Jean Harrington, Research Fellow and Project Manager of the films, and Steven Kapp, another Research Fellow on the Exploring Diagnosis project, are taking our films to the SAP Diverse Minds event in London on the 11^thApril.

Diverse Minds is an entire event dedicated to raising awareness and educating attendees on how those on the spectrum can bring invaluable people and minds into the workforce. The ethos of the event is to maximise talent through inclusion, which is something we hope our animation workshops and the process of making our films has helped achieve.

This is our first external event. We are very excited to show them to people completely unconnected to the Exploring Diagnosis project.

Eddie Callis, one of the artists whose animation features in the films, is also scheduled to be at the event exhibiting some of his artwork through the organisation Art of Autism.  Further, Adam Feinstein, author of Autism Works: A guide to successful employment across the spectrum, and a member of the Exploring Diagnosis project Advisory Board, will be speaking.

We have lots more festivals planned for this summer as well as a big online launch of the films. Keep an eye on this blog and our Twitter (@ExDx_UoE) for more information

We were delighted with how well our #ExDxFilms launch went on the 2nd April, World Autism Acceptance Day.

Interviewees from the films, people who took part in our animation workshops and colleagues from the University of Exeter came to support our Autism Friendly event. The response to the films was very positive with those who did not know much about autism, its diagnosis and neurodiversity saying they had learnt something new.

Adam Feinstein, a member of our advisory board who has published books promoting autistic strengths commented, “Strengths, for example being able to focus, and weaknesses, for example being locked on to one subject, are part of the same features of autism. The deficit model of autism still pervades, but is changing”. He further commented that he thought our films helped promote a step away from the model.

Our next step with the ExDxFilms is to take them to numerous film festivals over the summer, both national and international. In addition we have planned a big online launch of which more details will be provided at a later date.

Big thanks again from us at ExDx to all the autistic voices and neurodivergent artists, as well as Calling The Shots and Art of Autism in helping us create the films.

Angela Weddle, one of the talented artists who has been working with us to produce our 3 Films on autism, diagnosis, neurodiversity and art, shares with us her thoughts and experiences.

Working on the films with the University of Exeter has been a wonderful and engaging experience. The process of learning animation by doing it, essentially jumping right in, may seem overwhelming to some, but as an artist with autism and other neurodiverse conditions, it is helpful as it circumvents overthinking and some executive functioning issues that can arise with too much planning.

It throws one’s brain into gear and bypasses some of those problems. And having guidance to handle any situations that do arise during the process made it very manageable.

It is also an exciting time to use technology. As an artist who does both traditional and digital art, it is still amazing that I possess the technology for making a movie, for animating something, that I can hold in my hand.

That even as a beginner in this medium, I can continue to learn it at my own pace and watch it evolve, and bring it into the creative process almost as naturally as one would a pencil. It has been a great opportunity to not only tell my story, and those of others, but to expand my own artistic practice and see new possibilities for communication, expression, and art making.

An example of Angela’s art work. This piece is entitled ‘Industrial Storm’.

Not only has Dom been working with Angela, James and JA in the States, but he has also spent time with Eddie here in the UK.  Below is a still from a short video of Eddie’s work that, incidentally, will be featured in one of our soon to be released films!

We are presently working on three short films that aim to capture the voices of autistic adults giving their views on subjects such as the diagnosis and treatment of autism and neurodiversity and also feature artwork by autistic artists.  As we move through the creation and development of these films we are using a Logic Model to evaluate the effectiveness of our work. If you would like to take a look at our Logic Model please click the link.  The Model will be frequently updated as we progress with the project, hopefully capturing a reflexive approach.

Logic Model

Our event explored the role and nature of diagnosis in mental health. Speakers argued for an alternative to diagnosis and the following discussion critically considered the proposed model of the Power Threat Meaning Framework.

Follow this link to to find details of the talks and their respective recordings: http://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/exploringdiagnosis/talks-2018/

Sir Denis Pereira Gray gave this feedback: “My personal thought that many of the ideas and principles overlap with narrative medicine. Listening intensely to what the patient is saying and meaning. Concentrating on the words and figures of speech and their meaning. Listening to childhood experiences narrated. Non judgemental style. Therapeutic benefit  in telling the story and the meanings. I think the word “threat’ has several advantages over the commonly used word ‘problems'”

We are planning to run a further online debate on this topic soon due to the rich discussion that was provoked.