Monday, November 17, 2008

Just a thought

Art represents certain aspects of the current state of our society. If we create more art about having Asperger's, will it create more awareness and acceptance?

This is just something I've been pondering. I want to create more AS-related art. Maybe it will help the idea of neurological differences cross more people's minds. Maybe it can help give way to some sort of revolution. Who sees the same way as I do?

3 comments:

Fleecy said...

I think it would do great at the awareness/acceptance thing if someone could solve one problem. It's kind of a big problem, though.

Art by autistic people is kind of treated more like a zoo exhibit ("An autistic person made this? How novel/inspiring!") than as art. Rather than being taken on its own merits, people seem to tend to spend time assuring themselves that it's amazing an autistic person made any art at all. Doesn't do much good for acceptance. It's pretty degrading, really.

An autistic's art could be taken on its merits if it is not known they are autistic, but then uh, that doesn't do much in the way of acceptance either.

It would make me very happy to know if someone has a solution or way around the whole zoo exhibit factor.

pink said...

I agree with you. I've found it to be a problem in many other ways than in how people view art by those with autism. From what I've experienced, if people don't really know me, and they find out somehow that I have asperger's, then they take me less seriously and ignore most of what I say. I'm determined to find a way for people to understand and accept things produced by people on the spectrum.

Understanding comes first. If there's a general understanding across the board about what autism is, then we're part of the way there. The next step, I don't know, and I'm trying to figure out...

Well, whatever that next step is, we'll have to wait and see. All I'm hoping for someday is that other people understand that an artist's autism adds another level to their work and doesn't define it.

Fleecy said...

Thanks for replying to me. Yeah, I agree, about what you said about being autistic might add something to a person's work, but it does not define it.

To be fair, though, I have to consider that it's hard for a lot of people to have art taken on its own merits, and not just autistic people. I don't know if it's true, but I complained about this to someone once and they commented that even Michelangelo complained that people after awhile stopped looking at his actual work, and just basically said, oh, it's Michelangelo, so it's good. Or something like that.

So maybe it's a problem in general of people paying more attention to who makes something and then ignoring the actual thing that was made.

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