Opulent Mobility: Thanks and Themes for next time

Audience appreciation for "Driven, the Edwardian Cyborg Wheelchair" at Opulent Mobility 2013. Photo by David Robkin.

First off, thank you to everyone who participated in Opulent Mobility!

Brooke Lykins of UCP Wheels For Humanity, Priscilla Sutton and her slideshow of Spare Parts, Zeina Baltagi, Dwight H. Bennett, Leonard Greco, Barbara Romain and Gwynneth VanLaven: they did wonderful works and I'm grateful for their talent and passion. Thanks also to Peter Soby, Pam Noles, Rebecca Ansert and Karl William Klein for their advice, and to everyone who came out to the show! Special thanks to my dad and brother, Bill Brody and Sol Brody, for coming all the way from Florida and Arizona.

Thanks  for spreading the word for the call for art go out to Kim Cooper of the LA Visionaries Association, New Mobility Magazine,  LA Arts Resources, Disability Arts Online, Terri Lloyd of the Haggus Society and the folks at Art and Art Deadlines. And thanks to the Bell Arts Factory for agreeing to put up an outsider's goofy vision. Without you guys, there wouldn't be much show to see.

Martin Sweeney, Anthony Tusler, Rebecca Hamm and Maria Jones: their knowledge of disability arts is impressive and their generosity of spirit is immense. The people from Disability Arts Online and LA Arts Resource directed me toward organizations and folks I needed to meet. They've all  inspired me to go further.

SO....Here are some ideas for next time.

How would you re-design mobility and disability aids and devices? This can be anything from practical considerations to the super powers you always wanted.  What will make them better? What will help in everyday circumstances or extraordinary events? From everyday improvements to magical and crime-fighting qualities: in this world, everything is possible.There is no box to think outside of. Real changes and revolutionary ideas come from way-out thinking. If you can imagine it, there is a way to make it real. It's from the fringes of what is considered possible that we get our best ideas. So come up with your wildest notions.
They just might be the best ideas out there.