The New Standard - Marking and Measuring our Environment

We live in a highly standardised environment governed by norms, rules and codes. Many of these were determined through anthropometric studies derived from US military studies. This means space standards are biased towards young, male, and fully-abled bodies. How do we intervene to make people see standards at work? And how might people map themselves in all their differences onto the environment? Bringing together students from the AA and the Bartlett, we will use chalk, tape, and similar materials to mark a natural way to use and interact with spaces across the Bartlett’s recently renovated building and the AA’s repurposed Georgian houses in a one-day workshop. 

This workshop was initially generated through a brainstorming session at the Tate Modern in January as part of Jos Boys’ Disabled Artists making Dis/Ordinary Spaces project. The ambition of the workshop is to generate more creative responses to issues of accessibility and inclusivity, and to design spaces for everyone to inhabit and enjoy comfortably from the very beginning rather than adapting exisiting spaces to suit particular disabilities. 

To sign up, please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk with “The New Standard” as the subject. Spaces are limited to 20 participants. 

Image credit: Thomas Carpentier