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Health Acts: Applied Theatre, Health and Well-Being, Exeter, 27-28 April 2011
Caring or Curing: Kinesthetic Empathy and Autism
Nicki Shaughnessy and Melissa Trimingham presented a paper based on their on-going research into autism at the Centre for Cognition Kinesthetics and Performance. They discuseds a project which has developed affective ‘interventions’ through the creation of immersive interactive environments, using a range of ‘intermedial’ methods such as puppetry, light, sound, projection and live feed. On Wednesday 27 April, working in conjunction with one of Kent’s Graduate Theatre Companies, ‘Bright Shadow’ (http://www.brightshadow.org.uk) Katie Hirst and Rhiannon Lane collaborated with Nicki Shaughnessy, Melissa Trimingham and Helen Brooks in a re-constructed immersive environment for delegates.
Full Abstract
This paper emerges from on-going research into autism at the Centre for Cognition Kinesthetics and Performance (University of Kent). An interdisciplinary team are investigating the autistic imagination via ‘affect’ where performance creates conditions for constructing and changing experiences. ‘Intermediality’ becomes the liminal space between realities, where performed experiences create an empathetic encounter both ‘affective’ and ‘affecting’, a site ‘where felt emotion, memory, desire and understanding come together’ (Denzin 2003:23). Our work is particularly pertinent to the themes of the conference, addressing the ethics, purposes and perceptions of applied theatre practice in health and educational contexts. Recent research by Simon Baron-Cohen (2007) foregrounds the importance of ‘systemising empathy’ in developing ‘interventions’ for autistic children.
The Kent project develops affective ‘interventions’ through the creation of immersive interactive environments, using a range of ‘intermedial’ methods such as puppetry, light, sound, projection and live feed. A pilot project (Autumn 2009) confounded some of the myths of autism: participants engaged imaginatively and creatively, responding particularly flexibly to dramaturgical structures and developing their own personas within these frameworks. This has led both us and the health and educational professionals we are working with to re-evaluate perceptions of the autistic imagination. Moreover the children demonstrated an embodied and empathetic engagement in this dynamic process.
Working in conjunction with one of Kent’s Graduate Theatre Companies, ‘Bright Shadow’ (http://www.brightshadow.org.uk) Katie Hirst and Rhiannon Lane will collaborate with Nicki Shaughnessy, Melissa Trimingham and Helen Brooks in a re-constructed immersive environment for delegates.
References
Baron-Cohen, S. (2007) ‘The empathising-systemising theory of autism: implications for education’ Tizard Learning Disability Review, 14 (3) 2009 Pier Professional
Denzin, N. (2003) Performance ethnography: critical pedagogy and the politics of culture Sag