D2ART: Transforming Disability Arts Through Digital Technologies

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Artists with physical impairments typically have great difficulty and numerous obstacles they must overcome when working on their art. These obstacles can be overcome through the use of head wands, mouth sticks, and custom designed pointers with special grips for holding brushes. Whilst these assistive tools can help make the artistic process more accessible, they often result in unnatural movements consistently repeated on multiple occasions - this, in turn, can lead to other physical issues such as severe neck strain and damage to teeth. Moreover, if any adjustments are required after the initial setup, support staff need to be available to help the artist. This lack of independence and reliance on other people can result in a frustrating and tedious experience for disabled artists that disrupts their creative process. A digital approach can help address many of these issues by supporting and extending the existing abilities of physically disabled artists, transforming their creative opportunities in terms of artistic freedom and expression. A new opportunity has recently emerged with the release of several innovative and affordable sensors that have the potential to transform how people with physical disabilities interact with computing systems. For instance, sensors and devices such as the Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion, Touch+, and Tobii EyeX allow systems to accurately track body movements in real time enabling people to interact with systems in new ways. These sensors hold much potential as assistive tools, but no studies to date have explicitly explored how they can be used to create digital tools that support, extend, and transform practice for disabled artists. Digital tools that utilise these innovative interaction approaches will transform opportunities for disabled artists raising numerous important and timely arts and humanities research questions around their impact on practice, visualisation of creative process, artistic identity, perceptions of authenticity, and audiences/artists' broader perceptions of work. For instance, these sensors can make traditional art forms that are currently difficult or impossible for physically impaired artists to participate in (e.g. sculpting for double amputees or people with severe arthritis) more readily available and accessible in digital form. This, in turn, gives rise to new hybridised art forms (e.g. digital sculpting via mid-air gesturing, 3D printing of digital models, etc.) that have received no attention to date in the context of disability arts.Our longer term goal, therefore, is to develop a suite of digital tools that support, extend, and transform the practice of disabled artists and to research the impact this has on creative process and output. To successfully achieve this goal it is essential that we initially build an international cross discipline/sector network of academics, practicing artists, disability arts and accessibility organisations, charities, developers, arts/cultural organisations, and user experience specialists (with extensive experience in participatory user design). This mix of organisations and leaders in the field will enable us to explore this area from different perspectives, to co-design and develop innovative prototypes (tailored to the needs of disabled artists), and to effectively evaluate the impact these tools have on artistic practice, identity, and perceptions of authenticity and artistic voice. These different perspectives will also allow us to lead in scoping out the research space and setting the research agenda by highlighting the priority areas over the next five to ten years. This network will also ensure that work will be disseminated across all sectors helping to build a profile around the project and will raise awareness around the potential of digital tools in the disability arts space.