Criptographies is a wordplay on cryptography, the study of ciphers and secret codes; and crip,
an empowering colloquialism from the derogatory word cripple. Criptographies are spatial
narratives that claim political space and reanimate disability culture. The seminar reflects on
Disability Aesthetics and Disability Theory as critical frameworks for intercepting the city and
bio-politics as they correlate to various bodies, such as historical bodies of knowledge and
philosophy, architectural and urban bodies, and performative and representational bodies.
Cultural understandings of disability are variable, uneven, and disaggregated. Numerous
conceptual models preside over disability from different, and often opposing, perspectives.
Criptographies seek to expand your creative and intellectual curiosities through a Disability
Justice framework. Critical Disability Studies examines embodiment from artistic, cultural,
economic, historical, political, scientific, and social perspectives. Disability and Design explores
the communicative structures of disability and how they motivate design methodologies across
bodies, environments, and objects. The seminar will introduce you to a discursive array of
physical and ephemeral objects with an emphasis on the politics of space that produce radically
accessible architecture and inclusive environments.
Interested in enrolling? Please email Robert Adams: robadams@umich.edu
