Thoughts

Responding to, and answering questions raised in feedback from my presentation:

How do other neurodivergent artists or writers translate their specific perceptual worlds into form?

"The adjective perceptual is all about perceiving, or sensing things. It's your perceptual ability that allows you to make sense of the world around you by seeing and hearing. In science, the various sensory systems (such as visual and auditory abilities) are known as perceptual systems." — Vocabulary.com, “Perceptual,” Vocabulary.com, 2024, https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/perceptual.

I feel that for many neurodivergent artists and writers (including myself), creative work becomes a way of externalising their way of thinking, feeling, and processing that resists standard representation.

Rather than trying to normalise or change their ways of seeing, neurodivergent creatives tend to work with their perceptual differences, treating their non-normative traits as formal tools. In this sense, the work that they produce doesn't necessarily illustrate a condition or disorder, but instead conveys a unique language. I don't think that the goal is to fix or clarify perception; it's more about sitting inside it, letting it shape the work from the inside out. Maybe that's the point: to make something that invites others into that space, even briefly, where the world flickers a bit differently and things don't quite line up the way they usually do.

I do find it difficult to formulate a response to this question as neurodiversity is so broad and unique to each person. I can't step into the mind of a person and see, feel, or experience the ways that they may see, feel, experience. I can only analyse and respond to their work as if I am learning a new language—their language.

When thinking of how, the translation of specific perceptual worlds into form could look like blurred images, overly saturated colours, shaken lines, disintergration of visual language over time, child-like drawings, visual hallucinations, reflections, tactile textures, noise, bright light, dark spaces, etc...

Why is the self the necessary subject for this exploration of neurodiversity and fragmented identity?

I feel like I will struggle to put my thoughts into words so hopefully I can word this in a way that will make sense. For me the self has very little to no affiliation to myself personally. I more-so understand the self as a being. In my work/practice this 'being' is an identity/personality that is a part of community that is different to the 'standard mental ideals' of a person. As neurodiversity is so broad and unique to each individual, I find the self necessary as a subject to explore the traits of said neurodiverse being, rather than the person.

In my work, I utilise self portraits as a being. I use myself as a reference instead of using myself as me. This comes from personally wanting to avoid being on camera but preferring to step out of my own private space rather than feeling like I am invading someone else's privacy. I feel uncomfortable using others as references in my work because of this.

How does your personal, tactile act of self-mapping and examination inform the final, fragmented, public-facing portraits? https://www.laurensimons.art/post/tracing-the-face

The tactile act of self-mapping has become a little ritual that helps me get into my preferred headspace before doing any creative work. I can get easily distracted from what I am wanting to do, and so doing this little activity (often repeating it multiple times in one sitting) settles my mind so that I can focus on my work. This also feels like a warm up for my hands and wrists, similar to how athletes do stretches before they play their sport.

Being able to physically feel the structure of the face helps inform different outcomes of my work. Like translating a 3D object into a 2D space. I can pick and choose the areas of the 3D object to focus on, helping me with a fragmented 2D image. If I focus on the entire 3D object, I can 'see' what others 'see', helping me produce a more realistic image—think of those who are visually impaired and 'see' with their other senses such as touch. In this way I can step out of my own mind and see from a different (tactile) perspective.

At times these drawings can inform my work compositionally. The easiest way for me to try and explain this is by mentioning cubism. Using what was said during my most recent critique (https://www.laurensimons.art/post/critique), "seeing from the whole" referenced transforming a 3D object into a 2D space, combining different visual angles into one image. This helps with odd positionings of facial features in my drawings.