top of page

Methods

 

I began by casting out a net of general invitations to people I knew who might be interested.  I made multiple lists of people to invite, and then did so.

 

I put more energy into personalizing the invitations, and was more persistent about extending repeated invitations, with people who felt like they would be especially valuable to talk with.  These included people who I felt intuitively drawn to connect with (or connect more with), as well as people I didn't know so well who were involved with disability-oriented culture and/or other underrepresented populations.

 

I also extended verbal invitations and flyers to people I ran into during the course of a day, and blanket verbal invitations at events which allowed community announcements.

 

With each of the 11 people I was able to successfully schedule and complete an interview with, I communicated for at least 30 minutes (generally about 70 minutes.)   I took notes and audio recorded each interview.  For my interviews with billie rain and ET Russian, we also created artwork as part of the interview.

 

I used the notes, artwork, and recordings to craft a narrative based on what that person shared.  Depending on how well I knew the person-- and how much opportunity I'd had to collaborate with them during past expressive arts events-- I incorporated my own "improvisational flow" of intuitive poetic response into the narrative.  The less I knew a person, the more I strove to allow their own feelings and opinions to come through with a minimum of manipulation from me.  I offered each draft of the narrative up for review with its collaborator (the interviewee) until both of us were satisfied with it.

 

 

"coloring while connecting with billie rain" by me

 

bottom of page