Seems as if I’ve been involved in quite a few “firsts” in Singapore lately. The most recent was the very first Autism/Neurodivergent-Led, Disabled-Led Art & Design residency, which was support by the National Library’s library@orchard branch, and yesterday saw the soft opening of Singapore’s first Neurodivergent immersive and interactive space – crafted by two autistic artists and two artists with Down syndrome, curated by Esther Joosa and Imran Mohamed for Playeum, a centre for children to discover creativity in multiple ways. Continue reading →
The first episode of “Uniquely Me” – a series about autism and autistic lives in Singapore – aired last night on MediaCorp’s Chinese Channel 8. Immediately afterwards, there were rumblings and rants emerging from the adult autistic community in chat groups and on Facebook.
Background
Some contextual background is needed before I launch into my own perspectives and reactions to this twenty minute show.
Autistic people – we are an oppressed and traumatised, vulnerable and hurting community worldwide. As autistics, we are already predisposed towards hypersensitivity, detail orientation, and communicate with the world in ways unlike the normative. Add to this the accumulated collective cultural history of Autism (see Steve Silberman’s “Neurotribes” – the best book published thus far on the history of autism), and the specific situation here in Singapore, where the perception of autism as a whole is mired in the old medical model, and autistic people are generally presumed incompetent rather than competent, completely devoid of our own voice / voices: we have thus acquired a collective trauma, and individual heightened anxiety around the subject of Selfhood. The setting is a painfully raw, tender, largely confused and ignorant, and emotionally volatile scenario. It is not surprising, then, that many in the adult autistic community have reacted explosively, with anger and shock, at this very stark presentation of autistic persons with complex needs in the first episode. Continue reading →
Autism is trending these days. Well, it’s been top of the pops for quite some time, actually. The more sensational the better, it seems, thanks to neuronormative machinations. Big money is to be made here, so it’s not surprising that the field draws so many quacks and snake oil peddlers. From MMS (which is basically bleach solution) to ASEA water (saline water), to a plethora of expensive dodgy programmes claiming to help “cure” / “shed” / “overcome” / “reverse” Autism, the marketplace is busy indeed.
I can understand that parents, especially non-autistic parents, are desperate. Parenting is not easy by any measure. For a non-autistic parent of an autistic child, finding themselves awash at sea in a realm completely alien to their own, grasping at straws for quick salvation is not unnatural at all. However, what grieves me is, in their readiness to part with money for snake oil, it is their autistic children who will bear the brunt of this folly, the children who will eventually grow up into traumatised autistic adults or autistic adults deprived of their intrinsic worth performing poor imitations of neurotypicality. Continue reading →
Clement Space @ Playeum, Singapore, 2019Designing Clement Space, library@orchard, 2019, Singapore.Clement Space @ Yale-NUS, 2018, SingaporeClement Space in the City, 2017, Customs House Library, Sydney, AustraliaSonata in Z, 2015, UNSW Art & Design, AustraliaHaptic Autistry, 2012, Hong Kong.
Design, creation and consultation of sensory engagement in calm space.
Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020Clement Space, National Gallery Singapore, 2020
TALKS / WORKSHOPS / LECTURES: art-science research & practice.
Clement Space: concept, design & creation
Autism, Neurodiversity & Multi-Art Praxis
Autism, Art & Mental Wellbeing
Autism Neurodiversity & Education
Education University Hong Kong, 2018UNSW School of Education, 2015 – AustraliaAsia Pacific Autism Conference, 2019 – SingaporeTEDx, 2018 – SingaporeNTU, 2018 – SingaporeNUS, 2018 – Singapore
COMMISSIONS
Research – Autism, Neurodiversity, Multi-Art Practice & Design.
Writing – reviews, articles, critical analysis.
Art & Music Installations, Exhibitions, Performances.
Something About Home, 2020 – National Gallery SingaporeLittle Sweets, 2014 – AustraliaScheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong KongScheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong KongScheherazade’s Sea, 2010 – Hong KongScheherazade’s Sea, 2013, World Stage Design Festival – Cardiff, UK
In 2014, I took part in a study conducted by a PhD researcher who claimed to specialise in aspects of physiological and psychological empathic and social motivation in autism. I was told in advance that the study would be about emotional vs. cognitive empathy. I remember thinking that I had read a few similar studies on this same subject, but couldn’t recall the exact titles of those papers. “Replication enforces truth,” I recall the words ‘auto-writing’ on my mental blackboard, for no apparent conscious reason. The laboratory was situated in a building tucked away behind another more prominent block. Continue reading →
It was an amazing experience, being a part of such a groundbreaking, massive yet cohesive and well curated festival. (Catch snippets of Snoosphere in this video!)
Moving on ahead, I am looking forward to The BIG Anxiety Festival 2019. Stay tuned, everyone!
I’ll be speaking in the panel at the Joint IHL SEN (Institute of Higher Learning, Special Education Needs) Forum on 14 September 2018 at the Ngee Ann Polytechnic. The extended title of my panel speech is: “Autism, Neurodiversity and a Neurocosmopolitan Future.” My workshop (taking place after lunch) will be about “Embracing Neurocosmopolitanism: different ways of empathy and communication.”
It’s been sitting there in the bowels of my external storage drive since 2016. I am very proud of this work – not merely because I won the top award to be won among postgraduates, the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Research 2016, but much more because of the way I survived the odds with Lucy’s help and that of my loyal friends, and my one and only amazing sister (and her wonderful hubby). It is a team effort of grit, will, faith and a lot of sand in the mouth. It is a testament to me of the beauty of love and friendship.
As the final chapter will tell, the work has been the best thing to happen to me. I waited and longer for this all my life, and it is a dream come true. (The PhD journey – not the Dean’s Award, I never dreamt of that, never in my wildest dream would I think I would win it – actually, I didn’t even know it existed until I was informed that I was in the running!)
Thank you, dear friends who have helped prop me up and given me all that amazing strength to persist.
Here are the speakers notes for my presentation yesterday (11 Aug 2018) at our disability-led forum on Disability-Led Practice, a groundbreaking first in Singapore. I’ve also added more detailed links to videos in this post.
Dawn-joy Leong 