S.U.'s Neurodiversity Symposium: The Keynote

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Gormley Comes to MassArt

Antony Gormley's work, both sculptural and interactive installations, challenge the viewer to embody their own role of being "on display" for others. His work reflects our own experience, subjecting us to our own gaze. The reciprocity of his work brings to mind many questions I face in my classroom interactions with students. In the special needs classroom, one is always evaluating and re-evaluating our own actions and directives, and Gormley's work makes this subconscious dance visible.

Tongue in Cheek or Call to Action?

Powerpoint seems to have taken over as the educative medium of choice, but we can easily lose sight of the objective of any presentation. What is our foremost goal in presenting information? It's to convey the information.

Oyl Miller, writing for McSweeney's, in a piece called "I am the Orson Welles of Powerpoint," hits the nail on the head with her sarcastic (I think) take on our new addiction to the Microsoft Office Suite.

As an art teacher in the special needs classroom, this trend is particularly troubling. Yes, we're told to create visual presentations and avoid lectures, but is this truly "visual?" Or are we just adding a second layer of "lecture" to another lecture?

I hope others can be inspired by Miller's editorial, and take up the call to use Powerpoint for good and not for mediocrity.

The Creativity Crisis

Newsweek covered this topic in a recent issue. Basically, the trends in American classrooms' creativity, and by extension, in the economy, have dipped drastically in the past few decades. Two notable thinking skills, Divergence and then Convergence, are cited as elemental to improving creative processes. Also, the article takes issue with the idea that creative thinking is primarily a right-brain function. It argues that innovation involves the whole brain, using logic and order to harness the abstract.

The Artist is Present

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An Open Letter

This open letter, penned by Katie Schneider for McSweeney's, sheds some welcome light onto the experience of a parent of a child with AS. Enjoy!

Separated at Birth!

My "twins" from the recent NAEA convention in Baltimore. I keep telling my students that there's a "ponytail and goatee" uniform that all male art teachers receive, and now there's proof!

Hooked on Phonics...

A kind-hearted mistake reveals a search for empathy. If only it really were spelled how it sounds...

I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle

I Am Here: One Man's Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle

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The Vaccine Verdict

There's a new book out, called Denialism, by Michael Specter, which outlines the country's irrational and obstinate denouncement of sound scientific theory in favor of accepted norms. We see it in the fight over global warming (termed "climate change" by those wanting it to sound less threatening) or the new battles over health care; and now I suspect that we'll continue to hear that vaccines are dangerous. Today, the British journal The Lancet retracted its publishing of Andrew Wakefield's findings on the connections between a common childhood vaccine and the onset of Autism. For years, Wakefield has preached his findings to anxious and caring parents of children with Autism worldwide, all the while hiding or downplaying his questionable and unethical research.

I speak, of course, from a non-parent of a child with autism, and I do not want to oversimplify the issues, but I can only imagine the difficulty in accepting one's being taken in by a charlatan like Wakefield. Is it unfair to liken his so-called science to the tonic hawkers of old?

Mmm, what a Delicious Typo

I came across these two menu items at a local restaurant. It made me curious what version of spellcheck was used in putting this listing together.

Why, this IS a great idea!

This concept of the anti-ad is quite the test for having eyes in the back of your head. You know there's something fishy going on, but you can't prove it. Seems it relies upon our cooperation with others to make it 'work.'

Here's the link to the "Idea"

Overheard at the art store...

"He's AR-tistic, not AU-tistic!"

An overheard phone conversation as I was browsing the aisles for some art supplies. It made me smile to imagine the instantaneous reassessment happening at the other end of the line, when, really, the idea that they're mutually exclusive descriptors is absurd.

When We Know We're Being Watched

A find from the Wired blog "Alt Text." It makes one think about our constant state of vigilance, and our new reliance upon it.

A link to the Posting.

Troubling News for the Aspergers Community

Simon Baron-Cohen contributed this Op-Ed to the NYTimes today, and it offers a glimpse into the continued obstacles confronting families and individuals diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. The APA is considering an overhaul of the Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, and planning to lump all those affected under the same umbrella.

If this comes to fruition, the label of "Aspergers" may cease to be, and a community will be forced to learn a completely new system of services.

READ THE ARTICLE

A Needle Woman by Kimsooja

A Needle Woman by Kim Sooja (30 seconds silent short)
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Brooks: The Young and the Neuro

David Brooks of the NY Times opined today about what he witnessed at a recent gathering of social-centric neuroscientists. In reviewing what he learned, he observed that many new findings relied upon the notion that "consciousness is too slow to see what happens inside, but it is possible to change the lenses through which we unconsciously construe the world."

Brooks goes on to say, "The hard sciences are interpenetrating the social sciences. This isn’t dehumanizing. It shines attention on the things poets have traditionally cared about: the power of human attachments. It may even help policy wonks someday see people as they really are."

Perhaps, with Brooks' attention being shining upon the field, a boost in excitement will follow.

Article permalink: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/opinion/13brooks.html

Emotional Touch