My initial idea for a visual representation of autism.
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| I chose to make this creature like a wall because Autistic people will do and say what they want, without any regard for what others may think - like you're talking to a wall. They don't respond well in social situations sometimes and often come across cold and uncaring. Again - like talking to a wall. The reason I did the arms on his 'hips' and the shouting mouth, is to show how opinionated autistic people can be and how black and white they are about things - this must be done like this and no other way. I suppose this pose is sort of dominating? or a 'i'm taking charge pose' This is not meant to be an attack on autism, this picture just represents the more stereotypical characteristics of the disorder. Also no ears - means no listening. I should have really done the picture in black and white to suggest being very anal about things. |
I started asking around if anyone I knew, knew anyone with Autism and surprisingly a few people did. Not enough to truly say a lot of people - but more people than I expected to. Regardless, I decided that in case they didn't get back to me in time about these people, I would start up a discussion forum on the 'National Autistic society's' website. I called the Chat 'Visualizations of Autism' and I didn't really think It would work to be honest! But no less than a day later I had people responding. So far I have had two people messaging me. One user, with the screen name
Iwillneverbeold sent me a message saying 'although he couldn't see it as a creature - he could tell me how it feels for him'. He told me it feels like people are only ever seeing the rough draft of himself. Like just the outline of him. No one ever listens to what he actually says - they just respond to what they THINK he said or meant. He shared his frustrations with me about his disorder.
This gave me the idea to draw a street with a character walking down it; everyone is looking at this main character, but they're all drawn properly and colored in to a finished level, and the main character is scribbled, and white with pencil lines - like a walking draft of a character walking down the street. Someone who hasn't been finished yet.
Then I suddenly got the very angry message from a woman with the screen name '
ClaireHig' and I have a feeling shes from America, as she was going on about the states. I think her reaction is interesting considering she leapt right on the defensive. I apologized if I came across as rude and told her that was not my intention. Below is her reply message to me.
I find this very interesting how different people feel differently about similar topics - and that's exactly why I am doing this project. She also gave me the idea to just draw a human face - no monster or anything, because you can't see autism and a lot of autistic people can't see it themselves; its just the way they are. So it would be going totally the other way with the visualization and making it as normal and as human as possible. I think that's quite a interesting idea. I might try that out too. So there's three Ideas - the cat, the face and the scribbly person. I eagerly await to see if anyone else will join my discussion!
More people have joined my discussion and here's what they have said:
Right - anymore updates on the discussion and I will post them here, but now I will get started on their ideas. Here they are. I'm not very keen on them but they get the idea across. The autistic people aren't being very descriptive and I can't upload pictures onto the forum.
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| This one looks better than the white one, I think. Its meant to show all the happy neuro-typical people going about their day , and how he feels like a stranger walking down the street. Hes like them yet not - people only look at him and see the rough draft of himself. |
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| I personally prefer this one, as its more bleak and empty. Its exactly like what Iwillneverbeold said on the forum; people just see the rough draft of you - not what you're actually going to be like. |
Overall I've found this section of my study incredibly interesting; I am bemused and intrigued that there are many other people out there that think a bit like me - albeit a bit more extreme. Autistic people also, it seems, have trouble visualizing things- as they think extremely black and white. So a lot of these drawings and ideas are things that are relatable to, or things that already exist. Very logically minded.
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| (http://funnyjunk.com/Autism/funny-pictures/6096769/) |
This gave me the idea to draw a street with a character walking down it; everyone is looking at this main character, but they're all drawn properly and colored in to a finished level, and the main character is scribbled, and white with pencil lines - like a walking draft of a character walking down the street. Someone who hasn't been finished yet.
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