Join artists Dolly Sen, Christopher Samuel and disability historian Professor David Turner to hear about their experiences as users of Wellcome Collection and the methods they used to research the suppressed histories of disability.
Dolly will discuss her current project, ‘Birdsong From Inobservable Worlds’. Using literature, performance and film, Dolly’s work explores and challenges the mental health archives as a gay, biracial woman with personal experience as an inpatient and student of the mental health system.
Christopher will discuss his project ‘The Archive of the Unseen’. This multi-format interactive project tells the wider story of what it was like to grow up black, disabled and working class in 1980s Britain. Using the collections, Christopher addresses differences and similarities in the challenges faced historically by disabled people, and how this has been mediated over time through advocates such as Scope.
Professor David Turner will discuss how disabled people’s experiences have been erased from histories of work and industrialisation, and how this history might be recovered from the archives and/or presented in public spaces such as museums. His current research explores the long history of disabled people’s political activism in Britain since the 18th century.
PhD candidate in the History of Art and Medieval Studies, Jess Bailey will chair the event. She has recently published research on disability based on her placement at Wellcome Collection.
British Sign Language
This event is British Sign Language interpreted. An interpreter will be embedded in the event stream/visible to all attendees and will interpret what is discussed into BSL for d/Deaf, hard of hearing and deafened attendees.
Speech-to-text
This event will have live speech-to-text transcription which may be useful for people who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, deafened or neurodiverse. The text will be embedded in the event video window and ticketholders will also receive a link to open subtitles in a separate window.
Booking
Booking a ticket guarantees you entry to the online event. If you have any access requests or requirements, for example a transcript of the event, email us at [email protected] or call 020 7611 2222.
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Image credit: Exploring Research - Nothing About Us Without Us, Photo: Kathleen Arundell. Portrait of David Turner (left) by Kathleen Arundell. Portrait of Christopher Samuel (middle) © Brigita Skopaite. Portrait of Dolly Sen by Thomas S.G. Farnetti. Source: Wellcome Collection.