Editorial
Colin Hambrook has been editing Disability Arts Online in one form or another since 2002. Increasingly he has been posting some of his own artistic output... as well as commenting on the work DAO is engaged with.
3 February 2012
Trish Wheatley blogs about the latest content on DAO
Here at DAO we’ve had a fantastic start to what promises to be an astonishing year for disabled artists. Each month we will aim to highlight some of the new content and alert you to...Comments: 0
22 January 2012
Colin discusses BBC Vision's program for 'Able' disabled people
In a blog on Parallel Lines recently, Aaron Williamson made the point that “the notion that an individual is disabled by their impairment is still the prevalent mainstream way of...Comments: 0
15 December 2011
Colin wishes all DAO's contributors and readers all the best for the festive season
DAO is preparing to wind down for the end of year break. Firstly I'd like to give a warm thanks to all our contributors and to wish all our readers all the best over the festive season. It has been...Comments: 0
6 December 2011
'Bad News for Disabled People' research reveals extent of media misrepresentation
At last Saturday's MeCCSa Disability Studies Network event titled 'The Representation of Disabled People in an Age of Austerity', Nick Watson from Strathclyde Centre for Disability Research at...Comments: 3
15 November 2011
How do art historical texts and the media deal with disability? Answers on a postcard please...
For the Outside-In Step-Up program I am doing some research on how artists talk about themselves in terms of disability; and how art historians and academics refer to disability. As a beginning I am...Comments: 8
24 September 2011
Colin reflects on decibel's aim to bring Performing Arts from across the diversity strands under one banner
A week on from decibel, the Arts Council’s Performing Arts Showcase in Manchester from 12-18 September 2011 and I am still reeling from the expanse and breadth of the work we saw there. At a...Comments: 0
12 September 2011
What is Liberty?
Last Friday I entertained a group of nine young disabled people on a research visit from Seoul in Korea. They were wanting to find out about the history of disability arts development in the UK....Comments: 2
16 August 2011
John O’Donoghue uses some gripping dialogue to tell his life story in his book 'Sectioned'
I finally got around to reading John O’Donoghue’s autobiography ‘Sectioned: A life interrupted’. It won the MIND book of the year in 2010 so has been on my shelf for a while...Comments: 0
30 May 2011
Colin reviews My Song scripted by Charlie Swinbourne - his highlight of the Up-Stream Festival
Up-Stream went full steam ahead at the end of last month as part of the prestigious Brighton Festival. Colin reports on some highlights I had quite a few highlights from amongst all the work that...Comments: 0
1 April 2011
Colin goes from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again in the search for good music
Shut up and Listen has become compulsory listening in the last few months. Hosted by members of Carousel house band, Zombie Crash, it's a thoroughly entertaining hour. Ryan and Luc bounce off of each...Comments: 0
1 February 2011
Colin Hambrook on adopting an 'artist name'
Supporting artists to develop their artistic lives is what drives me to keep [Disability Arts Online] DAO going. It's not something I always get right... and an issue has arisen recently with an...Comments: 4
1 January 2011
Editor Colin Hambrook reviews some DAO highlights of 2010
Greetings to all the wonderful disabled artists, performers and writers who have contributed to DAO and made it such a fantastic journal to edit over the past year. Over the last eight months or so...Comments: 1
8 December 2010
Colin Hambrook takes a look at the latest Christmas offering from the Disabled Avant Garde
I caught Ed Vaizey on BBC Parliament last week. He was answering questions before a Select Committee challenging him on whether there is any justification for spending public funding on the Arts. A...Comments: 1
12 November 2010
Colin Hambrook goes in pursuit of some 'Reasons to be Cheerful'
On the way to Stratford Theatre Royal for an evening of Graeae's raved-about Reasons to be Cheerful - it was bizarre to read a report in the Daily Mail of several Labour MPs using twitter to send...Comments: 3
2 August 2010
Colin Hambrook is on his way down the mental health road
Another day, another poem, dragging through the ether. There are lots of twists and turns down the mental health road; no easy solutions, just lots of conundrums and silence scattered with unhealthy,...Comments: 3
28 July 2010
Colin Hambrook puts on a man suit
I am pleased the way that the blog section of DAO has taken off in the past few months. Having the opportunity to publish work continues to be a pleasure that I am very grateful for. When you've...Comments: 0
19 July 2010
Colin Hambrook publishes another disability poem
In the 1990s I put together a visual arts exhibition called 'Dreams of the Absurd' which got shown in various galleries in the UK and abroad. It was an extension of a series of large-scale...Comments: 3
14 July 2010
A poem on experience of ECT from Colin Hambrook
I try hard when writing poetry… sometimes too hard. Scanning this drawing into the computer somehow gave it an even more oppressive feel. Playing with the contrast made it that much...Comments: 8
6 July 2010
Colin Hambrook gets inspired by film-maker Jean Cocteau
I've been thinking of posting some of my poetry for some time now. Poetry is one of those things I do to keep going when life gets tough. I love Jean Cocteau's 1949 retelling of the story of...Comments: 10
17 June 2010
DAO reaches places no other web journal does - according to editor Colin Hambrook
I feel strongly about the sense of being part of a worldwide disability community that DAO invokes - and which guides my sense of editorship of the journal. The engagement that DAO stirs in its...Comments: 4
3 June 2010
Colin Hambrook comments on Outside Centre's 'Stamps of Disability' website
Outside Centre is a disability arts oganisation, working within the Social Model of Disability, whose primary objective is to celebrate and promote disability and disabled people through arts and...Comments: 5
23 May 2010
Colin Hambrook continues in the shadow of Ian Dury...
I saw the last show of Fittings Multimedia's Raspberry at the Clocktower, Croydon on 14 May. It was (almost) everything I hoped for with some great songs; a fantastic cabaret-style performance from...Comments: 3
10 May 2010
Colin Hambrook continues to be mad...
Living with disability can get extreme sometimes. For me, living in the wake of so-called 'schizophrenia' has meant a lifetime of juggling the darkest emotions like tennis balls. My relationship with...Comments: 5
23 April 2010
Colin Hambrook is mad!
I apologise for not writing for a while. I've been falling out of trees - Oaks mostly - under the misty moon-breathe of a schizo heart. No dwelling place where explosive smiles burp on every street...Comments: 1
10 February 2010
Colin Hambrook responds to Tony Heaton’s talk about his sculpture as part of Shape’s ‘Animate’ programme on 4 February 2010
I’ve known Tony Heaton since 1993. He’s always been very enigmatic, passionate and down-to-earth in his approaches to the projects he takes up. I came into the disability arts movement in...Comments: 1