Refusing Volition, Refusing Music, Refusing Time: Neuroqueer Sonic/Autonomic Refrains in Early Childhood Composition

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Theoretical Understandings of Disability Studies in Education

Abstract

In this paper, I draw from my doctoral in-school music research-creation project. I begin by thinking-with queer and affect theories to consider how the dehumanizing of Autism relies on ablenationalist minimum capacities of volition, withholding the capacity to affect from Autistic practices. I then consider how these narratives shape research interest in the autonomic functioning of Autistic bodies, specifically as explored through electrodermal activity. I suggest that Autistic involition is formed by chrono-ableism, rendering Autism as the site of no future. I then ‘listen-in-detail’ to an excerpt from one composition to consider how Autistic practices are noised. I think this excerpt with Deleuze and Guattari’s refrain as a way of modulating affective capacities and sounding a neuroqueer future.

Author

• David Ben Shannon, Manchester Metropolitan University