A Night of the Arts: A Physical Environment Assignment

A Night of the Arts

By Mary Kate U.

On my date, I took my friend Caleb, who is not disabled but we paid attention to our surroundings as if we both were.  We started off the night at Olive Garden in Kennesaw, then went into Atlanta for the Flux Art Festival and ended the night at his place for some one-on-one time.

I choose to have our date at olive garden because it is firstly, one of my favorite restaurants but it is also one that is disability accessible. Comfort: at the entrance of the restaurant there is a wheelchair access. The building had double doors, which allows for wheelchairs to move through easily. They also had several wheelchair accessible tables, and wide hallways, making it very safe and comfortable to move about the space.  After having dinner, we headed to Atlanta for the Flux Art Festival, where the real fun happened.

The Flux Art Festival took up about six blocks of downtown Atlanta. In these six blocks there were over twenty different performance art pieces that you were able to see. Activity: the activity at the festival was huge. There were around six thousand people participating in the festival, people walking, singing, dancing, and talking everywhere. 

The Accessibility of the space was not very good. You could not move freely in the streets due to there being so many people. The roads were pretty flat, but you were constantly weaving your way through all the people. From a disability view, there was no way a person in a wheelchair could successfully make it through, and actually enjoy the festival. As I mentioned before, Crowding was a big issue. Constantly surrounded by people, the only way to move pushing your way through until a small space cleared up so you could stand. Crowding does not bother me, but I can see how someone being disabled or even someone who is not could feel trapped and uncomfortable in the situation.

Legibility: with people constantly moving it was vey difficult to conceptualize spatial relationships and effectively find your way through the environment. There were also performers in the streets that moved and would take up a lot of space. It was also hard to judge where they were going, so you could stay out of their way.

So far it sounds like this date was a nightmare because there were so many people, but some of the things I enjoyed the most were the social and sensory aspects of it. Sociality: by there being so many people in an open space, you were able to talk and engage with anyone you wanted to. Most of the art pieces were interactive, so as a group of people, you were able to share in this special experience of enjoying art together. It was a fun community building experience. Not only were you able to share in this experience with others, the 

Sensory Stimulation was so amazing. There was a piece that had twenty decorated lamps that lit up in certain patterns according to the music. It was really spectacular to watch. All the pieces had bright colors and lights that interacted with your senses.

Lastly, we had Privacy: after the festival we went back to his place because I live on the third floor of an apartment building with no elevator, and he has a wheelchair accessible entrance on the bottom floor of his house. We just spent time hanging out and watched a movie to end our adventurous night.