Rationale

I sincerely believe that the amount energy required for organization is directly proportional to the volume of information that needs to be organized. It makes sense then, that in Allan Sekula's seminal article, The Body and the Archive, Sekula noted that the problem with the archive is one of volume.
Having read numerous papers, articles, and books in preparation for my thesis paper- coupled with scribbles of information on various pieces of paper strewn about on my desk - it seems that I too, have discovered what Sekula previously posited. In relation to the amount of work that I've done in preparation for my thesis, it seemed only natural to utilize the archive to catalogue my research, with the hopes of instilling an organizational system.
With that in mind, the following blog is dedicated to my ongoing research. After going through by hand and organizing my thoughts and references into categories on large pieces of paper, I have then transposed that information into type, and uploaded it to this site. Utilizing various blog search functions, and 'tagging' I am creating a dynamic and evolving archive which allows me to search my entries - creating new possible permutations for links, and corresponding ideas.
Additionally, this allows me to have my research at hand, potentially anywhere. It can be easily updated, sifted through, accessed and organized.

Why We Can't Know/Understand the Other

- The problem of photography itself - flat, treats the surface (Basis by which ppl with disabilities are judged in the 1st place)

- Inside/Outside - Abigail Solomon Godeau, p. 197 - We'll never be on the inside of GENETIC disability

Artist as Ethnographer, Linda Alcoff - whole article!

Disability in Western Culture, p. 89 - ppl. With disabilities are limited in their own writeen expression "we so rarely have the power to insist on the validity of our existence." - it's often a mediated experience

Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes, p. 99 - it's just the photo - not the person - we can't know through a mediated source
- p. 106 - it is an arrested moment, the photo cannot be penetrated

Emphatic Vision, Jill Benett, p. 21 - We have to understand, but cannot step out side our selves, outside our own experiences.

Alternatives to Empathy

Critical Distance

Artist as Ethnographer, p.203 - Critical distance might not be so bad after all

Inside/Outside, Abigail Solomon Godeau, p. 200 - Camera does not go into the exteriority of appearance, or interiority

Emphatic Vision, Jill Bennett, p. 121 - (translation) forces an awareness of difference, p. 121


Awareness

Daedalus, Social Suffering, XIV - It's ok to be incapable of not knowing another's pain

The Critical Image, Aids Photography - Simon Watney, p. 192 - Make visible what is not being talked about - use photography for this

The Critical Image, Aids Photography - Simon Watney, p. 184 - accept, celebrate our species - photography does this

The Problem of Speaking for Others, Linda Alcoff, p. 7 - Privileged ppl. Speaking for other s has caused much damage (this is the wrong kind of awareness) - also - I'm not trying to speak for them... but just raise a voice

The Problem of Speaking for Others, Linda Alcoff, p. 17 - retreat theory (to not speak of what is outside our experience) is not beneficial - hides, rather than raises awareness
- P. 22 - EVEN IF THEY DO SPEAK, it won't help - a middle ground is hard to find.

Disability in Western Country, p. 85 - representations and exploration of human experience is incomplete as log as disability is missing/misrepresented


Point of Reference to own/similar experiences

Ian Brown - The Boy in the Moon, p. 122 - create a state of reflection and meditation
- 1 in a million condition (the few cases they have are all not necessarily similar

Engage in a relationship with them
People with disabilities require a relationship

Emphatic Vision, Jill Benett p. 48 -

The Problem of Speaking for Others, p. 23 - Conversations are necessary!

Why We are Drawn to Look

- The Tyranny of the Normal, p. 4 - There was a sense of wonder or awe attached to anomalous humans... "taboo"

- The Tyranny of the Normal, p. 6 - hunger in all of us to behold in wonder our anomalous brothers and sisters

- The Tyranny of the Normal, p. 6 (again) - photographers captured on film, wonder... always wonder

- Relationship to Caricature - Caricature article, p. 110
o union of comic and tragic - p. 113
o cosmic wonder - p. 113

- The Critical Image, p. 130 - Photography's eye has fixed the look of disaster on "passive, suffering, victims"
o P. 183 - Victim category he or she is stripped of all power and control over the actual complex meaning and dignity of an individuals life.

- Caricature article, p. 103 - Look at them because they're deviations form the 'norm'

- Caricature article, p. 110 - Laughing is not permissible! Cannot blame a person

- Freaks.... Myths and images of secret self, p. 19 - "fears we don't understand... passing, tempted to avert our eyes"

- The Tyranny of the Normal, p. 2 - "absolute Other and the essential self" re: freaks

- The Tyranny of the Normal, p. 7 - "appear to be absolute Other but are really revelations of what our deepest suspect we recognize as the secret self!"

- Social histories of disability and deformity, p. 6 - ppl with disabilities are used as a source of comparison for men - used to raise pride and boost their self-esteem.

Previous/Typical Photographic Representations

- Disability in Western Cultures, p. 91 - "One in Ten" photographic exhibition made one walk away feeling guilty of their own responses - GLIMMER OF INSIGHT

- Disability in Western Culture, p. 110 - Charities need to take blame - stereotypical images of hopelessness and isolation

- Disability in Western Culture, p. 114 - May Duffy? - Disability is central to her work, but also makes impact on general culture

- MENTION - DIANE ARBUS, DAVID HEVEY, EUGENE RICHRDS, FRED KAPLAN, ABRAHAM...

- Paul Virillo, Art and Fear, p. 70 - Black and White films - "tell the tale sign of a DEFECT, a handicap"

- David Hevey, The Creatures Time Forgot - Reference this

- Disability in Western Culture, p. 84 - General LACK of imagery

- The Critical Image, Simon Watney, p. 183 - AIDS - stripped of all power and control and in the demeaning category of the victim

Disability as Spiritual Error/Divine Punishment

- Caricature Article - p. 111 - "physical defects stand for moral faults deserving punishment"

- Freaks: Myths and Legends... Fiedler, p. 14 - they're an absolute other... "mistakes made by God" - revelations of the secret self - "we know you, we are you!"

- Freaks: Myths and Legends... Fiedler, p. 16 - design of providence, etymological meaning of monster - disability
*LINK - disability and monster - Social histories of disability and deformity - Kevin Stagg - p. 21, 19-20 - disability and monster - physical difference lies at their core

- Tyranny of the Normal, p.4 - worshiped as if they were themselves divine, though never without overtones of fear and repulsion.

- Tyranny of the Normal, p. 6 - Greeks portrayed their Gods in idealized form - normal raised to its highest power

- Social Histories of Disability and Deformity, p. 4 - Links between sin and physical aberration were writ large in the writings of religious moralists in the 16th C.

- The Critical Image - Photography and Aids, Simon Watney, p. 181 - AIDS as a terminal illness, Constructed as the wages of sin and hypocrisy

What's Wrong with Empathy

- Emphatic Vision, Jill Benett, p. 21 - "failure of the 1st world to think outside itself - to understand it's difference from other places"

- Emphatic Vision, Jill Benett, p. 111 - "'crude empathy' - can't wonder or understand, What if that happened to me" - moral problem - can't own another's experience - you need to respect the difference!

- Daedalus: Introduction - Social Suffering, Vol. 125, No. 1, pg. XIII - to be in pain is to hold a special knowledge.
o Ignorance of imaging another's pain is not the same as acknowledging the pain
o XVI - "massive social suffering does not lend itself to rescue or remedy"

- Beyond Empathy, Janet Clark, U of T paper, pg 1. - empathy is "presumptuous"
o Pg. 2 - "vastly different experiences" - empathy is not relevant in the context of diversity"
o Pg. 10 - "traditional vs. reconceptualized" empathy"

- Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag, p. 8 - "Our failure is one of imagination, of empathy. We have failed to hold this reality in mind."