STIM POSSIBLE

STIM POSSIBLE is inspired by Harry Dodge's Emergency Weapons, which he constructed in a few minutes from materials he found in his studio as ironic political commentary. I created a contrasting collection of Stim Sculptures, by building tools of healing and stress release, made from found objects in a slow, iterative process. Building the stim toys out of trash represents feeling disposable as a disabled person, discarded by society by being rendered useless due to atypical ways of being, thinking and working. STIM POSSIBLE explores neurodivergence through experimental sculpture, challenging an ableist (work-) culture that alienates neurodivergent indivuals from their sensory needs. An openness to sensory play and stim toys in our every day lives is not only beneficial to many, but also, as shown through my DIY approach, quite possible.

what is sensory play?

Humans are sensory beings - we understand ourselves, each other and our surroundings through touch, taste, sight, sound, smell, movement and balance. Sensory play means intentionally engaging with these senses in a playful way. It is mostly used in children or for its therapeutic qualities, often but not exclusively in people with autism, ADHD, sensory processing disorders, dementia.

what is stimming?

Stimming (also known as Fidgeting) is a form of self-stimulation. It often looks like the repetition of physical movements or sounds that a person makes to self regulate. The purpose of stimming is calming oneself down, distracting oneself while being stressed, or even creating stimuli yourself when there is not enough sensory input (sensory seeking). It also helps with avoiding hightened or negative emotions as well as panic attacks.

Stimming is often seen in neurodivergent* people but not everyone who stims is necessarily neurodivergent. Examples for stimming that most people do is scrolling on or constantly checking your phone, picking your skin, biting your nails, clicking your pen, tapping your leg, whistling, singing to yourself or flapping your hands. Sometimes stimming can manifest into self-harming behaviours, which is where Stim Toys come into play.

*neurodivergent: people who are differing in mental or neurological function from what is considered typical or normal. often used with reference to the autistic spectrum; not neurotypical.

what are stim toys?

Stim toys (also called stim tools, fidget tools or fidget toys) are objects that are specifically designed to entertain different kinds of sensory seeking, often combining multiple stimuli in one object. They are commonly referred to as toys, as they are mostly marketed to children as well as to neurodivergent* people. While sensory play is encouraged in childhood as it helps brain development, in adulthood using stim toys is seen as childish and unprofessional, especially in the work place. I found some people online who preferentially referred to Stim Toys as Stim Tools, to give credit to how beneficial and necessary to many people they are, instead of rendering them as silly.

what is this project about?

I was inspired by Harry Dodge’s “Emergency Weapons” sculptures to build Stim Tools out of found objects (trash). For his „Emergency Weapons“ sculptures Harry Dodge constructed DIY weapons in a confined timeframe of a few minutes from materials he found in his studio. For this project, I turned his concept of urgent weapon building on its head, and instead made tools of healing and stress release by creating “Emergency Stim Toys” in the form of experimental sculptures.

moodboard

via harrydodge.com

As mentioned before, there is a stigma around using stim toys, which is congruent with our ableist (work-) culture. Stimming promotes concentration, creativity and stress relief, but these benefits are often disregarded in fear of appearing silly, unprofessional, or, to put it plainly: neurodivergent. Despite many disability justice and design researchers having pointed out that accessibility benefits everyone, this information has not trickled through into mainstream thought. Through publishing a zine containing a documentation of my sculptures, I want to show that an openness to sensory play and stim toys in our every day lives is not only beneficial to many but also, as shown through my diy approach, quite possible.

Building these stim toys as small bodily entities out of found or collected objects felt obvious, as using trash for sculpture is a common resource in my practice. Building the stim toys out of trash also represents feeling disposable as a disabled person, feeling discarded by society by being rendered useless due to atypical ways of being, thinking, working. I wanted to create objects of healing and release, and i wanted these objects to be visibly queer and disabled (like myself) through a divertion of the materials originally intended purpose.

Selecting the materials for my sculptures meant following my own sensory impulses, going for whatever materials I found to be engaging. Interestingly, I found the building of stim tools itself to be an act of stimming itself. Since I was interacting with so many different materials so closely, trying to understand the material and what different things it could do for me the process was both calming and engaging.

Questions that came up in the creation of this work were: what constitutes a stim toy? At what point does a stim toy turn from uninteresting to engaging? Why do different people find different stim toys more interesting?

I hope to give incentive to experiment with building your own stim toys or exploring sensory play at large, as well as giving the opportunity to hack your own stimming practices by self reflection on what one actually wants out of a stim toy.