Printing a new story : self-representation, disability, and digital fabrication

Hurley, UK

Abstract

This essay presents an account of an AHRC Connected Communities Innovation project which used creative writing techniques as a process for generating personally meaningful digitally-fabricated objects, probing the potential
of making practices to catalyse cultural change with and for disabled people. This account explores the processes and products of experimental approaches to digital fabrication, speculating that they may be understood as a kind of poetic
language, capable of generating counter-hegemonic narratives, which may be read as acts of self-presentation. Digital fabrication’s literal/metaphorical qualities are read through the lens of ‘complex embodiment’, proposing
that this technology may be particularly suited to inclusive auto/biographical expression, empowering disabled people to print new stories for and about themselves.

Keywords: Digital fabrication; disability; complex embodiment; counter-hegemonic narratives; poetic practice

Citation

Hurley, U. (2019). Printing a new story : self-representation, disability, and digital fabrication. European journal of life writing, 8(2019), DM171-DM196. https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.8.35555

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 15, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 18, 2019
• Publication Date: May 18, 2019
• Deposit Date: Apr 30, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 4, 2019
• Journal: European Journal of Life Writing
• Volume: 8
• Issue: 2019
• Pages: DM171-DM196
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.8.35555
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.21827/ejlw.8.35555
• Related Public URLs: https://ejlw.eu/index
• Additional Information: Projects : In the Making