[TiM Recap] “A Neurodiverse Fabulation: Techniques for Neurodiverse Futurities”—Aion Arribas and antje nestel (shy*play)

by Agata Kok

Sargassum plumosum from Anna Atkins’ Photographs of British Algae, ca. 1843–53. Source: The Public Domain Review.

The seminar led by the collective shy*play consisted primarily of a presentation by Aion Arribas and antje nestel, who shared a story of how their collective engages with neurodiversity. Usually, their activities take form of workshops and participatory installations, involving fabrics and actions that challenge the neurotypical norms of communication, allowing for other relationalities to emerge. During this seminar, partially due limitations of the space and its nature embedded in university constraints, they stuck to the more conventional format.  Seated in front of the audience, they read a text, accompanied by videos and pictures documenting their workshops and activities displayed on a screen. The presentation told a story that was not linear, but instead interwoven and tangled, like the fabrics they engage with. It invited “listening differently” by incorporating fragments of poetry, as well as sounds and movements that are perhaps sometimes driven away from spaces that prioritise neurotypical engagement. They spoke about the origins of shy*play, the discussions and debates surrounding neurodiversity and their way of “doing neurodiversity,” which treats it as a “zone of potentiality,” exploring its potential to imagine different futures, “futures shaped by new values, modes of relation, forms of knowledge, ways of communication, and perceptions” (Arribas and nestel 2026). Through the examples of workshops and residencies that they have devised, the speakers pointed to the “always relational” character of their work, structured by participatory techniques that emphasize the in-betweenness and relationality, rather than a certain outcome. shy*play describe how their practice responds to thinkers such as Édouard Glissant (1997), and his call for the “right to opacity for everyone,” which refers to them being ‘known’ on their own terms, without having to subject and explain themselves in the context of the dominant norms, instead being able to create their own systems of value.

The presentation was followed by a short break and a discussion, or a Q&A, moderated by dr. Theron Schmidt. During this part, the meaning of the session taking place in the context of university was discussed in regard to the specificity and situatedness of certain spaces, the modes of interaction that they invite, and the possibility to look beyond the normalized ones and exploring their broader potentiality. One of the audience members referred back to a quote from Tito Mukhopadhyay (2015, 40): “There is no more dedicated teacher than temptation.” Following the flowing desire, therefore, allows us to imagine things as coming-into-being through relation rather than predetermination.

References

Arribas, Aion and antje nestel. “A Neurodiverse Fabulation: Techniques for Neurodiverse Futurities.” Transmission in Motion Seminar. Lecture at Utrecht University, June 9, 2026.

Glissant, Édouard. 1997. Poetics of Relation. Ann Arbor Univ. Of Michigan Press.

Mukhopadhyay, Tito Rajarshi. 2015. Plankton Dreams. London: Open Humanities Press.