On art and autism.

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I just posted this on wetcanvas.com and I am curious as to what you think.


I have been thinking........

Before I begin I have to tell you, contained herein is the opinion of one autistic individual and in no way represents anyone else either autistic or neurological.

I have a unique brain, it works in a way different from anyone I have ever met or read about, although pieces of its workings are found across human experience, like for example how Albert Einstein describes his thinking as a "muscular action" when he is working on equations.

Anyway, I hope you can bear with me as I drift of on tangents, it is quite an annoying artifact of the way that I think (so I am told)

I haven't been artistic for long, (and according to some am not now either) visual arts always being described to me as something indescribable and full of hidden mysticism that made understanding it very difficult for me (like it has others who are on the autistic spectrum).

I need a framework before I can understand something, my world is made up of discreet rules, some that I have been taught and some (most) that I have figured out along the way and I simply am incapable of imagining something that I have never experienced. 

To feel comfortable painting/drawing I need a reference, it acts like an anchor giving me something solid to hold onto as I build away in incremental amounts, whatever I am doing it always takes me a very long time to finish as I feel the need to impart a certain level of complexity to a subject before it feels complete.

I am obsessive. I always have been, it has taken different forms over my life as I moved from classical and contemporary dance, to professional cookery and finally ended up in visual arts. My obsessions usually are tangents/facets within these general groups and have ranged obsessions with high end Japanese knives, to native Australian food to Albert Munsels theories on colour. 

My obsessions lead to a rather high level of knowledge and understand of the subject matter within their limits although I am not very convincing to others in this area as people are quite confusing to me, and I have great trouble predicting and reacting to their responses.

The modern world is a beautiful thing as far as the autistic are concerned, with autistic aids available ranging from computers that help those who struggle with verbal communication, to the Internet where one can follow their obsessional tangents at their own pace, to digital cameras and computer/tablet software that can assist artists/autists in the infinitesimal details that makes art relevant to the autistic brain.

My wife is doing a university course in English, and one of the things that came up was about genre and intertextuality about how each book in a specific genre builds upon its predecessors within its genre so that there Is a hidden language of references that an outsider to the genre just doesn't get missing a lot of relevant information.
I think this also applies to the visual arts and this Is why most NeuroTypical people do not like too much information in their paintings, it just feels like one big reiteration of applies ready absorbed cues.
But I think it It's possible that an autistic mind needs this "extra" information as we lack an understanding of the cultural cues that make such details redundant to those with NT brains.

Anyway, all this is just some ideas I have as to why there is such a visceral reaction to hyperrealism/photo realism within the artistic community, which is the style of art that I am most artistic attracted to.