Dromos/Autos: The Autistic Ontology as Performance

Matthew Rogerson

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

Abstract

The essence of this research performance-project is comprised of a transgressive implementation of ‘neurofeedback’; a process in which one attunes and self-regulates their own cognitive and emotional functioning via the utilisation of EEG (electroencephalography) to harness their brainwaves and generate external audio and/or visual stimuli, which in turn consecutively modulate their brainwave patterns to desired, often placative results; a feedback loop. The transgressive nature of this performance derives from the conceptualisation of neurofeedback as a process that induces negative cognitive consequences, by means of a ‘provocative’ audio-visual performance ecology the performer is both a passive mediator and subject to; engendered via cascading digital ‘provocative' systems established within Max/MSP. The performance leverages, and assigns primacy towards, the artist/performers autistic cognition; a particularly idiosyncratic and revealing interface for performance and musical expression which can serve to auto-ethnographically evoke and deconstruct the systemically debilitating socio-economic constructs and metanarratives of the social model of disability, represented by the provocative performance ecology, that disempower members of the autistic and wider disability community.

Citation

Matthew Rogerson. 2024. Dromos/Autos: The Autistic Ontology as Performance. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15028213

BibTeX Entry

@article{nime2024_music_53,
 abstract = {The essence of this research performance-project is comprised of a transgressive implementation of ‘neurofeedback’; a process in which one attunes and self-regulates their own cognitive and emotional functioning via the utilisation of EEG (electroencephalography) to harness their brainwaves and generate external audio and/or visual stimuli, which in turn consecutively modulate their brainwave patterns to desired, often placative results; a feedback loop. The transgressive nature of this performance derives from the conceptualisation of neurofeedback as a process that induces negative cognitive consequences, by means of a ‘provocative’ audio-visual performance ecology the performer is both a passive mediator and subject to; engendered via cascading digital ‘provocative' systems established within Max/MSP. The performance leverages, and assigns primacy towards, the artist/performers autistic cognition; a particularly idiosyncratic and revealing interface for performance and musical expression which can serve to auto-ethnographically evoke and deconstruct the systemically debilitating socio-economic constructs and metanarratives of the social model of disability, represented by the provocative performance ecology, that disempower members of the autistic and wider disability community.},
 address = {Utrecht, Netherlands},
 articleno = {53},
 author = {Matthew Rogerson},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.15028213},
 editor = {Laurel Smith Pardue and Palle Dahlstedt},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 month = {September},
 numpages = {2},
 pages = {183--184},
 presentation-video = {},
 title = {Dromos/Autos: The Autistic Ontology as Performance},
 track = {Music},
 url = {http://nime.org/proceedings/2024/nime2024_music_53.pdf},
 year = {2024}
}