Now more than ever, artists and institutions are looking to the web, digital devices, and innovative software to support their creative output and reach broader audiences. What will this mean for how art is both created and exhibited? Will technology expand professional opportunities for artists with disability? And will the tech solutions implemented by cultural organisations during the COVID crisis remain relevant in a post-COVID world?

Join us for this FREE online panel discussion as we speak to UK artist, Jason Wilsher-Mills, whose transition from traditional to digital painting, and eventually augmented reality has brought recognition to his practice, leading ultimately to being awarded the 2020 Adam Reynolds prize in the UK. We also speak to Susannah Thorne (Access Coordinator at Museum of Contemporary Art Australia) about how the closure of the MCA during the COVID crisis has lead to innovative ways of sharing art work online, engagement with new diverse audiences, and its impact on the accessibility of the MCA’s events and collection post-COVID.

Learn about:

• New ways that artists are producing and audiences are engaging with digital content and the barriers that prevent people with disability from having equitable access
• Innovative ways of incorporating accessibility features into the creation and exhibition of artworks.
• How arts and disability advocates are using technology to make change

VIEW EVENT VIDEO & TRANSCRIPT

• Read Zoom Transcript
• Watch Zoom Video

WHEN & WHERE

• Wednesday 17 June, 2020
• 3pm – 4:30pm
• Zoom (link provided following registration)

SPEAKERS

Jason Wilsher-Mills – Artist (UK)

Jason is a digital artist currently diversifying his artistic practice through exploring technology. Initially specialising in traditional painting, recently he has focused on digital exploration. This came about through the convenience and accessibility of tablets which allow him to produce large scale art, despite the physical challenges presented by his disability. Major themes of his work focus on the treatment and perception of disability as well as people with disability in society. When asked what his work is about, his answer is, “It is ‘The Beano’ meets ‘I, Daniel Blake’’’. Through the use of technology, he has now come to fully ‘embraced the pixel’. Jason was also the recipient of the 2020 Adam Reynolds award.

Michelle Roger – Writer and artist

Michelle is a writer and multimedia artist. Her work has appeared in The Victorian Writer and Kill Your Darlings and online for Writers Victoria, ABC RampUp. Michelle received a Write-ability Fellowship in 2014, has been a panellist and performer at both the Emerging Writers Festival, Digital Writers Festival and Latrobe Literary Festival and has performed at several Writers Victoria Salons. While beginning her creative practice solely in writing, as her health changed Michelle has focused on the use of social media platforms such as Instagram in more recent years to combine photography and short written elements, with focus on memoir and an exploration of her life as a disabled woman. This practice came together in a project undertaken last year as the Baw Baw Shire Creative Gippsland, Artist in Residence in 2019 with the development of an interactive project, Augury and Aether, hosted solely on Instagram.

Susannah Thorne – Access Coordinator, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Susannah is Access Manager at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, coordinating access programs and events, and providing advocacy and consultation. Susannah initiated MCA’s first Art is for Everyone Weekend in 2019, a 2-day festival celebrating MCA’s commitment to making art accessible for everyone, in partnership with The Big Anxiety and Project Art Works (UK).

Daniel Savage – Artist

Daniel is a Canberra based artist working primarily in photography, video and performance. His practice is concerned broadly with perception – investigating the way our perceptions influence and affect our interactions with art, each other and the physical world. His work is often self-referential, exploring his individual experience of disability as a point of difference to engage audiences in exploring and reassessing established ideas and preconceptions that exist within society.

ABOUT ZOOM

Our ATAG Online will be using the Zoom online conferencing platform. We’ll email you the Zoom link the day before the event. All you have to do is click on the link, follow the prompts and you’ll be part of the event.

Zoom is an easy to use, reliable and FREE cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, collaboration, chat, and webinars across mobile devices, desktops and telephones. If you haven’t used Zoom before you can find out more here: https://zoom.us/

ACCESS

   

This event will be Auslan interpreted and have captioning.

If you have access requirements, please advise us when registering. We may need 24 hours notice to accommodate your requirements. Please take this into account when registering.

For more information or to specify any access requirements to participate this event please contact Liz Martin: lmartin@aarts.net.au

Presented by: Accessible Arts

Proudly supported by: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Funded by: National Disability Insurance Agency

ABOUT ATAG

ATAG stands for Accessing The Arts Group. ATAGs are regular meetups for workers in NSW’s creative industries who want to learn more about including people with disability in their professional practice. ATAGs are an initiative of Accessible Arts, NSW’s peak arts and disability organisation. Accessible Arts works with artists, arts organisations, cultural agencies and festival/event operators to create opportunities that enrich the lives of artists, arts workers and audiences with disability or who are Deaf. www.aarts.net.au