1
00:00:00,554 --> 00:00:02,785
It's wonderful to be here

2
00:00:02,785 --> 00:00:04,871
to talk about my journey,

3
00:00:04,871 --> 00:00:06,605
to talk about the wheelchair

4
00:00:06,605 --> 00:00:09,245
and the freedom it has bought me.

5
00:00:09,245 --> 00:00:11,882
I started using a wheelchair 16 years ago

6
00:00:11,882 --> 00:00:14,016
when an extended illness

7
00:00:14,016 --> 00:00:17,602
changed the way I could access the world.

8
00:00:17,602 --> 00:00:19,979
When I started using the wheelchair,

9
00:00:19,979 --> 00:00:22,564
it was a tremendous new freedom.

10
00:00:22,564 --> 00:00:25,650
I'd seen my life slip away and become restricted.

11
00:00:25,650 --> 00:00:28,220
It was like having an enormous new toy.

12
00:00:28,220 --> 00:00:32,250
I could whiz around and feel the wind in my face again.

13
00:00:32,250 --> 00:00:35,758
Just being out on the street was exhilarating.

14
00:00:35,758 --> 00:00:40,160
But even though I had this newfound joy and freedom,

15
00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:43,712
people's reaction completely changed towards me.

16
00:00:43,712 --> 00:00:46,192
It was as if they couldn't see me anymore,

17
00:00:46,192 --> 00:00:50,191
as if an invisibility cloak had descended.

18
00:00:50,191 --> 00:00:53,412
They seemed to see me in terms of their assumptions

19
00:00:53,412 --> 00:00:57,640
of what it must be like to be in a wheelchair.

20
00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:02,552
When I asked people their associations with the wheelchair,

21
00:01:02,552 --> 00:01:06,106
they used words like "limitation," "fear,"

22
00:01:06,106 --> 00:01:09,131
"pity" and "restriction."

23
00:01:09,131 --> 00:01:13,900
I realized I'd internalized these responses

24
00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:17,437
and it had changed who I was on a core level.

25
00:01:17,437 --> 00:01:21,627
A part of me had become alienated from myself.

26
00:01:21,627 --> 00:01:25,212
I was seeing myself not from my perspective,

27
00:01:25,212 --> 00:01:29,374
but vividly and continuously from the perspective

28
00:01:29,374 --> 00:01:32,271
of other people's responses to me.

29
00:01:32,271 --> 00:01:37,396
As a result, I knew I needed to make my own stories

30
00:01:37,396 --> 00:01:39,635
about this experience,

31
00:01:39,635 --> 00:01:42,411
new narratives to reclaim my identity.

32
00:01:42,411 --> 00:01:45,515
["Finding Freedom: 'By creating our own stories we learn to take the texts of our lives as seriously as we do 'official' narratives.' — Davis 2009, TEDx Women"]

33
00:01:45,515 --> 00:01:47,593
I started making work

34
00:01:47,593 --> 00:01:50,409
that aimed to communicate something

35
00:01:50,409 --> 00:01:55,527
of the joy and freedom I felt when using a wheelchair --

36
00:01:55,527 --> 00:02:00,141
a power chair -- to negotiate the world.

37
00:02:00,141 --> 00:02:06,726
I was working to transform these internalized responses,

38
00:02:06,726 --> 00:02:10,521
to transform the preconceptions that had so shaped

39
00:02:10,521 --> 00:02:13,702
my identity when I started using a wheelchair,

40
00:02:13,702 --> 00:02:17,466
by creating unexpected images.

41
00:02:17,466 --> 00:02:23,687
The wheelchair became an object to paint and play with.

42
00:02:23,687 --> 00:02:25,728
When I literally started leaving

43
00:02:25,728 --> 00:02:29,294
traces of my joy and freedom,

44
00:02:29,294 --> 00:02:31,242
it was exciting to see

45
00:02:31,242 --> 00:02:35,744
the interested and surprised responses from people.

46
00:02:35,744 --> 00:02:38,633
It seemed to open up new perspectives,

47
00:02:38,633 --> 00:02:41,528
and therein lay the paradigm shift.

48
00:02:41,528 --> 00:02:43,602
It showed that an arts practice

49
00:02:43,602 --> 00:02:45,945
can remake one's identity

50
00:02:45,945 --> 00:02:50,729
and transform preconceptions by revisioning the familiar.

51
00:02:50,729 --> 00:02:54,642
So when I began to dive, in 2005,

52
00:02:54,642 --> 00:02:58,168
I realized scuba gear extends your range of activity

53
00:02:58,168 --> 00:03:00,827
in just the same way as a wheelchair does,

54
00:03:00,827 --> 00:03:03,419
but the associations attached to scuba gear

55
00:03:03,419 --> 00:03:06,019
are ones of excitement and adventure,

56
00:03:06,019 --> 00:03:09,843
completely different to people's responses to the wheelchair.

57
00:03:09,843 --> 00:03:12,987
So I thought, "I wonder what'll happen

58
00:03:12,987 --> 00:03:17,299
if I put the two together?" (Laughter) (Applause)

59
00:03:17,299 --> 00:03:21,491
And the underwater wheelchair that has resulted

60
00:03:21,491 --> 00:03:24,198
has taken me on the most amazing journey

61
00:03:24,198 --> 00:03:26,467
over the last seven years.

62
00:03:26,467 --> 00:03:29,955
So to give you an idea of what that's like,

63
00:03:29,955 --> 00:03:32,841
I'd like to share with you one of the outcomes

64
00:03:32,841 --> 00:03:34,937
from creating this spectacle,

65
00:03:34,937 --> 00:03:38,738
and show you what an amazing journey it's taken me on.

66
00:03:38,738 --> 00:03:47,578
(Music)

67
00:07:08,435 --> 00:07:15,236
(Applause)

68
00:07:15,236 --> 00:07:18,215
It is the most amazing experience,

69
00:07:18,215 --> 00:07:21,856
beyond most other things I've experienced in life.

70
00:07:21,856 --> 00:07:24,953
I literally have the freedom to move

71
00:07:24,953 --> 00:07:27,592
in 360 degrees of space

72
00:07:27,592 --> 00:07:31,352
and an ecstatic experience of joy and freedom.

73
00:07:31,352 --> 00:07:33,969
And the incredibly unexpected thing

74
00:07:33,969 --> 00:07:38,159
is that other people seem to see and feel that too.

75
00:07:38,159 --> 00:07:40,537
Their eyes literally light up,

76
00:07:40,537 --> 00:07:43,791
and they say things like, "I want one of those,"

77
00:07:43,791 --> 00:07:47,473
or, "If you can do that, I can do anything."

78
00:07:47,473 --> 00:07:51,095
And I'm thinking, it's because in that moment

79
00:07:51,095 --> 00:07:53,648
of them seeing an object

80
00:07:53,648 --> 00:07:55,559
they have no frame of reference for,

81
00:07:55,559 --> 00:07:58,359
or so transcends the frames of reference

82
00:07:58,359 --> 00:08:00,104
they have with the wheelchair,

83
00:08:00,104 --> 00:08:03,136
they have to think in a completely new way.

84
00:08:03,136 --> 00:08:07,480
And I think that moment of completely new thought

85
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:09,978
perhaps creates a freedom

86
00:08:09,978 --> 00:08:14,004
that spreads to the rest of other people's lives.

87
00:08:14,004 --> 00:08:17,196
For me, this means that they're seeing

88
00:08:17,196 --> 00:08:19,546
the value of difference,

89
00:08:19,546 --> 00:08:21,466
the joy it brings

90
00:08:21,466 --> 00:08:25,286
when instead of focusing on loss or limitation,

91
00:08:25,286 --> 00:08:29,690
we see and discover the power and joy

92
00:08:29,690 --> 00:08:34,097
of seeing the world from exciting new perspectives.

93
00:08:34,097 --> 00:08:35,796
For me, the wheelchair becomes

94
00:08:35,796 --> 00:08:38,141
a vehicle for transformation.

95
00:08:38,141 --> 00:08:41,921
In fact, I now call the underwater wheelchair "Portal,"

96
00:08:41,921 --> 00:08:44,125
because it's literally pushed me through

97
00:08:44,125 --> 00:08:46,003
into a new way of being,

98
00:08:46,003 --> 00:08:49,737
into new dimensions and into a new level of consciousness.

99
00:08:49,737 --> 00:08:51,282
And the other thing is,

100
00:08:51,282 --> 00:08:53,754
that because nobody's seen or heard

101
00:08:53,754 --> 00:08:56,249
of an underwater wheelchair before,

102
00:08:56,249 --> 00:08:59,092
and creating this spectacle is about creating

103
00:08:59,092 --> 00:09:01,929
new ways of seeing, being and knowing,

104
00:09:01,929 --> 00:09:04,877
now you have this concept in your mind.

105
00:09:04,877 --> 00:09:08,676
You're all part of the artwork too.

106
00:09:08,676 --> 00:09:16,198
(Applause)