(Re)imagining Science, an exhibition featured in the Grunwald Gallery of Art at Indiana University, contained collaborative projects by fifteen teams of researchers in the arts and sciences.CIP Bloomington Program Director Ellen Davidson and several current and former CIP students collaborated with Caleb Weintraub of Indiana University’s Department of Fine Arts and Dr. Dan Kennedy of Indiana University’s Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences for their project that intends to open a dialogue about repetitive behaviors sometimes associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder that are often restricted by society.
Gaining insight directly from individuals that engage in these behaviors, Mr. Weintraub aimed to represent what those behaviors mean for the individuals that engage in them in a powerful way; by capturing the movements and representing them through the medium of art to start a conversation about their purpose and function for the individual. In a series of four paintings and additional pictures on monitors, images representing self-stimulatory behaviors of the students involved were displayed for the exhibit. The students were asked to discuss the cause of their behaviors, what it feels like to engage in them, and then were given aesthetic choices for representation, including lighting and colors that they felt best represented their experiences.
CIP students volunteered their insight and perspective in this project by participating as subjects.
