The Role of Sensorimotor Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Conditions

AbstractIn addition to difficulties in social communication, current diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum conditions (ASC) also incorporate sensorimotor difficulties; repetitive motor movements and atypical reactivity to sensory input (APA, 2013). This paper explores whether sensorimotor difficulties are associated with the development and maintenance of symptoms in ASC. Firstly, studies have shown difficulties coordinating sensory input into planning and executing movement effectively in ASC. Secondly, studies have shown associations between sensory reactivity and motor coordination with core ASC symptoms, suggesting these areas each strongly influence the development of social and communication skills. Thirdly, studies have begun to demonstrate that sensorimotor difficulties in ASC could account for reduced social attention early in development, with a cascading effect on later social, communicative and emotional development. These results suggest that sensorimotor difficulties not only contribute to non-social difficulties such as narrow circumscribed interests, but also to the development of social behaviours such as effectively coordinating eye contact with speech and gesture, interpreting others’ behaviour and responding appropriately. Further research is needed to explore the link between sensory and motor difficulties in ASC, and their contribution to the development and maintenance of ASC

Blue Jay Weeble: experiential approaches to iPad painting

Artists are increasingly adopting apps such as “Brushes”, “Procreate” and “Sketchbook Pro” to create new work. The “Blue Jay Weeble” exhibit for Research Through Design explores the notion of “liveness” around live, experiential digital painting. The artist Jason Wilsher-Mills will perform iPad painting in an immersive space made up of four projection screens linked to iPads and displaying paintings made with the Brushes app. The installation will create an experience of the artist’s dynamic use of the app as a tool for free drawing and collage. The paintings will illustrate a research prototype currently being developed around the notion of a “Digital Weeble”. This hand-scale object opens to display a screen interface controlled by biometric sensors which determine what content is revealed to the user participant. The artist will illustrate this concept drawing on his repertoire of pop culture motifs. These includes Batman and the popular 1970s “Weeble” children’s toy. The works additionally reference precious art objects such as the extravagantly bejeweled Fabergé egg which was produced in Imperial Russia and worn on a necklace

Wet Pixels: From digital to analogue originals

This paper reports on experience design work in progress. “Wet Pixels” is intended to stimulate discussion on the notion of a digital original reproduction. The prototype's physical design is informed by mechanical reproduction devices (e.g. relief press, large format camera) and retrospective print processes (halftone, dot matrix). The concept is outlined for a wooden viewing frame with a miniature camera that enables viewers' selection and capture of a photograph. The subsequent print process onto Japanese paper using the Arduino-controlled matrix of stepper motors with paint-tipped sponges is then detailed. When presented in a gallery, Wet Pixels provides users with more sensory feedback (physical, visual, auditory), through tangible creative mark making on paper, than entirely digital processes

One Knob To Rule Them All: Reductionist Interfaces for Expansionist Research

This paper describes an instance of what we call `curated research', a concerted thinking, making and performance activity between two research teams with a dedicated interest in the creation of experimental musical instruments and the development of new performance practices. Our work builds theoretically upon critical work in philosophy, anthropology and aesthetics, and practically upon previous explorations of strategies for facilitating rapid, collaborative, publicly-oriented making in artistic settings. We explored an orientation to making which promoted the creation of a family of instruments and performance environments that were responses to the self-consciously provocative theme of `One Knob To Rule Them All'. A variety of design issues were explored including: mapping, physicality, the question of control in interface design, reductionist aesthetics and design strategies, and questions of gender and power in musical culture. We discuss not only the technologies which were made but also reflect on the value of such concerted, provocatively thematised, collective making activities for addressing foundational design issues. As such, our work is intended not just as a technical and practical contribution to NIME but also a reflective provocation into how we conduct research itself in a curated critical manner