I had wanted to go to this (see below) on Friday night, but the eye is still prickly. I'm very interested in this model (of CCA working with Bethany Center) and how it might relate to ideas I bring as an artist (poet) to the LightHouse and other social service agencies I might work for, as well as how I might use such a model to combine social practice and poetics in the disability community.
What kind of group poetics could arise from individual writing, public workshops, readings, etc as it rests on this kind of somatics, documentation, and functional practice? As it rests, quite literally, on a a chair in a room in this kind of space, for these people......
But I would've liked to have asked Ms. Moore why it was necessary for her to go disguised as an elder. It seems--off, to me. As in black face. Why not somehow, enable actual elders to do the research necessary? This is an honest question. Meanwhile, I really applaud her focus on Universal design (more here http://www.cca.edu/about/press/2010/patricia-moore-universal-designer-undercover) and it seems like her experinece as an elder-in-disguise informed her already well-developed empathy, so I get why it was important for her to be undercover in that way. But I guess I am thinking like a social service provider--who meets lots of people with disabilities and seniors that need more chances at meaningful work, and, more chances to apply their unique and considerable life experiences.
PATRICIA MOORE
>
> FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 7 pm
> SAN FRANCISCO CAMPUS, TIMKEN LECTURE HALL
> 1111 EIGHTH STREET (AT 16TH & WISCONSIN)
>
> CCA in partnership with Bethany Center Senior Housing presents this
> lecture by Patricia Moore, an internationally renowned gerontologist,
> designer, lecturer, and author, and a leading authority on consumer
> lifespan behaviors and requirements.
>
> Moore spent three years traveling throughout the United States and
> Canada disguised as an 80-year-old woman. With her body altered to
> simulate the normal sensory changes associated with aging, she was
> able to respond to people, products, and environments as an elder.
>
> Moore will be an advisor for the ENGAGE at CCA project with Bethany
> Center this semester.
>
> Moore's clients have included AT&T, Bell Communication, Boeing,
> Citibank, Corning Glass, General Electric, GTE, Honolulu Light Rail,
> Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Kaiser Permanente, Kraft General
> Foods, NASA, Norelco, Marriott, Maytag, Pfizer, Playtex, Seoul Design
> City Project, Sunbeam, 3M, Valley Metro Rail, and Whirlpool, to name
> only a few.
>
> Moore was named by ID magazine one of the 40 Most Socially Conscious
> Designers in the world. In 2000 she was selected by a consortium of
> news editors and organizations as one of the 100 Most Important Women
> in America. ABC World News featured her as one of 50 Americans
> Defining the New Millennium.
>
> Bethany Center Senior Housing is a nonprofit, nonsectarian residence
> that provides quality housing and services to lower-income people,
> with a priority to serve San Francisco's multiethnic senior
> population. Jerry Brown is its executive director. Bethany Center is
> committed to bringing the arts and ongoing educational opportunities
> to its residents through cutting-edge programming and visionary
> collaborations with organizations such as CCA.
