Explore every episode of the podcast Arts House Listening Program

Expressions of Interest (EOI) submissions for The Warehouse Residency between July 2025 and June 2026 will open Thursday 5 September and close Wednesday 23 October 2024. More information can be found here: www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/the-warehouse-residency

Expressions of Interest (EOI) submissions for CultureLAB residencies between July 2025 and June 2026 will open Wednesday 18 September and close Wednesday 23 October. More information can be found here: www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/culturelab/

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ಒಡಲಾಳ Odalala (‘from the depths of one’s being’) brings together Australian and international artists to examine histories of caste, migration, gender and sexuality through contemporary expression.   Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy. Image: Caste-pital, durational performance 9.30 hours, 2017, Haus der Kunst Munich, Photo by Marion Vogel, Courtesy of the artist and Haus der Kunst

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

ನಿರೀಕ್ಷಣೆ nireekshane (‘the act of seeing’) showcases a range of traditional and expanded image-making practices from South Asia and the diaspora. Curated by Vishal Kumaraswamy as part of PHOTO 2024. Image: Millenia of Oppression, 2016, Arun Vijai Mathavan

By Rainbow Chan 陳雋然. To accompany 'The novice, fry and fledging 我全未曉', the lament is reworked into an electronic composition using vocal manipulation, field-recordings and conversation fragments with Weitou elders. 'The novice, fry and fledging 我全未曉' is free to view at Arts House 6-24 May 2024.

Expressions of Interest (EOI) submissions for CultureLAB residencies between July 2024 and June 2025 will open Thursday 16 November and close Tuesday 23 January 2024. Find out more here https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/culturelab/

The Warehouse Residency is Arts House’s main commissioning pathway for Deaf and Disability led projects developed at North Melbourne Town Hall. Expression of Interests (EOIs) will open Thursday 16 November 2023 for projects taking place between June 2024 – June 2025, and close Tuesday 23 January 2024. Find out more here https://www.artshouse.com.au/artist-opportunities/the-warehouse-residency/

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

This is a summary of Arts House’s Disability Inclusion Action Plan 2023 – 2028 narrated by Kath Duncan. This plan is available in alternative formats on the Arts House website: www.artshouse.com.au

Equity Builder Track 1 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 2 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 3 by Arts House Listening Program

Equity Builder Track 4 by Arts House Listening Program

(suspended brain, projections): Are you projecting other people’s ideas all over my neurology? Head in the clouds, raising my consciousness with the help of the tech team, making my MRI 3D. --- Society can project a lot of harmful stereotypes onto the autistic community. We commonly experience a world where people don’t understand our responses. I want to project a future where autism is valued and stimming is seen as beautiful. I want to project my values of inclusivity onto you. I hope this is a visual stim for you, or a conceptual stim - if such a thing exists. I think it does! I think that’s why I like theoretical ideas and poetry. In other words, I hope you are co-regulating with my art - and if you are, I’m co-regulating with you. One of the reasons I like art so much is it is a way we can co-regulate with minorities, or with people in very different demographics, and collectively take responsibility for reconstructing and updating our society. Concept, Filming & Editing: Mishka Film Contributor/ Model: Catherine Smyth-McMullen Collaborating Video Editor: Mish Szekelyhidi

(Self-portrait as both ape and topless woman) wild and tame, strong and vulnerable, stupid and smart, masc and femme, masking and unable to mask: I can’t make a world without discrimination, I can’t end all ableism, I CAN draw a picture that holds us in the face of everything. --- Sometimes it’s so raw when you can’t regulate - if you’re under pressure, or out in society. I judge myself so much, forgetting not to feel all the things my early carers said to me. Please, don’t judge me for things out of my control. I want our society to change, and stop shaming and pathologising children that are born like me. I want stimming to be normalised, so our bodies can be free. I was diagnosed with ‘Polarised Intelligences’. In my childhood, this diagnosis was called idiot savant. They didn’t explain what the word savant meant (it means smart - I found that out at 32). My teachers’ aide also used the word ‘retarded’, which I preferred to ‘learning difficulties’ as it seemed more open-ended, and I didn’t have any problems learning art and things I was interested in. I didn’t see a need to talk or behave like other children. Now I like the term alternative processing abilities. I was privileged to go to the third most expensive private school in Melbourne. This meant that I was segregated with a Special Ed teacher, away from the other children, my entire education. This practice is now illegal. Instead of learning the curriculum, I learned a lot of weird stuff about me. I was tested a lot - around four times a year from grade five to grade 12, and once in my adult life. Even though I did the same test over and over, I could never learn to do things my brain hasn’t developed to do. I come out consistently around the 64th percentile on a two-week long neurological test. You could think that’s pretty average, I’m actually in 0.5% of the population - as half my areas of intelligence are below the 4th percentile, and the other half are in the 98th percentile or immeasurably good. Things that might be automatic or obvious for most people can be incredibly complex or impossible for me. On the other hand, I solved a block puzzle that hadn’t been solved for forty years at Melbourne Clinic, in under 40 seconds, to the amazement of the neuroscientists testing me! I think of the parts of my brain that haven’t developed like a beautiful instinctive apelike-feeling body. There can be something unconstrained, unfiltered and raw about the immediacy I experience. This part of me is so vulnerable and wounded, it’s also the most beautiful part of me. I think of the parts of my brain that are immeasurably intelligent as the parts that can protect me. This part of me appears and disappears with my capacity. Like my speech. It allows me to see things many people in my community can’t see. It allows me to comprehend things 99% of the population will never conceive. There’s a real strength in my vulnerability. There’s a real skill in my specialisation. There’s something fantastic about me that statistics could never quantify! Concept & Artwork: Mishka

(Mermaid deer mask painting): Don’t look at my mystical mermaid deer winged body. I’m totally a regular norm-core human, that masks real good. --- Masking is a terminology for hiding or suppressing one’s attributes. Many autistic people develop this skill in response to discrimination. It can be hard to know what you want, if you’re pretending your needs don’t matter. It’s really hard to know when to mask. It’s still occasionally important for reasons of safety for me to repress my needs to stim and regulate freely because sometimes I rely on ableist strangers, ableist doctors, and the occasional ableism from people trying to help me. Sometimes I find myself smiling and gritting my teeth as people slow their speech for me. Sometimes I have to keep quiet when I hear agencies talk about exploitation, theft and violence that could have left people in my communities to die. When I get into a safe place I make all the noises, hand gestures, bird-like arm flaps and jumps that I need to feel better and understand my body in space. When I mask with people, I get more tired and have more meltdowns. Prue Stevenson says, “We should listen to our meltdowns, they’re wise.” I agree with them. I don’t always know, but my meltdowns know. When I realise I am safe, masking becomes silly. When I mask I often talk overly formally, just like how my grandmother was taught in finishing school in the 1930s. I potentially don’t pass as ‘norm-core’ as I feel I do. Concept & Artwork: Mishka

(blob painting): sometimes I like it when my executive functions drop. I can like being over stimulated, sometimes it’s funny and confusing. I can get sound to touch synesthesia; it can tickle me in weird places, like my organs. --- It’s nice to show myself without a mouth when I can’t talk. With no eyes, when I can’t process the visual information I’m getting. With no head, when I can’t catch a thought or remember what’s happening. And all the hands when I’m doing so much sensing. I tried to show you my mystical blob body. When I look in the mirror this is what I think I will see. My beautiful monstrous form. I’m always surprised by my reflection when I see a human looking back at me. This is my body dysmorphia’s morphic form. When you have been dehumanised, you can choose to reclaim not feeling human as a beautiful identity. That’s not very popular with the humanistic far left, but it works for me. I don’t want to be “othered”. I can never be your equal, as long as I am the other. No one can ever be anyone’s equal. Structural dehumanisation can feel like a group with pitchforks is coming for you, simultaneously feeling like a monster. I love feeling like an ethical monster. Safe to those who love me, like a wolf mother to her puppies. And feeling my metaphoric fur. Concept & Artwork: Mishka

(Questionnaire): “I’m not testing your responses, it’s only because I’m not a qualified neurologist and it hasn’t been passed by an ethics board” - and the other barriers between us… I made a game where I secretly test people’s global abstract reasoning. Although it’s not so secret because I have no filter and I tell everyone that’s what I’m doing.” --- I want to invite you to imagine what it’s like to have your neurology examined, and share the most beautiful part of being tested - which is deepening your understanding of your own psyche, and creating vocabulary for your own perceptivity. The recent Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability found Australia is in breach of its international obligations, committing “grave and systemic human rights violations for people with disability.” Other reports indicate a power imbalance created by the current top-down NDIS approach to autism. I’ve made this questionnaire artwork to include myself in the conversation, so my voice becomes part of the narrative. I want to bring awareness to the history of testing and experimenting on the autistic community. And ask whether or not Australia’s history of testing minorities has been good for people in those groups (for example, the White Australia Policy). Sometimes my community ask me why I think something is ableist. Then I ask them to imagine what it would be like if someone did the same thing to a person of colour or a trans person 20 years ago, and to sub in the disabled identity. 90% of the time, this is all people need to understand my perspective, and why it’s important we have difficult conversations that raise awareness for people that experience marginalisation or identify with having a disability. I’ve had five support coordinators who have been through NDIS training and didn’t know the meaning of the word ableism. I know the meaning, the person scribing for me knows the meaning. If you don’t know the meaning, just ask someone to explain it for you. It’s nice to learn new words. Sometimes there’s something really beautiful that comes out of not being able to do something. Sometimes, from oppression, we understand the true meaning of freedom. Sometimes, when you go without, you get to have a special relationship with the void. I don’t believe there is a ‘better’ or a ‘worse’ way to be human. I don’t believe smarter is ‘better’. I don’t believe being verbal is ‘better’. I don’t believe being more functional, or happier, is ever ‘better’. In my questionnaire, and when I test people, it’s outside right and wrong, and all answers are unconditionally valid: they’re descriptions, like different colours, or different songs. However you were born, in whatever kind of body, and whatever kind of brain, I unconditionally respect you. Well done for reading or listening to this whole thing, and thanks for coming to my show! Concept & Artwork: Mishka

(brain canvases) In collection we gestalt: A flock of birds in the wind A school of fish in the ocean Responding to water and wind Like minds moving in collection, together we gestalt --- Because these are the artworks of around 50 contributing artists it is a bit weird to title it for everyone. I don’t feel an ownership over my ideas or artworks. I do not believe in my identity as separate from society. I don’t believe my psychology is separate from my ancestry. I believe everything I make is informed by artists and psychologists I love. And stands on the shoulders of every social justice warrior that has fought for human rights. I acknowledge all the disabled and autistic people that wished they could have had an opportunity like this and died before they did. I acknowledge those that came before me who were institutionalised for life or lobotomised for my diagnosis. And all the autistic youth and adults currently living in nursing homes in Australia. In reality, there’s a lot of disagreement about what autism is. In my utopia the collective consciousness moves forward embracing a positive idea of autism that feels safe for everyone. Gestalt is a German word meaning whole. Where all the parts are integrated into the whole, and the whole is integrated into all of the parts. A memory of elephants. A paddle of platypus. A shadow of jaguars. A wisdom of wombats. A tower of giraffes. A bloat of hippopotamus. A mob of kangaroos. A parliament of owls. A parade of echidnas. A smack of jellyfish. A crackle of cockatoos. I like animal collective nouns. Do you? I imagine you in my collective society. Do you imagine me in a collective with you? Concept & Workshop Facilitation: Mishka Brain Artwork Contributors: Sophia Constantine, Irit Rozenfeld, Melody Shotade, Milly Cooper, Erin Vivian, Adam Seymour, Lucy Crossett, Mohamed Chamas, Tyrone, River Romano-Leuzzi, Mika Dick, Celia King, Ayesha Tauseef, Leah Pavlidis, Resin Alyssia, Patrick Fox, Antonia Green, Charlie Major, Luci Spectre, Lara Bardsley, Jacqueline Beckmann, Stav Shaul, Swann Biguet, Mia Pandji Sakti, Katina Anaipakos, Ben Dynan, Monika Andrew Poray, Asher Glass, Sam Petersen, Joshua Lynzaat, Sunny Short, Masoumeh Ahmadi, Rob Deguara, Sarah Rowbottam, Aarti Jadu, Goldie Barry, Mishka, Zoe, Sheshtin H, Stephen O, Alice B, Breanna F, Daniele C, Freya T, Kane S, Sinead S, Tallula B, Bryan J, Cheryl, Alison T, Cat S, Daniel C, Eza B, Patricia T, Jenny B, Mark D, Robert C.

(braille book): Seeing through fingers with the eyes of my body feels good --- One of the wonderful things about this project was finding out that some people who are partially sighted or have low vision have a strong relationship with stimming. It is sad to find out that they have experienced similar forms of shaming and restraining to me. I love to rock my body and use proprioception to sense where I am in space. I have 20/20 vision and the backs of my retinas are enlarged. I’m very light sensitive. I can see the flicker of electricity in LED bars, hospitals and supermarkets look strobe-lit to me, and I see slightly better at night. Just like a cat. When I was a child, I didn’t respond the way other children might. My year one teacher at Albert Park Primary School thought I might be blind. It was the 80s and she was doing her best to help me. I liked her. I was placed in a class a few days a week where I got to learn to read braille and work with a braille typewriter. I’m very dyslexic and it turns out that reading braille is a similar level of difficulty to letters, if you’re not blind. I remember those classes fondly. It was one of my most beautiful schooling experiences. I remember moving my fingers over the braille and the beautiful boy with vision and hearing impairment next to me. Our lovely teacher let us stim our hearts out. She was always fighting the force of sticky. She would check our pockets for candy to protect the braille typewriter (and my hair, following annoyed reports from my mother after a number of bubblegum incidents…) That sweet brown-haired boy was always texturally seeking; mixing furry pocket fluff with water and hard sugar candy into sticky, and mushing flowers into paste to smear on my body. Even sharing their chewed chewing gum with me. They made comforting sounds flailing their arms and rocking their body. They loved to lick their lips and drool on everything, the braille, and me. It was the first time I felt safe to stim with others. There was a wonderful joy between us, even though we didn’t speak in words. The different kinds of pastes and mushes that we could get onto the braille and each other was our naughty and secret language. Concept & Content: Mishka Braille Typer: Marisa Sposaro Transcriber: Sarah Rowbottam

(Film): Culture expressed through gesture, sensations all over, and the way the world understands itself: we don’t want to put anything in here that doesn’t make it better. --- I wanted to obscure the meaning for the audience, because my experience of autism feels obscure for me. I asked everyone the hardest political questions that I don’t know the answer to. Many of them are not even in my minority. They all reported being put on the spot was quite confronting for them. Even though they understand deeply what autism and stimming means, under the lens of examination and the glare of the spotlights, they found it hard to find the words to answer these questions. That’s why there is so much giggling. I didn’t want to tell anyone what to think. It’s easy to have a closed conversation, I want to open the conversation. I want to express culture through gesture, the words are secondary to me. Because when I hear people talk in real life I listen first to their body. I asked a neuroscientist, OT, support workers and some autistic people. I cut all the cute apolitical bits out. Where I feel like I am seeing their humanity and an aspect of autistic culture. I don’t know if it’s politically correct for you to guess who is autistic. I want people to identify my culture. I don’t want people to pathologise me. I want everyone to feel through the bodies of my community and participate in our collective stim. Concept, Director, Camera Operator & Interviewer: Mishka Collaborating Camera Operator, Video & Sound Editor: Mish Szekelyhidi Film Contributors: Aarti Jadu, Mish Szekelyhidi, Zoë Barry, Evelyn Ida Morris, Lia Dewey Morgan, Alyes Brown, Natalie Pawlus, Edith Gilfedder, Prue Stevenson, Stella Schiftan, Cynthia Sobraty, Rouana Barber, Catherine Smyth-McMullen, Anna Dylag, Emily Kostos

(third sound cone, chin hair recording): Chin Hair is the name of our new band. --- Chin Hair is improvisational lyrical abstractionist, dada Da Da dada daa-ists, non-modern modernist in a post-post-post-modernist city, deconstructing slime, pixels, stim vocabularies, and other ephemeral and mutable mediums. Recontextualising recycled and household objects as art supplies and renegade instruments, in combination with traditional artistic techniques and practices. Chin Hair is new-wave Fluxist, non-moralist, striving for deep ecological perspective on politics that is in a constant state of redefining its values. Contradictorily, the group remains stable in its revering of congruence and a pervasive drive for autonomy. Chin Hair is also an artist collective comprised of both autistic and non-autistic members. In the way biologists value every plant in biodiversity as a vital and interconnective part of each micro climate and the whole world, Chin Hair values the neurodiversity of all humans as an important aspect of society and humanity. Every plant has its own beauty. Every person has potential for growth. Collaborating Musicians: Mishka, Aarti Jadu, Mish Szekelyhidi, Zoë Barry, Evelyn Ida Morris Sound Recording & Editing: Mish Szekelyhidi

(Sound cone that goes with sensory stim brain): I was thinking about you, lovely member of the general public. There’s probably nothing general about you. I don’t believe that normal exists. --- I have sound to touch synesthesia and audio sensory issues. It’s like the volume of the world has been turned up way too high. Inside me it is always quiet. I can’t talk in my head. I can’t read in my head. I can’t sing or play music in my head, and when I dream it is always silent. Chelle Destefano is a deaf person, and a talented artist. Chelle and I trade day and night, in and out. Chelle can think in her head before they speak in Auslan. They have internal sound responses, from visuals and movements. They can read in their head, and their dreams are loud. One time Chelle had a dream of a rain storm, it was so loud it woke them from their sleep. Do your dreams match your waking reality? Do your internal senses match your external experiences? Do you have any internal senses that you trade, like Chelle and me? Concept & Voice: Mishka Sound Recording & Editing: Mish Szekelyhidi

(suspended brain, projections): Are you projecting other people’s ideas all over my neurology? Head in the clouds, raising my consciousness with the help of the tech team, making my MRI 3D. --- A papier mache top-down MRI scan of a brain, approximately 2M high by 1M wide. It is suspended high in the space. One side is smooth. The other has contours and textured grooves that are the MRI scans in a 3D form. Both sides have unique projections on them. The textured side has a mixture of: - Shadowy browns, blues, yellow that leave the top and bottom segments of the brain without projection - Rorschach like shapes of purple, brown, orange and blue. The shapes and colours shift. On the flat side of the brain: - Close ups of oily looking fingers. The image is cut into portions by wavy lines. - It shifts to a bright pink and purple background as the fingers reveal clear goop. There is a triangular tattoo on one finger and honeycomb patterned nail polish on all fingers. Neary is an accompanying audio piece. The three speakers are covered in black card and wrapped to become cone shaped.

(meltdown blob): It’s multiple things that collide in common, that’s also right and it’s very different. When my executive functions drop, I forget I have legs and I think I have so many hands because I get so many sensations from them. I’m a meltdown blob. A large sculpture made of paper mache with 4 human shaped arms extending out of it at odd angles. The work is all white, standing approximately a metre high and wide. There is a glow from inside it that is a warm light-flesh colour. The hard-lined shape of its structure is akin to clay that has been pushed at various angles. This effect produces a solid rock-like formation with mounds, ridges, and bumps. Its hollow semi-dome shape is off kilter. Some parts of the bottom edge sit flat on the floor and others are slightly raised. It is as though the sculpture has been captured mid-motion. There is partly transparent skin like paper that stretches across the outside surface of the dome. Between this paper skin are thick vein-like sticks, also wrapped in paper. These sticks appear to be connected to one another, creating the effect of a topographical map. We might be looking down at a river system with sections that fork, or cluster together, others that break off to form different bends and curves. Amongst this, at varying heights, the four arms splay at unusual angles and in unique positions. Two with their thumb facing to the ground. Another with a soft bent elbow and its palm facing to the floor. The final arm extends upwards with a graceful and gentle energy in its calm fingers.