2023 Presentations

This page about Autscape 2023 is of historical interest only. Go to the home page for current information.
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2023 Lectures

Autistic body language and selective mutism on stage - a poc journey

Presenter:
Meloe Gennai
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Presentation slides
Description:
In the last two years, I have developed a theater performance practice in which selective mutism and autistic gestures are part of the plot.
In this process, I have started working with other autistic people; who are also trans and/or also of African descent. With their inputs and artworks; I have been able to tell a story of generations of Black and afro-descending people in Europe. I have also been able to live my authentic gender fluid self on stage and outside of the stage.
One of the most important elements for me was to create "artificial" support systems on stage : its a rhetorical tool in a way, too show what would be needed to tell our stories.

Let’s talk about menopause: what people with ovaries should know

Presenter:
Rachel Moseley
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Presentation slides
Description:
This talk focuses on autistic experiences of menopause, a life-stage which affects all autistic people with ovaries. At menopause, changing hormones mean that your periods will get less frequent and finally stop altogether. As these hormonal changes also affect the brain, some autistic people report experiencing greater difficulty with executive function and memory, heightened sensory sensitivities, and emotions that are more extreme and unmanageable. Menopause can affect your mental health, but societal taboos mean that we rarely talk about it. As such, some autistic people go into menopause with little idea of what to expect, making it very hard to manage the symptoms, advocate for themselves, and maintain their quality of life. In this talk, Dr Rachel Moseley will outline some of the changes that autistic people may experience, their basis in the brain, and some key findings from our research to help you empower yourself in advance.

Project Reports

Presenters:
various
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Presentation slides: AI and the Rights of Autistic people (Khiah Strachan & Kat Van der Poorten)
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Presentation slides: Autistic People’s Experiences of Violence (Sara Rocha)
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Presentation slides: Replication in autism research: why & how… (Michelle Dodd)
Description:
Various researchers will present 10-minute reports on their research projects and its results.

Supported Decision Making: Advocating to increase autistic autonomy

Presenters:
Yo & Josh
Description:
Autistic people are at risk of being judged to be incapable of making decisions about our lives. The current legal frameworks in England and Scotland result in decisions being taken for rather than by some autistic people. Change is on the horizon, due to the influence of Article 12 UNCRPD, which states that disabled adults should never have the legal right to take our own decisions taken away because of our disability.
We will discuss what we know, from research and collective autistic experience, about autistic decision-making and share examples of supported decision-making. We will encourage collective advocacy for effective supported decision-making, within the existing legal frameworks, and with an eye to future progress. We will highlight the potential of autistic people acting as ‘decision supporters’ to support other autistic people in autistic friendly ways to make more of their own decisions and increase their autonomy.

The Autism-Dissociation Association

Presenter:
Nat Titman
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Presentation slides
Description:
Dissociation is a psychological defense mechanism where the conscious mind becomes distanced from the outside world, or from the feelings and memories it provokes. This is a common, natural response to unbearable experiences.
Dissociative disorders develop when the mind learns to distance itself as a habit and forms an instinctual dissociative response to the stresses of daily life.
This talk explores the connections between autism and the dissociative response, looks at the surprising overlaps in experiences between autistic and dissociative support communities, and advocates for a change in perspective on autism, dissociation and chronic, unaddressed toxic stress.

2023 Workshops

Autistic advocacy in an online world

Presenter:
Pavan
Description:
This is a workshop designed for autistic people to support them with advocacy and how to make a difference in the online world on online platforms like social media. Autistic people will learn various skills like making posts more accessible, self-advocacy, and making a positive impact on social media and other online platforms.
Autistic people will also learn about how to stay safe when advocating online. This will involve things like how to avoid burnout when doing online advocacy, knowing when to take a break, as well as familiarising with the features of social media to help keep safe.
Online advocacy isn't just social media, it can also be blogging or making videos on YouTube. The workshop is intended to support autistic people with feeling more confident about online advocacy.

Beyond the Spectrum: Writing Workshop

Presenter:
Pippa Hennessy
Description:
A fun Beyond the Spectrum creative writing workshop designed by autistic professional writers for autistic adults and young people. Participants of all ages will be led through a series of exercises which have proved the most popular on this successful three-year writing programme. Prompts will encourage creative expression and participants will write original poetry and prose in response. There will also be an informal sharing of work, should participants wish to read, and lots of examples of published work about autism by writers who have taken part in this project.
No previous writing experience required – all welcome!

Feeling Fast and Slow - A Beginning of a Conversation

Presenter:
Jorik Mol
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Presentation slides
Description:
How is it that we can feel so much and so little, all at the same time? In his first non-fiction book with Jessica Kingsley Publishers (published: 2024), Jorik Mol seeks to answer that question. Called Feeling Fast and Slow, it connects Alexithymia and Emotional Porousness to the Double Empathy Problem so as to reconfigure what autistic empathy is.
In writing this book, Jorik interviewed a wide variety of autistic people from various backgrounds. What were their understandings of empathy, their experiences with alexithymia and their sensitivity to the emotions of others. The outcomes have been fascinating and challenging to what autism is understood to be.
Yet today, Jorik wants to invite researchers, activists and advocates to challenge hierarchical paradigms that use empathy to dehumanise us and inspire further, deeper thinking. This workshop seeks to move forward the conversation on neurodivergence, power and, maybe, redefine what makes us human.

Media workshops to promote autistic voices

Presenter:
Henri
Description:
At the media workshops of the Finnish AAVA project, we have planned and compiled podcasts, covering topics close to the lives of the people involved in the project. We have engaged in concrete activities to learn technical skills, such as setting up microphones and practicing sound editing, providing peer support to each other throughout the process and finding out how our skills complement each other. This helps us to pursue our advocacy goals, bringing more autistic people together and making voices heard. To me it is especially important to reach immigrant and minority groups, reducing discrimination and helping people to understand the intersections of culture and neurodivergence.
I intend to speak briefly about our work, and play samples of podcasts and other material created at our project workhops to demonstrate the possibilities. One of the audio clips I play will cover the theme of masking from my personal perspective.

NeurodiVERSE: autistic advocacy through poetry

Presenters:
Janine Booth & Kate Fox
Description:
The workshop will open with Janine and Kate performing a poem each.
Prompting poetry: 'brainstorm' of ideas for subjects for poems. What do you want to communicate in your poem? To describe an aspect of your life? Or articulate your needs? Each person will choose a subject, and make some notes on what they want to include.
Beating the barriers: identifying the barriers that autistic people face to writing and/or performing poems; for each, identifying strategies to reduce, remove or navigate those barriers.
Take some tips!: a few key tips for writing your poem.
Putting pen to paper: time to work on composing the poem. The facilitators will offer support and tips to individual participants.
Reading the results: those who wish to read their poem to the whole group will have the opportunity to do so.
The workshop will close with Janine and Kate performing a poem each.

Portal-proofing your life: Neurodivergent strategies for independence

Presenters:
Kalen & Rin
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Presentation slides
Description:
Do you find that stuff just ‘goes missing’? You took your shoes off by the door and now only one of them is there. The other one is found somewhere completely different, like under the sofa or in your bed. This is due to portals.
Portals appear in random places and disappear things completely or transport them somewhere unexpected. Small things like pens, keys and phones are most vulnerable, but money, shoes and swimming kits are also prone to disappearing. Neurodivergent (autistic, ADHD, etc.) people are especially vulnerable to portals in their environment and when you get a lot of neurodivergent people in one household it can be pretty chaotic!
This parent and child duo will give a range of tips and tricks for neurodivergent living such as the ‘portal-proof box' which may help reduce the occurrence and impact of portals in your life.

Same Food as Self Care

Presenters:
Laura Hellfeld Neurodivergent Nurse Consulting & Autistically Scott
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Presentation slides
Description:
In this workshop, attendants will explore the Autistic food trait of ‘same food’. Same foods are foods that we have a great attachment to, our personal favourites. We may eat these foods every day in order to bring ourselves routine or comfort.
Participants will be welcomed to draw or look up an image of one of their same foods. For those comfortable, we can share these foods and community moment with one another.
We will then explore our emotional and sensory responses to our chosen same food. Participants will be encouraged to draw or write what emotions, colours, shapes, music (or anything else!) that they feel when thinking of their same food. We will explore how our same foods therefore provide an important piece to our mental well-being and self-care.
Participants will then be guided to create scripts for themselves to help navigate social eating scenarios and advocate their food needs.

Sensory nourishment: designing clothing for diverse sensory needs

Presenter:
Maureen Selina Laverty
Description:
Clothing sensations can be experienced at unbearable levels by many neurodivergent individuals, yet fashion design practices rarely consider the impact of the sensations they craft. For the last three years I have been collaborating with neurodivergent individuals to explore how clothing sensations affect their well-being. In particular we examined the kinaesthetic - tactile - sonic dialogues between clothing and the moving body. We concluded that there was a deep desire to access universal emotional experiences such as comfort and freedom. However, these emotional experiences have physical manifestations that may differ from person to person, environment to environment. These are now being explored with four participants, through my fashion design practice, as we introduce the new clothing we design into their wardrobes. I would like to share this research in the hope that others recognise common experiences but also open a discussion to widen the research for even more personal experiences.