Research seminar in Paris

Blind Creations speaker Anne-Lise Mitout is organizing a research workshop on "Blind People and Music: a Franco-Japanese perspective" that will take place on October 18th at the Université Paris-Diderot. It will feature a presentation by Professor Hiromi Hyôdô (Gakushûin University, Tokyo) who is a specialist of blind musicians in medieval Japan, and another by another Blind Creations delegate Sébastien Durand. Contact Anne-Lise Mitout for more information and to register. 

Exhibition on 'Les Deux Orphelines' opens in Montreal

[Cliquez ici pour un billet en français sur l'expo]

Delegates and post-conference listeners who enjoyed Bérengère Levet's talk on nineteenth-century French melodrama Les deux orphelines (The Two Orphan Girls) at Blind Creations (listen again via our audio archive), will be interested to learn that Levet has curated an exhibition about the work which is showing at the University of Montreal until October 20th. (Practical details here). 

The tale of the two orphan sisters - one sighted, the other blind - has been retold and re-imagined in astonishing ways since its first performance in 1874. The exhibition explores the history of the work, the representations of blindness it has led to and its place in the genre of the popular melodrama more widely through more than 60 items (including first editions, postcards, drawings and other documents) as well as film clips and a 'reading corner'. 

For those not able to visit the exhibition in person, Levet has also provided links to some fascinating online resources:

A song from the melodrama:
Doru Monteanu sings "Ô ma tendre Musette" (2012)

An extract from the audio book (in French):

Les Deux orphelines by Adolphe d’Ennery (Part 4, chapter 1) (2012)

An English language adaptation:

The Two Orphans by d’Ennery & Corman (1987)

Two comic songs (in French) which mention Les deux orphelines:

Raymond Lévesque, accompanied by the Emil Stern trio, sings "Les deux orphelines" (1956)

Pierre Perret sings "Le zizi ou L’éducation sexuelle à l’école" (1975)

Extracts and images from a modern French musical adaptation:    

Amour, rapt et méchancetés: "un drame à rire, une comédie à pleurer" (2016) 

Our second anniversary letter

Dear Blind Creations speakers and delegates,

On this, the second anniversary of Blind Creations, we would like to thank you once more for your contribution to the conference and its legacy. Many of you continue to work on projects related to the conference themes and we are delighted to see how many new projects and collaborations have emerged from it. We always love hearing about ongoing work so please do remember to keep us up-to-date with your projects. This conference website is still live (but quiet) and we are always happy to advertise new books, conferences and events on it. Please send any announcements to Hannah. We have enjoyed speaking about the conference at events in Boston and Montreal over the past 18 months and are working on a Disability Studies Quarterly(DSQ) special issue featuring several of our speakers based on themes from the conference. More news on that, and the French special issue of theRevue canadienne des études sur le handicapwhich Hannah is co-editing with Maria Arentsen, will be coming in 2018.

We wish you all a happy and productive summer and looking forward to hearing your news.

With warm wishes,

Hannah and Vanessa

Dr Hannah Thompson
Reader in French, Royal Holloway University of London

Vanessa Warne, Associate Professor 

English, Film and Theatre, University of Manitoba

Audio Description: The Art of Access: Podcasts Now Live

Many thanks to all the speakers and participants who made our workshop on Audio Description on October 21st, 2016, such a success! We are confident that many conversations and collaborations will continue. In the meantime, thanks to our sponsors Royal Holloway, podcasts of all the day's talks (and a few described photographs) are available here.

Jacques Lusseyran Colloquium: recordings available

Video recordings of all the papers at the Jacques Lusseyran Colloquium which was held in Pairs on June 28 2016 can now be accessed by following this link.

Appel à collaboration : « Cécités et créations ».

Revue canadienne des études sur l’incapacité

                                                                                                                     

Appel à collaboration : « Cécités et créations ». Numéro spécial de la Revue canadienne des études sur l’incapacité axé sur les rapports entre la cécité et la création.                         

En juin 2015, le colloque international « Blind Creations » a abordé de façon interdisciplinaire, la manière dont la cécité et la création se nourrissent et s’entrecroisent. Ce colloque, dont les « actes » audio sont disponibles ici a suscité maintes discussions entre artistes, écrivains, universitaires et militants. Suite à cet évènement hors du commun, ce numéro spécial a pour but de continuer l’exploration des rapports qui existeraient entre les personnes en situation de cécité et la création artistique (écriture, art, musique, danse, cinéma, photographie). Nous définissons « personne en situation de cécité » de façon large : c’est-à-dire toute personne qui est ou se définit comme ayant des rapports singuliers à la vision ou à la vue. Nous tenons à ce que la cécité soit explorée, voire célébrée en tant que force inventive, créatrice et innovatrice, force qui aurait le pouvoir de transformer les rapports que toute personne voyante ou non-voyante, aurait à la production, la diffusion et la consommation de la culture au sens large.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Aussi sollicitons-nous des articles, des témoignages, des études de cas ou des réactions créatrices par des personnes voyantes ou non-voyantes, avec ou sans affiliation institutionnelle qui portent sur les sujets suivants, mais qui ne s’y limitent pas obligatoirement :

ü  L’audio description : enjeu artistique ou service de base ?

ü  Lire sans voir de façon créatrice : le Braille, les livres parlés

ü  L’attirail de la cécité : (cannes, lunettes, chiens etc.) : aides pratiques ou objets d’art ?

ü  Comment représenter la cécité dans les arts ? Quels en sont les enjeux et les possibilités ?

ü  Existe-t-il une ‘Culture de la Cécité’ ? Faut-il en inventer une ? Comment la conserver ou la promouvoir ?

ü   Faut-il créer une nouvelle histoire de la cécité ? En quoi consisterait-elle ?

ü  Quel a été le rôle des organismes communautaires de services ou de défense des droits dans la conception et l’expérience de la cécité ainsi que de ses conséquences socio-culturelles,

ü  Quel a été le rôle des services publics – musées, établissements scolaires, hôpitaux, centres de réadaptation, universités, gouvernements – dans notre conception de la cécité ?

Les propositions d’articles (250-300 mots en français), comportant nom, prénom, affiliation(s) institutionnelle(s) et coordonnées électroniques des auteurs, sont à envoyer au plus tard le 15 sept 2016 aux adresses suivantes : Maria Fernanda Arentsen et à Hannah Thompson.  Tous les articles seront soumis à un processus de lecture et d’évaluation anonyme.

Principales échéances :

- 15 sept 2016 : date limite pour la réception des propositions d’articles.

- 15 déc. 2016 : notification de la liste des propositions acceptées.

- 15 juin 2017 : date limite pour la réception des articles. Les articles devront compter entre 6000 et 7000 mots. Nous enverrons le format demandé au moment de la notification des acceptations.

Blindness Art: Call for Proposals

Proposals are sought for a Special Issue of Disability Studies Quarterly devoted to the exploration of the relationship between visual disability and the creative arts. This issue, guest edited by Dr. Hannah Thompson (Royal Holloway University) and Dr. Vanessa Warne (University of Manitoba), tentatively titled ‘Blindness Arts,’ will examine cultural representations of blindness and blind people; the cultural experiences of visually disabled people; and cultural work produced by visually disabled creators.

Topics to be explored include but are not limited to: blindness and sculpture, music, dance, theatre, photography and other ‘visual’ arts; the evolving practice and cultural significance of audio description; accessible art works and exhibits; creative writing’s longstanding engagement with experiences of blindness; creativity in the context of institutionalization; material histories of blindness and creativity; and blindness and book design.

Possible approaches to this topic include:

Investigations of how a non-visual relationship with the world has stimulated artistic creation by asking what the art produced by blind practitioners can tell both the non-blind and the blind about the creative potential of blindness and the processes of artistic creation.

Consideration of the historical and cultural reasons why the subject of blindness has fascinated writers, artists, and film makers and to explore the relationship between creative representations of blindness and lived experience.

Examinations of the history of the creative potential of the paraphernalia of blindness and exploration of ways in which assistive technologies and practices (such as Braille, audio description and tactile images) have been used in creative work.

Explorations of the consumption of art, very broadly defined, by visually disabled people, to document and theorize experiences, and to apply knowledge of these experiences to the analysis of social attitudes, institutions and practices.

Submissions are invited from all disciplines, including cultural studies, and can include but are not restricted to research articles, personal accounts, creative works, and case studies of projects or initiatives. Proposals of 500 words are due September 15, 2016. Authors will be notified by October 31, 2016 of the outcome of the selection process. The due date for completed submissions (maximum of 6,000 words) is May 1, 2017. Please send proposals to Hannah Thompson. Thank you!