Christine Sun Kim
Christine Sun Kim – 10min from the selby on Vimeo.
Aside from being beautfully shot and edited, the thing that struck me most about the film was this idea of permission. It was a really good example of a neurotypical culture expecting/ assuming that they move through or experience the world is the correct way. And that anything outside of that warrants permission and judgment. There is no acknowledgment that two truths can exist at the same time – Something can taste bitter to one and soapy to another. One persons loud is anothers persons white noise. It is clear Christine felt forced to interact and behave in a way that put others first. Something neurodiverse people do constantly. And something we often inadvertantly encourage students and graduates to do.
If I relate it to my work around helping students and graduates reach success in their career and/or practise there are so many ‘norms’ we speak to. Many of which I have always struggled with (and told students this) but then there is the worry you’re doing them a disservice. We dress it all up in this neat package and call it professional practise.
For example when I started I inherited a slide deck about interviews and how to prepare for them. It was all wear a suit, speak this way, practise in the mirror, write out questions they might ask you and the answers you’d give, practise practise practise.
And this for some people might be really great advice, but knowing from my own experience (as someone who is neurodiverse) most of it was highly problematic and not helpful for me at all. I think that’s why it’s so important when we are designing lessons and workshops we don’t do it in silo. We have different brains sharing their perspective and we also don’t try have ‘answers’ or ‘forumlas’ even if sometimes that’s what students want.
What struck me about Christine is that she is exploring and presenting sound and her experience of it in a way that is 100% on her terms. And thats what I think we should be encouraging students to do, even in the area of ‘professionalism’
So I don’t tell students they should do their interview prep in front of a mirror, or a crowd – unless that works for them. I don’t tell them they should write answers or scripts if, like me, that throws them off if they forget a tiny detail and then there’s no way for them to get back on track. I don’t encourage them to dress super formal, or to present in a way that isn’t natural to them just because they feel pressured to adhere to this professional standard they’ve often be told to. Now we talk about two methods as examples, and encourage them to find their method. The trust method – trusting that you’ve done enough research, you know your work well enough, and you can intuitively relay that in interview questions. Or the practise method, if cramming for exams and rehearsing serves them well, if they need that control and struture- great! Do that.
I actually think Christine’s disability is her ability- her super power, would she be making this beautiful work in the same way if she wasn’t deaf? Of course not! & the same is true of many disabilities, neurodiversities. Interestingly I think sometimes when you’ve moved through the world feeling ‘different’ or ‘other’ it can embolden you to fully embrace that in all aspects of your life. It makes me think of the genius phenomena in children. Where when you’re told you’re gifted at something, and pushed to extreme levels in that area, then praised excessively. You fear not being good, and you ignore things you’re less talented at, you write them off even because you don’t get the dopamine hit of the praise. You simply refuse – ‘oh no, I’m not good at that, I can’t do that’ and in many ways being neurodiverse or disabled is the opposite. You become so used to being told, or at least feeling like you’re doing it wrong or there’s something wrong with you that that becomes your comfort zone. Of course it’s not easy and certainly not always the case but I think in some ways being different in that way gives you permission to really stand out and do something different. I hope in all my teaching I encourage students to find their difference and celebrate it, find ways to make it work for them, and for those who are more in inverted commas normal, educate them to understand the power of difference too.
There’s more on this idea of genius and praise in this book (which is quite old now, but maybe I should re-read with todays lense)
My only worry when encouraging students to wholeheartedly be themselves and express themselves in a way that is meaningful and true for them, is that this approach maybe comes from a place a privilege and am I therefore holding students and grads back by not encouraging them to fit into the spaces the
I work closely with neurodiverse students in my role as academic support and I noticed 2 things. They usually believe in this single story* about themselves which has been repeatedly told to them by society: a single story in which they ‘are’ autistic, dyslexic, etc. What I tell them instead is that they ‘have’ autism, they have dyslexia, but they are not autism, etc. Like their nose, fingers, liver are not them, so their neurodiversity is not them. It’s part of them, one in many many parts that comprise the whole. I also tell them since they are amazing (they REALLY are!), then these parts cannot be bad.
The second thing, like you said, they believe there are ‘right ways’ to accomplish something – a grade, an internship, an appraisal. And so many times these ways do not apply to them. So I tell them the most important thing for them to learn at uni is themselves – how they operate, what works for them, what doesn’t. For instance, one student has ADHD and she noticed that a couple of day prior to taking her medication, she couldn’t focus on readings or writing. Once we figured that, we created a schedule of work to accommodate the cycles of her attention.
*I love this TED talk on the dangers of the single story: https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en
I sort of wish I’d sat down with you when I got diagnosed! (super late incindetally) Sounds like super helpful advice honestly, and the way you relate it to parts of the body – definitely going to borrow that one! sometimes everything feels so connected it’s hard to separate isn’t it? especially when you also have to make the choice about your work, am I my work? Am I the face of what I’m doing? you know on one of the end fo the scale you have Banksy and his invisibility being an intrinsic part of his work and then you have Christine who in a way uses her work to speak to her as a person with a disability in a very tangiable and personal way….
I love your encouraging approach to creative freedom. I wonder how you can facilitate this exploration space dictated by individual students by more than just verbal encouragement. I wonder how I can also empower my students to do things ‘their way’. Thank you for your honesty and enthusiasm.
Yeah definitely, in terms on physical spaces I draw a lot from play work and this idea of being almost invisible until you’re needed, you facilitate a space for play and exploration rather than having the focus on outcome or output. Of course this is not always appropriate but when it is I think being student led is really powerful.