Beyond the Visual

It has been a long time since I've updated my website. In the intervening period, I have published a number of journal articles:

Wilder, K. (2025) ‘The Locative Function of Situated Art’, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 82, pp. 430-440. 

Wilder, K. (2022) ‘Self-Disclosure and the Staging of Autonomy in Installation Art’, Theatre and Performance Design, Vol. 8, No. 1-2, pp. 46-62. 

Wilder, K (2021) ‘Architecture as Performance’, Aesthetic Investigations, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 28-59. 

However, my most important research has been as principal investigator of the long-running Beyond the Visual project, funded by the AHRC, working with my co-investigator, the blind artist Dr Aaron McPeake, and with the Henry Moore Institute's research curator Dr Clare O'Dowd. The first stage of the project was a multi-disciplinary research network, culminating in a two-day symposium hosted by one of our project partners, the Wellcome Collection. Other partners were: Tate, Henry Moore Institute, Shape Arts, VocalEyes, The DisOrdinary Architecture Project. Out of the network emerged the idea for a major edited volume:

Wilder, K. and A. McPeake (eds) (2025) Beyond the Visual: Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art (London: UCL Press).

Beyond the Visual broadens the discussion of multisensory ways of beholding contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on modes that transcend a dependency upon sight. A central premise is that a shift in the aesthetic engagement afforded by hybrid forms of contemporary art has the potential to open up new sensory and cognitive engagements for blind and partially blind people. This is a subject that has rarely been addressed within the literature on contemporary arts or disability studies.

Bringing together leading international scholars and artists in the emerging field of ‘blindness arts’, including blind and partially blind artists, curators, advocates for inclusive practices and models of audio description, cognitive psychologists, and theorists of installation, performance and sound art, the book offers a detailed consideration of exemplars of such multisensory engagement, pre-eminently in works by blind or partially blind artists. In so doing, the book not only shifts the discussion on access and inclusivity – reconceiving access as integral to the creative process – but argues that this has the potential to enrich the experience of art for all beholders, moving beyond an often-unexamined reliance on vision.

The second stage of the project began with us being awarded the inaugural AHRC Exhibition Fund. Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture project is a collaboration between Chelsea College of Arts, Henry Moore Institute and Shape Arts – the UK's leading disability-led arts organisation. The project has been dedicated to challenging the dominance of sight in the making and appreciation of contemporary sculpture. It is transforming how museums and galleries engage blind and partially blind visitors. The project has involved public participation in various activities including a research season, conference and series of exhibition-related events.

The research culminates with the UK’s first major sculpture exhibition where blind and partially blind practitioners are central to the curatorial process. They also make up the majority of the exhibiters. The exhibition challenges conventional curatorial practice by encouraging visitors to actively engage with all the works, such as through touch, sound or vibration. The exhibition opened on 28 November 2025 and runs through to 19 April 2026. It has received fantastic reviews, which I have listed (with links) in the 'about' section of this site. As well as co-curating the exhibition with Clare O'Dowd and Aaron McPeake, I am exhibiting a new work named Pendulum. Here are two images of the installed work, in both the work's tethered (where it can be touched) and untethered (spinning) modes. Photographs are by Joanne Crawford and Rob Harris.