Funder: SSHRC Partnership Grant
Co-directors: Dr. Carla Rice (Canada Research Chair in Care, Gender, and Relationships, University of Guelph) and Dr. Eliza Chandler (School of Disability, Ryerson University, and former Artistic Director at Tangled Art + Disability).
Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology, and Access to Life
Bodies in Translation (BIT) is a multidisciplinary, university-community research project that at its core, aims to cultivate and research activist art. In this project, ‘activist art’ refers to: disability art, Deaf art, Mad art, aging and e/Elder art, fat art, and Indigenous art. We, the researchers, artists, curators, practitioners, and community members on this grant, explore the relationship between cultivating activist art and achieving social and political justice. We believe that activist art holds the power to represent these aggrieved communities who are routinely represented as non-vital, a representation that often produces violent and even deadly effects– differently; as artistic, creative, agentive, political, community-connected, and full of vitality.
Ephemeral History of Pretty Porky and Pissed Off & the Bodies in Translation Fat Activist Archive sub-project
Co-applicant: Dr. Allyson Mitchell
Project Description:
The Ephemeral History project is a data collection of materials produced by and about fat activists and artists in Canada. This collection begins with the organization and digitization of materials held by and about Toronto fat activist group Pretty Porky and Pissed Off (1995-2008). Documents include various forms of analog film and video recordings, still photographs, pamphlets, zines, notes and costumes. As this collection is documented it will expand to include ephemeral materials from other fat activist groups in Canada. Select materials will become accessible through the Bodies in Translation: Activist Art Technology & Access to Life web portal.