Issue #1 - Inclusivity, Open-source & Accessibility
September 2020

Image of two mean wearing coats and holding walking sticks

Issue 1 brings together a collection of practitioners from different backgrounds to discuss their practices relating to inclusive,

open-source and accessible topics. With exclusive content and personal stories we get an insight into the future of inclusive thinking amongst the different worlds of health care, fashion, technology, product design, performance and education.

Articles

Image of a woman presenting a table of work to a student in a university

Bloody Disgrace

Jesse Adler

Designer Jesse Adler discusses her recent project, Bloody Disgrace, which looks at empowering informed conversations about menstrual health products and related practices. Through her research and experimentation, she developed a prototype called the Menstrual Reservoir which is a sustainable and innovative approach to this billion dollar industry. 

Image of several hearing aids in different colours and sizes

Autonomy in the Age of Accessibility

Katie Brown

Are the current styles and designs of hearing aids archaic? Do they continue to represent an outdated medical model of disability? PhD designer and researcher Katie Brown shares her exploration surrounding super normal design and discusses the design process and thinking for developing products for users with disabilities and accessibility issues.

Image of an eye with the words overlapping "pretty to be gay"

Addressing Microagression

Renée Mes

Dutch designer Renée Mes uses design as a tool towards inclusivity and to reflect on society. Using passing comments towards the queer community, her project S.D.N (Sexual Diversity in the Netherlands) is a visual reflection on how she addressed issues of microaggression towards the queer community in The Netherlands.

Image of a wall of pictures of female dolls in a dark room

Porn, Sex & Art

Hot Local Artists

Rose Creasey and Anastasia Meredith-Goujon formed the artist duo Hot Local Artists from their shared interest in the taboo surrounding porn consumption. From personal exhibitions, to curated groups shows and panel discussions, the duo shed light on the intersection of porn, sex and art with the aim to encourage dialogue on how our societal views on sex and sexuality have a deep effect on our lives.  

Image of several white and black disability symbols

Meeting Everyone's Needs

Alex Cleator

If you could put yourself in someone else's shoes that has an impairment, how would you think differently? Behavioural researcher Alex Cleator specialises in accessibility and explains how we can approach inclusive design from an accessibility point of view; the building blocks for ethical and equal design for everyone.

Image of a wooden cupboard full of different foods on a street

Hungry for Change

Emily Boxall

MA Material Futures graduate Emily Boxall discusses her project, Hungry For Change, which identifies the issue of food insecurity, poverty and hunger. Through the potential integration of Community Larders in public locations to provide an open-source space where locals can share unused food to reduce food waste and address the issue of hunger.  

Image of a person lying in a clear box with a person standing behind them

Unfit to Live

Dimitry Suzana

What if you were trapped in a box and wanted to get out?  What would happen if you were denied that choice? French designer Dimitry Suzana discusses his experience of losing his aunt to ALS and the journey of creating his graduate project, Unfit To Live, a thought-provoking and participatory act.  

Image of two hands drawing on paper and on a tablet

Functional Design

Camila Chiriboga

Fashion designer Camila Chiriboga discusses her journey of designing an ensemble for Michelle, an elderly lady who required the assistance of a caretakers and a swinging hammock to get dressed in the morning. Having to rethink the process of designing garments, she worked closely with experts on how to design in new and innovative ways that would function for differently abled clients.

An illustration of a robot reading a book with the title "how to win friends and influence people"

Have You Spoken to Everyone Your Technology Affects ?

Rachel Foley

Critical designer Rachel Foley expected to being working in "the future" of technology but ended up similar to a human transcriptionist in healthcare. She quickly noticed all the problems presented with speech-to-text functions. Realising that these types of technologies were not built for the people that actually used them, she asks if we consider the ethical and accessible functions towards human-centred design.

Image of a shelving unit full of black bottles with white labels

Re-education: Period.

Well Woman Project

Do herbal products, confidence building sessions and using humour to tackle difficult taboo subjects on "wonky periods" sound familiar? Ex-nurse turned hormonal health expert / stand-up comedian Gemma recounts her painful experience of periods and what led her to create the Well Woman Project. 

Image of a woman lying in bed looking on her phone

Spotlight On: ANNE+

Renée Mes

We are very excited to share our spotlight article by Renée Mes, the art director for ANNE+, a Dutch drama series about Anne's journey through adulthood and discovery of her identity. With an entire cast and creative team representing queer identities, Renée shares how the creators developed ANNE+ to improve the visibility of lesbian characters in the media, based on the lack of queer content they experienced growing up as teenagers.

Image scan of a white phone plug

I [object] + You [human] = We

Pleun van Dijk & Michèle Degen

How can two creatives take an everyday object, create a piece of writing from the objects perspective and recreate it with no reference in any media? Created exclusively for incl., Pleun van Dijk and Michèle Degen investigate the intimate relationship between humans and their surrounding objects through a visual conversation where I + You becomes We. 

Image of a drag queen with green hair and a green beard

The Bearded Drag Queen of Cardiff

Nemesis Repulsa

Cardiff's favourite gothy, hairy-chested, bearded drag queen known as Nemesis Repulsa is a part of Hey Mary, an inclusive group featuring drag artists and DJ's. Through their discovery of drag and identity, Nemesis discusses how their drag challenges perceptions of masculinity and the positive effect drag has on society.

Image of two woman laughing together

Reshaping Sex-Ed

Split Banana

Split Banana is a social enterprise providing young people with access to inclusive and relevant relationships and sex education. After completing the post-grad course Year Here, Anna & Matilda discuss their journey to developing Split Banana and how their work really makes an impact in and out of the classroom.