Cripistemologies in the City: 'Walking-Together' as Sense-Making

Abstract

In this article, we take up works of disability artists whose practices engage with the act of walking/traversing as a method and form of sense-making. Specifically, we take up two performances by blind theatre artist Alex Bulmer—May I Take Your Arm? (2018) and Blind Woman in Search of a Narrative (2018-2020) —in which walking, specifically ‘walking-together,’ is embedded as both a performative element and an integral mode of inquiry. We think about what Bulmer’s works, along with works by Carmen Papalia and Arseli Dokumaci, teach us about knowing and being known through an urban landscape, creating a ‘cripistemology’ (McRuer & Johnson, 2014) that builds on David Serlin’s (2006) notion of ‘disabling the flâneur.’ Throughout this arts-based inquiry, we suggest that Bulmer advances a practice of ‘cripping the flâneur’ (Campbell, 2010) as she demonstrates how we might come to know ourselves, our cities, our neighbours, and blindness through the epistemological vantage-point of blindness.