Voices as Aesthetic Material: Celebrating That Disabled, Marginalised Voices (are) Matter

Abstract

In this chapter, I assert that the material, gesturing, dancing voices of people labelled as disabled, and that the aesthetic languages developed by these people and their voicings on both the sonic and haptic planes, constructively challenge us to consider the inclusion and integration of these voices into educational environments and cultural discourse in new ways. They motivate us to question not only who, indeed, gets heard in social space but also what kinds of utterances, and by extension, what kinds of bodily configurations and touch qualities, wider society considers to ‘matter’, and beyond this, to celebrate as being ‘beautiful’. To do so, I draw from an experience developing vocal artwork with adults with mild to moderate learning disability in Cork, Ireland. Given that most of us project large and often deeply prejudicial identities and suppositions onto the voices we hear (Bonenfant, 2018c), the chapter shows how the incredibly interesting utterances produced by groups involved in developing the resulting Loop Love project throw up delightful new educational territories for adventurous artists to explore while also deeply challenging our assumptions about how ‘teaching’ should work.

Citation

Bonenfant, Y. (2024), "Voices as Aesthetic Material: Celebrating That Disabled, Marginalised Voices (are) Matter", Rose, R. and Shevlin, M. (Ed.) Including Voices (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 23), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 13-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-363620240000023002