autistic vibrations

ethico-sensory gestures for an art of conviviality

Abstract

this work proposes autistic neurodivergence as a sensitive and critical key for performance art studies.  drawing from my own experience, I investigate how autistic sensitivity operates not as a deficiency, but as a force of creation and connection.  by problematizing social conventions as normative performances (BUTLER, 2016), I propose autistic vibrations as an ethico-aesthetic deviation from the artifices of normality and adaptability.  in dialogue with opacity (GLISSANT, 2021) and minor gestures (MANNING, 2016), I speculate on aspects of these vibrations: sensitive intensities; non-linear and associative thinking; multi-species and multi-matter involvement as a pre-signifying gesture and a critique of neurotypical norms aligned with neoliberal productivism. I thus propose autistic vibrations as a political-relational device for performance practices engaged with poetics of conviviality.