Arts House Listening Program

Expressions of Interest (EOI) submissions for CultureLAB residencies between July 2024 and June 2025 will open Thursday 16 November and close Tuesday 23 January 2024. Find out more here https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/culturelab/

The Warehouse Residency is Arts House’s main commissioning pathway for Deaf and Disability led projects developed at North Melbourne Town Hall. Expression of Interests (EOIs) will open Thursday 16 November 2023 for projects taking place between June 2024 – June 2025, and close Tuesday 23 January 2024. Find out more here https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/the-warehouse-residency/

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

Equity Builder Track 4 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 3 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 2 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 1 by Arts House Listening Program

(suspended brain, projections): Are you projecting other people’s ideas all over my neurology? Head in the clouds, raising my consciousness with the help of the tech team, making my MRI 3D. --- Society can project a lot of harmful stereotypes onto the autistic community. We commonly experience a world where people don’t understand our responses. I want to project a future where autism is valued and stimming is seen as beautiful. I want to project my values of inclusivity onto you. I hope this is a visual stim for you, or a conceptual stim - if such a thing exists. I think it does! I think that’s why I like theoretical ideas and poetry. In other words, I hope you are co-regulating with my art - and if you are, I’m co-regulating with you. One of the reasons I like art so much is it is a way we can co-regulate with minorities, or with people in very different demographics, and collectively take responsibility for reconstructing and updating our society. Concept, Filming & Editing: Mishka Film Contributor/ Mo

(Self-portrait as both ape and topless woman) wild and tame, strong and vulnerable, stupid and smart, masc and femme, masking and unable to mask: I can’t make a world without discrimination, I can’t end all ableism, I CAN draw a picture that holds us in the face of everything. --- Sometimes it’s so raw when you can’t regulate - if you’re under pressure, or out in society. I judge myself so much, forgetting not to feel all the things my early carers said to me. Please, don’t judge me for things out of my control. I want our society to change, and stop shaming and pathologising children that are born like me. I want stimming to be normalised, so our bodies can be free. I was diagnosed with ‘Polarised Intelligences’. In my childhood, this diagnosis was called idiot savant. They didn’t explain what the word savant meant (it means smart - I found that out at 32). My teachers’ aide also used the word ‘retarded’, which I preferred to ‘learning difficulties’ as it seemed more open-ended, and I didn’t have any prob

(Mermaid deer mask painting): Don’t look at my mystical mermaid deer winged body. I’m totally a regular norm-core human, that masks real good. --- Masking is a terminology for hiding or suppressing one’s attributes. Many autistic people develop this skill in response to discrimination. It can be hard to know what you want, if you’re pretending your needs don’t matter. It’s really hard to know when to mask. It’s still occasionally important for reasons of safety for me to repress my needs to stim and regulate freely because sometimes I rely on ableist strangers, ableist doctors, and the occasional ableism from people trying to help me. Sometimes I find myself smiling and gritting my teeth as people slow their speech for me. Sometimes I have to keep quiet when I hear agencies talk about exploitation, theft and violence that could have left people in my communities to die. When I get into a safe place I make all the noises, hand gestures, bird-like arm flaps and jumps that I need to feel better and understand

(blob painting): sometimes I like it when my executive functions drop. I can like being over stimulated, sometimes it’s funny and confusing. I can get sound to touch synesthesia; it can tickle me in weird places, like my organs. --- It’s nice to show myself without a mouth when I can’t talk. With no eyes, when I can’t process the visual information I’m getting. With no head, when I can’t catch a thought or remember what’s happening. And all the hands when I’m doing so much sensing. I tried to show you my mystical blob body. When I look in the mirror this is what I think I will see. My beautiful monstrous form. I’m always surprised by my reflection when I see a human looking back at me. This is my body dysmorphia’s morphic form. When you have been dehumanised, you can choose to reclaim not feeling human as a beautiful identity. That’s not very popular with the humanistic far left, but it works for me. I don’t want to be “othered”. I can never be your equal, as long as I am the other. No one can ever be anyo

(Questionnaire): “I’m not testing your responses, it’s only because I’m not a qualified neurologist and it hasn’t been passed by an ethics board” - and the other barriers between us… I made a game where I secretly test people’s global abstract reasoning. Although it’s not so secret because I have no filter and I tell everyone that’s what I’m doing.” --- I want to invite you to imagine what it’s like to have your neurology examined, and share the most beautiful part of being tested - which is deepening your understanding of your own psyche, and creating vocabulary for your own perceptivity. The recent Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability found Australia is in breach of its international obligations, committing “grave and systemic human rights violations for people with disability.” Other reports indicate a power imbalance created by the current top-down NDIS approach to autism. I’ve made this questionnaire artwork to include myself in the conversation, so m

(brain canvases) In collection we gestalt: A flock of birds in the wind A school of fish in the ocean Responding to water and wind Like minds moving in collection, together we gestalt --- Because these are the artworks of around 50 contributing artists it is a bit weird to title it for everyone. I don’t feel an ownership over my ideas or artworks. I do not believe in my identity as separate from society. I don’t believe my psychology is separate from my ancestry. I believe everything I make is informed by artists and psychologists I love. And stands on the shoulders of every social justice warrior that has fought for human rights. I acknowledge all the disabled and autistic people that wished they could have had an opportunity like this and died before they did. I acknowledge those that came before me who were institutionalised for life or lobotomised for my diagnosis. And all the autistic youth and adults currently living in nursing homes in Australia. In reality, there’s a lot of disagreement about what

(braille book): Seeing through fingers with the eyes of my body feels good --- One of the wonderful things about this project was finding out that some people who are partially sighted or have low vision have a strong relationship with stimming. It is sad to find out that they have experienced similar forms of shaming and restraining to me. I love to rock my body and use proprioception to sense where I am in space. I have 20/20 vision and the backs of my retinas are enlarged. I’m very light sensitive. I can see the flicker of electricity in LED bars, hospitals and supermarkets look strobe-lit to me, and I see slightly better at night. Just like a cat. When I was a child, I didn’t respond the way other children might. My year one teacher at Albert Park Primary School thought I might be blind. It was the 80s and she was doing her best to help me. I liked her. I was placed in a class a few days a week where I got to learn to read braille and work with a braille typewriter. I’m very dyslexic and it turns out t