My Autism Language, 2021

My Autism language is a fabric book I made in response to being asked to make a site situated work in my BA course. The pages of the book were exhibited in Naas General Hospital St. Mary’s Mental Health Unit. The pages sit side by side. A hand embroidered emotion that is generally accepted as the typically true e.g smiling = happy , frowning = sad. An illustrated page opposite this shows how I actually show this emotion. These pages represent the neurotypical facial expression for each emotion vs a neurodivergent person’s expression (myself) of the emotion. I have taken how I display these emotions from conversations with my family and my partner Leo as I am frequently unaware I show any difference. I have also included illistations of sensory equipment that I find helpful and shows how I engage with my world. I have also discussed and illustrated how I use my headphones to show my mood and to what level I am coping with the environment I am in. This again comes from conversations with family, peers and my partner.

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