Creativity, self-expression and 'autistic space'

Originally published 19.6.19. Submitted and published in GradPost. 

At the end of April (Autism Awareness Month), the university hosted the second Autism Arts Festival, a biennial event organised by Dr Shaun May from the School of Arts. This event celebrates autistic creativity and is a fully accessible space where autistic/neurodivergent artists can exhibit their work. The festival encompasses a wide variety of genres and media, including both professional performances, book-readings, talks and artwork of many types as well as open mic sessions for attendees to present and perform their own music, comedy, poetry or songs. Building on the inaugural festival two years ago, this festival added an artist development day before the main festival, which ran workshops and panels by established autistic artists to support the work of emerging talent.

The festival also created a range of interactive experiences for autistic people of all ages and support needs to enjoy. This included a sensory circus, Makaton storytime, and Sparklies in the Dark (unstructured sensory play for people of all ages using UV light and glowsticks). Other highlights included relaxed film showings, an all-night Avengers marathon, autism research as explained through photos of cats and the phenomenal Annette Foster’s ‘Super Autie Gang’ performance which explored uncovering what it means to be a late diagnosed autistic person and the finally finding out ‘who you really are’.

The Autism Arts Festival is also a space for autistic people to simply meet up with each other and make new friends. It’s a common misconception that autistic people do not want friends, and while research has reported that autistic people can often have ‘smaller social networks’ , this is usually caused by being misunderstood and stigmatised by our non-autistic peers rather than a lack of desire for friendship on the part of the autistic person. There is a dearth of opportunities for autistic adults to meet each other in Kent, and people travelled to the festival from as far away as Scotland, Wales and Germany. Since many of us are not diagnosed as autistic until adulthood, we have often experienced a lifetime of social isolation before we find this vibrant community. To discover that there are other people who think and experience the world in the way we do is the most incredible joy. Many autistic people (including the authors of this article) take great comfort from making friends, contacts and connections, with other autistic people from all walks of life, it can feel like finally coming home.

Where such opportunities exist for autistic people to come together, this has become known as  ‘autistic space’. However ‘autistic space’ does not only provide an opportunity for people to meet each other. ‘Autistic space’ can also refer to a space for autistic people to convene and ‘just be’ without the pressures and constraints that might be expected in ‘non-autistic space’. ‘Autistic space’ involves us being able to be who we are, without the expectation or need to cover up our differences to meet social norms; for example by forcing ourselves not to stim*, or by faking eye contact, to avoid a ‘spoiled identity’ as Erving Goffman would call it. ‘Autistic space’ allows for us to explore more authentic versions of ourselves, which is political act in itself when we are daily faced with living in a society which sees us as defective. Autistic people are stereotyped as difficult, challenging and awkward; we are branded as looking weird and acting strangely but from our perspective, it is often the non-autistic people who are challenging. The research increasingly supports the theory that this social mismatch between autistic and non-autistic people works both ways. A popular analogy in the community is that autistic people are like cats and non-autistic people are like dogs; a cat is not a defective dog, a cat is simply different to a dog.

Another key factor of ‘autistic space’ is that fact that it is a dynamic entity. Autistic people coming together create such a space, and we need to ‘learn’ how to be in such a space. This is because it involves personally deconstructing how we act in social spaces, and being more aware of when we are hiding who we actually are (known as masking). Most of us have grown up without such space or peers who understand the lived experience of being autistic . Most of us are also used to being judged and we may not even realise the impact this has on our quality of life and mental health. Whether we knew we were autistic or not, we have had to hide who we truly are.

Therefore, the crux of ‘autistic space’ is a sense of belonging; this is a recognised psychological need (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Meeting people who despite being from all various walks of life, cultures and backgrounds, still share many of the same internal lived experiences is the most profound joy. The authors and many other autistic people within the university and far beyond will look forward to many more festivals like this in the years ahead.


You can follow the authors of this article on Twitter at @krysiawally and @autgeek.

*Stimming - informal term for self-stimulatory behaviour. All humans have self-stimulatory behaviour, for example clubbing once a week, however stimming by autistic people is often perceived with a higher stigma attached, for example rocking, hand flapping, using a stim toy (e.g. a fidget spinner), playing with hair. This helps us process the world around us.