down.

But maybe that is part of the point - design cannot address every variation in human bodies and experiences. Universal Design even has its problems for people with mobility issues - many blind people who use canes have a harder time determining the end of the sidewalk with a curb cut; some people prefer stairs to sloping walkways, etc. Disabilities that affect cognition and behavior are even harder to address and anticipate through design. But as this article suggests, the aim of acknowledging, if not "solving," disability in design might prove to be a fruitful one.

Dwell presents | The Bathroom Reinvented: Universal Design in Public Bathrooms | Part 1 | by Gary Nadeau from gary nadeau on Vimeo.

Nice video clip of Gary Nadeau (of Dwell magazine) visiting public bathrooms with Dan Formosa and Richard Whitehall of Smart Design (designers of, among other things, OXO Good Grips). They are a great odd couple on Universal Design.. Formosa gives the technical definition - its roots in barrier-free legislation - while Whitehall gives the larger meaning/context: Universal Design suggests the possibility of attending to human needs, including emotional, political, social.

Also maybe the best looking collection of people ever collected to expound on the experience of going to the bathroom.