Sara Hendren

Slope: Intercept, 2016,?Mixed media, Dimensions variable, Commissioned by SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2016

, 2016

Sara Hendren’s design projects reconsider the concept of disability and make more active forms of aid possible. Hendren redesigned the existing passive wheelchair icon into one showing a more active and independent image of a person with head pointing forward, arms swung back, and a wheelchair appearing to be in motion. In Slope: Intercept, a ramp is installed on the front plaza of Seoul Museum of Art’s Seosomun Main Building. Visitors must pass this plaza to reach the hall’s entrance. When a ramp is used by a wheelchair user, it is seen as a tool to overcome passivity, but when used by a skateboarder, it is transformed into equipment for dynamic play. Slope: Intercept not only ensures accessibility for wheelchair users, but also, like skateboarders, evokes an active, fun, and dynamic image. A different version of this work is also installed in the Outdoor Sculpture Park of the Buk-Seoul Museum of Art.

Sara Hendren

b. 1973. Lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, and professor. She makes material art and design works, writes, and lectures on adaptive and assistive technologies, prosthetics, inclusive design, accessible architecture, and related ideas. Her work has been exhibited in the US and abroad and is held in the permanent collection at MoMA, and her writing and design work have appeared in the Boston Globe, The Atlantic Tech, FastCo Design, and on National Public Radio (US), among others. She teaches socially-engaged design practices, adaptive and assistive technology design, and disability studies for engineers-in-training in her role as assistant professor at Olin College. She writes and edits Abler (https:// ablersite.org/).?

Production Design: Giho Yang