Delmotte , Isabelle A.Frawley, PatsieMa, Yuan2026-02-042026-02-042026https://hdl.handle.net/10289/17919This research focuses on non-visual artistic collaborative practice between artists with visual impairment in China and a sighted researcher, encompassing multi-sensory creative practices, including non-visual photography, improvised music, dance, and installation art. A mixed-methods approach integrating qualitative methods (collaborative art practices, semi-structured interviews) and quantitative analysis of audience survey data was employed to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the research phenomena. The resulting data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), and Descriptive Statistical Analysis (DSA) to systematically examine the role of embodied perception and spatial awareness in artistic expression. Further attention was given to how artists constructed meaning and created a sense of place through sensory interaction. The researcher engaged in the collaborative process through multiple roles – academic, practitioner, and curator – undertaking sustained reflexive inquiry to analyse the mechanisms of multi-sensory creation and cognitive transformation. Through collaborative art practices and exhibitions carried out in both China and New Zealand, the study illuminated the dynamic function of embodied difference in multi-sensory collaborative practice, critically challenging visual-centric aesthetic norms and dominant assumptions about creative practices. Critical Disability Studies (CDS) and Crip theory provide robust theoretical foundations for understanding disability experiences. CDS focuses on critiques of social structures, while Crip theory emphasises the deconstruction of marginalised bodies. Despite their complementary insights, these two frameworks are frequently used separately in existing research. Dialogue and intertextual engagement between CDS and Crip theory show certain limitations and remain somewhat underdeveloped. Meanwhile, most current studies concentrate on theoretical development. In contrast, their practical application, especially in artistic creation, embodied creative practices, and cross-cultural collaborative art, remains underexplored. This research integrates both CDS and Crip theory to examine how multi-sensory artistic practices can challenge normative assumptions about perception, disability, and authorship. These frameworks are applied to analyse collaborative processes, audience responses, and curatorial strategies, highlighting how disability is both culturally constructed and generatively embodied. At the theoretical level, the study employed a phenomenological perspective to emphasise how individuals construct unique perceptual pathways through sustained embodied interaction with their environment. This orientation resonated strongly with traditional Chinese Daoist philosophy, particularly the principles of natural spontaneity and Wu-Wei (Hansen, 2024), which emphasise harmony between body and world. Daoist thought values the fluidity of bodily interaction with nature, immediate perception, and holistic awareness, paralleling phenomenology’s concern with embodied experience and the lifeworld. A convergence of these two philosophical traditions was articulated in the research, offering an intercultural theoretical foundation for understanding how artists with visual impairment create art through non-visual sensory modes. This fusion of Eastern and Western thought expanded phenomenology’s applicability in sensory studies and opened a critically grounded, locally situated space for disability arts research. The findings revealed a diversity of perceptual strategies and creative capacities among the Chinese artists with visual impairment. Across the four art forms, distinct sensory pathways were activated through non-visual means. In non-visual photography, artists constructed spatial understanding by combining auditory cues, tactile exploration, and imaginative perception. Improvised dance revealed how bodily movement attuned to environmental affordances could open alternative channels of sensation. In musical improvisation, layered sound and embodied rhythm emerged through muscle memory and somatic responsiveness. Installation art, meanwhile, engaged audiences through the tactile qualities of materials, inviting sensory exploration beyond sight. These practices underscored the centrality of non-visual senses in creative work and redefined the boundaries of artistic expression, contributing to a theoretically grounded and socially relevant framework for non-visual art research.enAll items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.Thesis