On the Disability Aesthetics of Music

Howe, Blake; Jensen-Moulton, Stephanie; Straus, Joseph; Iverson, Jennifer; Holmes, Jessica; Bakan, Michael B.; Dell’Antonio, Andrew; Grace, Elizabeth J.

doi:10.1525/jams.2016.69.2.525

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…When developing the AIR-project, the Conservatory of Amsterdam and Drake Music Scotland decided that it would not only provide students with practical skills for inclusive music education but also discuss the medical and social models of disability. In short, the medical model of disability frames disability as a deficit with respect to normal standards, which should be diagnosed and treated (bell et al, 2020;Howe et al, 2016). The goal of the treatment is to cure a person and to facilitate a person's return to the state of "normal" (Imrie, 1995, p. 397).…”

Section: Underlying Concepts Of the Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…How society reacts to these differences determines whether a person will experience disability (bell et al, 2020), and categorizations of who is (dis)abled are viewed as sociocultural constructions (Davis, 2002). In contrast to the medical model, the social model frames the experience of disability as a societal problem rather than the problem of a person and, consequently, looks toward society to adapt and accommodate (bell et al, 2020;Howe et al, 2016;Rathgeber, 2017). This latter model underlies the work of Drake Music Scotland.…”

Section: Underlying Concepts Of the Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Encountering disability in music: Exploring perceptions on inclusive music education in higher music education

Bremmer

2023

Research Studies in Music Education

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This research study evaluated an Artist-in-Residence-project (AIR-project) at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, focusing on inclusive music education. For this project, the Conservatory invited the organization Drake Music Scotland to work with its students. The project’s aim was to provide students with practical skills regarding music technology, to discuss the social model of disability, and to play in an inclusive music ensemble with a musician with a severe physical disability. The perceived learning experiences of students, the experienced value of the project, and recommendations for its improvement were explored through online questionnaires with the students and online semistructured interviews with the AIR-project leader, the musician with a disability, and the two workshop leaders of Drake Music Scotland. Findings suggest that alongside learning practical skills regarding music technology, students changed or broadened their perceptions about people with disabilities and inclusive music-making in positive ways. Furthermore, participants valued that the project created a space in which “taking enough time” and “belonging” could be experienced; these values are important in inclusive music environments as they can empower musicians with disabilities. The main recommendation for similar projects was that students wanted to gain hands-on experience in inclusive music education.

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Section: Underlying Concepts Of the Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Underlying Concepts Of the Projectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Encountering disability in music: Exploring perceptions on inclusive music education in higher music education

Bremmer

2023

Research Studies in Music Education

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“…We celebrated every note, there was no hierarchy here: A supported disability aesthetics where Siebers (2010) describes how "the systemic oppression of disabled people would fail, and fail precisely because it could no longer be based on human appearances, features, and conditions deemed inferior" (Bakan, 2016, p. 548). Disability aesthetics considers cultural ideas and ideals of satisfaction and beauty through the lens of non-normativity (Howe & Jensen-Moulton, 2016). By having an awareness of how music might enforce normalcy, I could understand how supporting Hazel's way of making music might reverse its dominance: perhaps even offering a disabled identity a place.…”

Section: Hazelmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Autoethnographic Journey in Developing Post-Ableist Music Therapy

Shaw

2022

Voices

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This paper describes my journey in developing Post-Ableist Music Therapy and offers vignettes of its use in practice. In the style of an autoethnography, it recounts the way I began actively to address the ableism that was uncovered during the analysis process of my PhD research: ‘Developing Post-Ableist Music Therapy: An autoethnography exploring the counterpoint of a therapist experiencing illness/disability’(Shaw, 2019). I set about developing an ethic for practice that would address ableism by using the Foucauldian tool of creating the self as a work of art. I engaged in a creative process as a way to defamiliarise and reconceptualise practice. Post-Ableist Music Therapy was developed and extended the relational ethic beyond what was present in the practice studied, by drawing on aspects of posthumanism (valuing interdependence; Braidotti, 2013), agonistic pluralism (Chambers, 2001; Cloyes, 2002; Mouffe, 2016), and increasing the incorporation of disability studies. Posthumanism was used as a foundation for PAMT (due to the ableist tendencies of humanism), which differs to current music therapy orientations. Therefore, PAMT is offered as an alternative lens in the critical orientations’ apparatus: a social justice practice that is not based on empowerment and humanism, but instead on agonism and posthumanism.

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“…To express the diversity of illness experiences, the concept of health within illness was developed in the 1990's (Carel, 2013). Recently, disability scholars have proposed an inclusive mode of embodiment that encompasses human diversity that subverts the binary division that separated ability from disability (Howe & Jensen-Moulton, 2016).…”

Section: Personal Experiences That Deconstructed/dismantled the Dichotomous Divide: Identification Of Non-binary Moments (Ethics)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Disability aesthetics considers cultural ideas and ideals of satisfaction and beauty through the lens of non-normativity (Howe & Jensen-Moulton, 2016). By having an awareness of how music might enforce normalcy, I could understand how supporting Hazel's way of making music might reverse its dominance: perhaps even offering a disabled identity a place.…”

Section: Hazelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing post-ableist music therapy: An autoethnography exploring the counterpoint of a therapist experiencing illness/disability

Shaw¹

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<p>This PhD examined a therapist’s experience of illness/disability to see if any new light could be shed on music therapy whilst also finding ways to navigate disability as a practitioner. There has not been adequate research attention given to the experiences of music therapists who have an illness/disability. The position is often negotiated in isolation with minimal tools and resources. An arts-based autoethnography was used to determine how the close examination of one’s personal experience with illness/disability can impact on practice, how the work can be negotiated, and to uncover any new practical or theoretical meanings. Furthermore, it looked to determine what arts-based autoethnography could offer one’s practice. A poststructural lens was used that drew on social constructionism, feminism, and the work of Michel Foucault. Data generated from a music therapist’s practice, experiences of illness/disability, literature, and professional documents were analysed using Foucault’s “critical ontology of ourselves” (Foucault, 1984b, p. 47). Hidden processes of problematic ableism were found within the practice examined as well as in some educational and professional encounters. These regimes of ableism were supported by universalising and dichotomising discourses, namely humanism, western normativity, limited observable understandings of disability, and the enforcement of able/disabled divide through many binaries. The methodology provided the tools to reposition the practice to politicise disability and address ableism. Addressing ableism was found to be more complex than simply incorporating disability issues into existing contemporary frameworks. The analysis led to the development of Post-Ableist Music Therapy (PAMT). PAMT extended the relational ethic beyond what was present in the prior practice by drawing on aspects of posthumanism, agonistic plurality, and increasing the visibility of disability studies and crip theory. Therefore, PAMT offers a different lens to the critical orientations’ apparatus: a social justice practice not based on empowerment and humanism but on agonism and posthumanism instead. As there is a lag in the theorisation of ableism, PAMT provides an alternative framework that can be applied to current approaches to increase our professional consciousness of ableism. By repositioning the practice and exploring alternative subjectivities, the professional and personal narratives of a therapist experiencing illness/disability became more integrated, working with–not against–each other in a shared activism. The methodology fostered an increased ethical care of the self; offered tools that critiqued what we are; experimented with going beyond the limits imposed on us. The use of such tools could have wider application in the everyday practices of therapists. The findings have significant implications for practice and training, as the challenges people and societies face cannot be adequately dealt with without tools to explicitly uncover and address normalisation and ableism.</p>

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On the Disability Aesthetics of Music

Cited by 9 publications

References 47 publications

Encountering disability in music: Exploring perceptions on inclusive music education in higher music education

Encountering disability in music: Exploring perceptions on inclusive music education in higher music education

An Autoethnographic Journey in Developing Post-Ableist Music Therapy

Developing post-ableist music therapy: An autoethnography exploring the counterpoint of a therapist experiencing illness/disability

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