City Research Online

Abstract

What role can participatory arts research play in tapping the phenomenology of autistic experiences of being in and experiencing the world? Projects within autism research often centre on benefits of participatory arts with relation to diagnostic criteria (deficits) but far fewer profile qualities of autistic subjectivity per se. This chapter draws on findings from a project exploring the use of music and sound as creative tools at the UK’s only school for autistic girls (workshop participants were aged between 12 and 16). Key characteristics highlighted include qualities of autistic creativity (e.g., focus on detail, discrete sonic/musical events, repetition, sensory play/multimodal stimming (auditory and tactile); public and private musicking (including vocal stimming) to negotiate shared and hidden identities and as a means of self-regulation (of mood, attentional focus and arousal levels). Herbert’s analysis is contextualized by Head Teacher Sarah Wild’s reflections on student experiences of involvement in the project, including student views on autistic creativity and the impact of creative activities on self-esteem, wellbeing and school engagement. From an ecological systems perspective, music & sound workshops may function as micro-contexts aiding researcher/practitioner understanding of qualities of autistic subjectivity intrinsic to lived experience of home, school, and community environments.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	This chapter will be published in Beyond Autistic Stereotypes: New Perspectives on Identities, Gender and Experience by Oxford University Press.
Publisher Keywords:	Autistic creativity, music and sound, lived experience, ecological approaches
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Performing Arts
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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