Experimental Modalities: Crip Representation and Access with Electronic Arts Intermix

Abstract

The author in collaboration with Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), a non-profit video arts distributor and organization, partner to find ways in which videos in EAI’s collection may reflect upon themes of disability and/or engage modes of access like captioning and audio description. This research and the author’s own interest in conceptual and performance practices found in moving image works that have broadly been tethered to the word experimental, have been situated to engage with accessibility even for the works which resist and challenge the very nature of legibility. This essay acts as the authors first attempt to explore an archive to identify video artworks that represent disability (whether deliberately or not) and/or present alternative modes of access (whether deliberately or not) with the intent of laying a groundwork for curations that tap into possibilities within accessibility formats.