CripTech Creativity: Rethinking Access through Art and Technology

25.03.2025 Organized by Virginia Marano and the Lise Meitner Group "Coded Objects"

Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut, Casa Zuccari, Via Gino Capponi, 22, 50121 Firenze FI, Italia and online

Melissa Malzkuh, Metaverse Deaf Club, 2023.

[Image description: The very first Deaf Club in the metaverse is housed in a navy Victorian, twinkling against a crepuscular sky. A neon marquee sign that reads “DEAF CLUB” invites visitors into a brightly lit space. Created by lead artist Melissa Malzkuhn with the support of engineers and 3D designers, this virtual gathering space is both a living museum of Deaf storytelling and artistry and a reincarnation of Deaf clubs that were once a vital community hub.]

Normative ways of seeing and moving through spaces have long dominated the discourse in art and architecture history despite their fictitious and exclusionary nature. And in architecture practice, accessibility is often treated as a construction checklist or a compliance measure. But what if access were instead a creative, disruptive, and transformative force? How would places, spaces, and the value of interpersonal relationships change with the embrace of the entire spectrum of experiences and perceptions taking place?

Histories of radical disability movements highlight the tension between institutional frameworks and community-driven practices rooted in autonomy and collective worldmaking. At the same time, material innovations—such as haptic technologies, sensory mapping, and multisensory environments—redefine interactions between bodies and built spaces. By examining these intersections in a context of architecture and art history—disciplines that have long been dedicated to the knowledge residing in perception but also perpetuated their visual and normative primacy—the workshop opens up new ways of thinking about access, agency, and the politics of space, all under the premise that accessibility is not simply a question of inclusion but a generative process for reimagining the material-discursive world.

Alternative approaches to design emphasize adaptation and fluidity over rigid norms and normativity. Crip technologists expose biases within digital aesthetics while generating new ways to engage with technology. DeafSpace reframes architecture—not as an act of accommodation, but as an approach that centers Deaf experiences from the start. Similarly, blind and low-vision designers rethink spatial navigation through tactile, haptic, and auditory interfaces, challenging ocular-centric norms and expanding how space can be perceived and constructed. Neurodivergent-led design resists standardized environments that impose cognitive strain, advocating for flexible, responsive spaces that support sensory and perceptual diversity.

This workshop brings together different thinkers and practitioners who challenge conventional narratives of accessibility, and instead explore how disabled subjectivities generate new forms of embodied knowledge. Extending access generates friction and renegotiates spaces; it disrupts norms and resists assimilation.

Program

09:30am – 10:00am (CET)

Welcome and Introduction

Anna-Maria Meister and Virginia Marano, KHI

10:00am – 12:15pm

Crip Technoscience and Accessible Futures

Chair: Mimi Cheng, KHI

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University

Extraordinary Worlds

Lindsey D. Felt, Stanford University

Incubating Criptech Arts Futures

Friederike Eyssel, Universität Bielefeld (online)

Accessible Technologies? A Perspective from the Field of Human-Robot Interaction

Break

11:45am – 12:15pm

Discussion

Lunch Break

01:30pm – 03:00pm

Crip Politics and Institutional Critique

Chair: Rebecca Carrai, KHI

David Gissen, Yale University

From Independence to Anti-Eugenics: Designing Global Disability Politics, 1962-1977

Natalie Kane, Victoria and Albert Museum

Cripping Institutions

02:30pm – 03:00pm

Discussion

Coffee Break

03:15pm – 04:45pm

Crip Architectures and Emergent Bodies

Chair: Anna Luise Schubert, KHI

Sudeep Dasgupta, University of Amsterdam

Ex-static AntiBodies: Coding and Co-emergence

Alexa Vaughn, University of California Los Angeles

DeafSpace / DeafScape as Methodology: A Case Study in Cripping the Design Process

04:15pm – 04:45pm

Discussion

Coffee Break

05:00pm – 06:00pm

Crip AI and Cyborg Worlds

Chair: Rafael Brundo Uriarte, KHI

Louise Hickman, University of Cambridge and Rose Powell, Newcastle University (online)

Ugly AI

Laura Forlano, Northeastern University (online)

A Manifesto for Critical, Crip & Cyborg Futures

Break

06:15pm – 07:00pm

Collective Discussion

Moderator: Virginia Marano, KHI

Location and Access

This event will be hybrid and take place in person at Casa Zuccari.

The location can be accessed with a wheelchair from Via Giusti through the garden which contains some gravel. Comfortable seating options will be provided. During the presentations, automated captioning through Zoom will be available, and American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation will be provided. Additional sign language interpretation services or verbal descriptions can be arranged upon request by March 10, 2025, at info@khi.fi.it. We will make every effort to accommodate for requests made outside of this window of time. Moreover, please let us know in advance of any access needs.

This workshop is organized by Virginia Marano (MASI Lugano/KHI) and the Lise Meitner Group “Coded Objects” (led by Anna-Maria Meister) at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut. “Coded Objects” as method of refraction examines how processes form values through objects—and how objects inform processes in societies.

Alexa Vaughn, American Academy Rome Open Studios. Photo by Daniele Molajoli.

Image description: A collection of annotated photographs documents locations in Rome, including Villa Aurelia, Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, Villa Doria Pamphili, and Via Appia Antica. Each photo highlights landmarks, pathways, lighting, seating, water features, and degrees of enclosure using blue annotations. A central map titled "Sites visited with Deafscape principles" connects the locations.