Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Teesside University
Motion Disabled
McKeown is a congenitally disabled artist with significant experience of the social and cultural ‘negation’ and ‘stereotyping’ with which the disabled live. It is from this experience, combined with his technical knowledge, that he has developed his research and practice as a visual artist. Disability Art is art produced by disabled people about their experiences. It exists in the ambiguous space between those of little social capital and those who presume they possess greater intrinsic value. It aims to reveal the illusory realities by which people construct themselves as ‘normal’ social beings in opposition to those constructed by society as ‘other’ or ‘abnormal’. ‘Motion Disabled’ has been distributed internationally. McKeown uses the technologies of motion capture and techniques developed from his experience building interactivity into computer games to give a ‘clear view’ of motion and disability. The virtual movements that are the theme of the animation are based on the pathological reality of disabled actors, and are designed to raise specific questions – how do you shower with short arms or answer the phone with your feet? It also asks: What is a normal body image? What is a valid representation of movement? Because of the nature of the animations audiences are not able to layer on human stories of the ‘brave’, the ‘tragic’ or the ‘extraordinary’. The work is deliberately culturally ambiguous. Motion Disabled was supported by Wellcome Trust (£37,000) and Teesside University and has been exhibited across the UK and Internationally Including the Smithsonian International Gallery. Working with VSA Arts, Washington D.C. McKeown developed a large scale exhibition program which saw the work exhibited on United Nations International Day of People with Disabilities, Dec 3rd 2010 in 17 countries and 20 locations. McKeown was awarded DaDaFest International Artist of Year 2010.
