DYSPLA_fear
Heterodox ideation thrives in Neurodivergent Aesthetics, thoughts that go against the norm that births innovation and revolution, but artistic freedom is routinely denied by our creative industry, limiting the freedom for Neurodivergent Artists to intuitively create. This artwork marks the beginning of a larger research study, which will be presented at the Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference at Durham University, June 2025 and again at the New Brain Exhibition
12–17 May 2025.
Over the last decade DYSPLA’s interactions with Neurodivergent Artists and arts institutions have found a fear of artistic heterodoxy, a fear of multipolarity, a fear of exploring innovative practices and ‘ugly’ ideas, and in too many cases, outright censorship and exclusion.
Neurodivergent creatives are delicate but extreme in our non-conformity. Definition proposes that we are those who think differently. We represent a large minority community, a diaspora mostly unknown to each other. We create on the peripheries of social norms. We explore the extremities of ideation and innovate for survival.
Over the last decade DYSPLA’s interactions with Neurodivergent Artists and arts institutions have found a fear of artistic heterodoxy, a fear of multipolarity, a fear of exploring innovative practices and ‘ugly’ ideas, and in too many cases, outright censorship and exclusion.
Neurodivergent creatives are delicate but extreme in our non-conformity. Definition proposes that we are those who think differently. We represent a large minority community, a diaspora mostly unknown to each other. We create on the peripheries of social norms. We explore the extremities of ideation and innovate for survival.
Artist: DYSPLA & various (listed below)
Title: DYSPLA_fear
Year: 2025
Digital Sculpture: 12 x .gITF, 100mb (approx)
Film: 12 x 60-180 sec, 4k, .mp4
Billboard Posters: 12 x (1x1.5m) White Paper, 350gsm
Text: 3000 words (approx)
Upcoming exhibition...
Past...
Title: DYSPLA_fear
Year: 2025
Digital Sculpture: 12 x .gITF, 100mb (approx)
Film: 12 x 60-180 sec, 4k, .mp4
Billboard Posters: 12 x (1x1.5m) White Paper, 350gsm
Text: 3000 words (approx)
Upcoming exhibition...
- NEW BRAIN Exhibition from 11–17 May 2025 at: House of Annetta | 25 Princelet Street, London E1 6QH. LINK TO DETAILS
- Critical Neurodiversity Studies Conference at Durham University, June 2025
Past...
- IBA_International Body of Arts, 29th May - 1st June 2024, London
- School of the Danmed, Bricks Bristol, 26-28 Jan 2024
From January to June 2024, DYSPLA ran 1-on-1 workshops exploring the fear of one's own thoughts exploring concepts of freedom, expression and self censorship in ones creative practice. The workshops were recorded audibly, anonymised and the participants were captured in 3D, using Structured Light 3D scanners.
Based on these interviews and first hand experience, this personal narrative outlines DYSPLA’s acquaintance with censorship, the relationships between other Neurodivergent Artists and Heterodoxy, and how our peers, funders and the wider creative industry shun the Neurodivergent communities instinctive non-conformity, leading to Aesthetic Masking and Cognitive Alienation.
In 2024, the Arts Council England threatened "reputational risk" for organisations linked to artists who might be “overtly political or activist”. With rising rates of anxiety and the binary ‘whose side are you on’ political climate, the “possibility of possibility" has become dangerous for our leading institutions.
We propose that Neurodivergent Artists are most likely to produce works that push the boundaries of ‘acceptability’ and are therefore most likely to self censor, alienate their intuitive aesthetic and be excluded from cultural institutions.
For aesthetic innovation and inclusivity to flourish, Neurodivergent Artists must have the space to play & entertain the heterodox. Those arts institutions who purport to support inclusivity, must accept ‘offence’, the ‘harmful’ and celebrate the ‘wrong’.
Disability activism calls for acceptance beyond the ‘Empire of Normality’. Aesthetic or ideation, we must be flexible to allow for play. While we obscure our ‘ugly’ ideas, through fear of discrimination, under unipolar domination we conceal the Neurodivergent Aesthetic and hide the true beauty within humanity.
