The development of a novel material-semiotic analytic and theoretical way of seeing
My research concentrates on conditions including autism, intellectual disability and mental health. Defining conditions by diagnostic criteria establish divisions (fragmentation and separation of professions, policies and services) and has resulted in a neglect of the considerations of connectivity and capacity. Therefore, I was left curiously wondering how we could reconsider hidden dis/ability as the enactment of all the actors that constantly perForm, disSolve and reProduce hidden dis/ability.
I applied Actor-Network-Theory, Latour’s and Baudrillard’s philosophy to develop a new analytic and theoretical way of seeing the everyday performances as associations and significations of things and signs composing capacities. I established the 6D material-semiotic network practice (details, dimensions, dynamics, dispositions, dislocations, descriptions) for noticing, selecting and ordering the material, abstract and discursive actors, the actions and the connections that might signify hidden dis/ability.
The 6D practice is a novel way to explore the many actors and their connections, the complex, the silenced and the beautiful hidden. The 6D lets us see the performances with all their makings being in a constant state of transformation which, when people are left to their own devices, composes capacities for shared cultural practices dismantling long-held ideas about hidden dis/ability. The 6D practice offers this type of curiosity as an alternative way of seeing, constantly re-evaluating where we are and what future we wish to negotiate
