Anxiety and niceness: drawing disability studies into the art and design curriculum through a live brief

Abstract

This article considers the way that affect shaped the unfolding of a curriculum initative which aimed to expose undergraduate art and design students to the insights of critical disability studies. This initiative, funded by the Big Lottery and managed by disability charity Scope, asked students in art, design and multimedia programmes in four UK higher education institutions to engage with a live brief: to develop inclusive illustrated children's books and digital media. By focusing on the affective dimensions to this project and especially what Sianne Ngai refers to as the ‘minor emotions’ – not fear or passion or hatred, but, for example, anxiety – this article traces the way such feelings and associated ‘taste concepts’ influenced the engagements, disengagements and judgements of students, staff and the project's management.

Keywords:

• affect
• disability
• representation
• curriculum
• art
• design

Acknowledgements

The research on which this paper is based was deeply shaped by conversations with Surya Shaffi, and her insights have been much missed during its writing. Thanks also to Amy Vitali for assistance with editing an earlier version of the paper, and to John Scannell, Russell Smith and those attending a related talk at UNSW's Disability Studies and Disability Research Centre; and especially to those who generously gave their time to be interviewed for the research.

Notes

1. See www.childreninthepicture.org.uk