Legend
Objects (accommodations)
Systemic mechanisms
Personal biases
Denies →
Enables →
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From trauma to topology: the grotesque work of quantifying institutional denial
When institutional harm accumulates in childhood—in objects confiscated, spaces denied, bodies excluded—the evidence lives first in memory and affect. The saucer eyes of a humiliated or frightened child. The sting in the sobs of a child who just wants to be with her friends at the volleyball game. The physical weight of a garbage bag full of jackets. The sick calculus of ranking which violation cut deepest in so complex! I have been analysing the objects and spaces where my children’s accommodations were refused, building a multi-lens framework to expose the mechanisms of denial. The fidgets locked away. The bathroom…
