This space is primarily a tool for myself to archive reference material and document my creative process.
If you don’t mind the mess you are welcome to rummage around.
“A “retrograde rocket” is a rocket engine on a spacecraft that helps slow the craft down enough that you can bring it out of orbit or land it safely.”
via Austin Kleon
There’s something here that feels resonant with my experience of neurodivergence. Putting a pin in this to consider later on.
More art experiments. Spray foam didn’t work to create oozing forms spilling out of this shape sorter. So I’m trying another material. I popped it in the freezer to set more quickly and turned it every few minutes to control the shape somewhat.
When I started my deep dive on Black Mountain College I came across this book, Leap Before You Look by Helen Molesworth.
I haven’t bought a book that cost this much since university, but it is a beauty.
(If you’re interested in reading I’d suggest checking out an interlibrary loan or trying library at your nearest art museum.)
But compared to going back to school for a Ph.D., which I briefly considered this Spring, this book is basically a steal. 😉
Here are my notes from my first reading session.
There are a lot of threads to pull on here.
The first is a useful guidepost whilst considering the mission and direction of Neurokind.
“the aspirations of Black Mountain College: namely to inspire us in an expansive notion of the arts and creativity through close observation, physical engagement, service, and play…” Jill Medvedow
Keeping an expansive view of art and what it can do and be. It also feels important that creativity can both be of service and play which so often seem at odds with one another.
This quote took me back to my conversation with Morgan Harper Nichols and this idea that art is a form of communication.
It feels very relevant to Neurokind as platform to share experiences that may transcend or defy language.
“And I do think it’s kind of an amazing thing that our minds can do, that we can, especially when we suffer: we can go in and out of our bodies. We can kind of put it down for a minute, which is our body’s wisdom and response to trying to avoid the implications of trauma.”
Kate Bowler
(source)
Podcast Notes
“I forgot it was an experiment. If I stay in the experiment… it stays fun, it stays curious, and it stays open to shifting.”
“You’re allowed to be everchanging.”
“We have to make the space for the thing to come through.”
Marlee Grace (source)
“There is a thing that happens in science fiction where there are characters that have something that makes them special and important and valuable in the science fiction universe that tends to mirror something that when it expresses itself in our prime universe it makes them weird.
So I always felt like a weird outcast kid cause of the stuff that I liked. And I really identified with characters, especially in Star Trek where the thing that made them weird made them special and valuable.”
Wil Wheaton, The Ready Room
Season 1 Episode 3
au·to·tel·ic
/ˌôdōˈtelik/
adjective
FORMAL
1. (of an activity or a creative work) having an end or purpose in itself.
(source)
Saving these resources here so they are easy to find.
Azadeh Kushki et al. Transl Psychiatry. 2019.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31772171/
Danielle A Baribeau et al. Transl Psychiatry.2019.
“At some point in adult hood this shifts for many of us, we think we should just have one thing we love to do and be good at. The pain of “being pulled in many directions” fragments our attention and we are left feeling scattered and unfocused.
This is not a bad thing and I truly believe in reframing “scattered”. If it was a bad thing I wouldn’t have the career and life I have today that I love very much.”
Marlee Grace reflects on shapeshifting and reframing "scattered."
Part of my graduate studies encompassed Art for Social Change and I’ve noticed my own art practice converging with my advocacy. It feels like coming full circle.
When I make art that speaks to my lived experience it is intrinsically tied to my neurodivergence. This wasn’t conscious when I titled the My Brain on Motherhood series, but adds another layer of meaning and focus to the body of work.
Then there is the direct advocacy and educational work I began this summer.
There is so much potential for these practices to overlap and inform one another.
I’m interested in exploring this intersection further as I create more pieces about neurodivergence and autism.