@article{ART003278905},
author={Min, Kyungso},
title={Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art},
journal={Journal of History of Modern Art},
issn={1598-7728},
year={2025},
volume={0},
number={58},
pages={125-148},
doi={10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006}
TY - JOUR
AU - Min, Kyungso
TI - Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art
JO - Journal of History of Modern Art
PY - 2025
VL - 0
IS - 58
PB - 현대미술사학회
SP - 125
EP - 148
SN - 1598-7728
AB - This article reconsiders the idea of accessibility in art not at the macro level of spatial design and institutional policy, but at the micro level of the conceptualization, methodologies, and spectatorial experience of individual artworks. It critically examines the ableism embedded in various wearable device–based art through the lens of the political relational models of disability, as well as Tobin Siebers’ critique of the ideology of ability. To this end, it juxtaposes new media artworks that employ conventional wearable technologies, such as VR, HMD, motion controllers, and sensors, with Christine Sun Kim’s Game of Skill (2015-). Based on this comparative analysis, this article investigates how Kim’s piece invokes disabled bodies that are often obscured within aesthetic strategies that seek to maximize participant-oriented art experiences through technological mediation, and what political and relational significances emerge from this activation. By questioning the discriminatory and exclusionary objectification inherent in the conceptualization and practice of “the wearable,” it further explores how contemporary art dismantles hierarchies and boundaries between disability and ability, crip and able-bodiedness, and offers possibilities for empathy and solidarity. Ultimately, this article argues that technology should reconfigure the linear structure of aesthetic experience, amplify its sensory and perceptual dimensions, and enable alternative definitions of able-bodiedness.
KW - Accessibility;Disability;Disability Aesthetics;Able-Bodiedness;Ideology of Ability;Wearable;Device;Tobin Siebers;Christine Sun Kim
DO - 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
ER -
Min, Kyungso. (2025). Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art. Journal of History of Modern Art, 0(58), 125-148.
Min, Kyungso. 2025, "Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art", Journal of History of Modern Art, vol.0, no.58 pp.125-148. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso "Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art" Journal of History of Modern Art 0.58 pp.125-148 (2025) : 125.
Min, Kyungso. Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art. 2025; 0(58), 125-148. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso. "Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art" Journal of History of Modern Art 0, no.58 (2025) : 125-148.doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso. Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art. Journal of History of Modern Art, 0(58), 125-148. doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso. Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art. Journal of History of Modern Art. 2025; 0(58) 125-148. doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso. Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art. 2025; 0(58), 125-148. Available from: doi:10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
Min, Kyungso. "Reframing Accessibility: The Operation of the Ideology of Ability in Wearable Device-Based Art" Journal of History of Modern Art 0, no.58 (2025) : 125-148.doi: 10.17057/kahoma.2025..58.006
