Unbuilt Environments

Artist Alistair Gentry and researcher Anna Landre of the Global Disability Innovation Hub brought together voices from East London’s disability communities to create their project Unbuilt Environments. 

Anna and Alistair used 3D software Unreal Engine to build a digital installation that acted as an area for expression, protest, and prototyping by disabled people. The project drew upon the social model of disability (the idea that disability is largely created by inaccessible environments), and the works fluctuated between dreams of utopia (criptopia) and apocalypse (cripocalypse) to envision new spaces that reflected disabled experiences of space. Through a series of discussion and model making workshops with a diverse array of disabled people in East London and beyond, they gathered these ideas and imagery for transformation into animations and virtual spaces. 

The installation showcased the works simultaneously on multiple screens in a mirrored room, a nod to the diversity and simultaneous commonality of disabled people’s bodyminds and experiences. It included an audio description and commentary track by Anna and Alistair.