Critical Writing Index

(untitled)

Stim Cinema, 2025, p. 27

Toronto: The Blackwood Gallery, 2025

Catalogue for an exhibition held at the Blackwood Gallery from October 1, 2025 - February 28, 2026. Contains work from The Neurocultures Collective, a group of neurodivergent artists, in collaboration with artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood.

"STIM CINEMA is an exhibition and moving image installation that explores neurodivergent perception, agency, and communication in an era increasingly defined by misinformation, polarization, and systemic distrust.

Curated by Christine Shaw, the exhibition features work by The Neurocultures Collective (Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Sam Shown-Ahearn, Robin Elliot-Knowles, Lucy Walker), a group of neurodivergent artists in collaboration with artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood. At its core, the project asks: What does it mean to trust one’s own perception when dominant narratives privilege certain ways of sensing, knowing, and being? How do neurodivergent experiences of movement, repetition, and sensory engagement challenge dystopian conditions of control, standardization, and hypersynchronization? STIM CINEMA critically intervenes in the dystopian conditions where difference is pathologized, sensory processing is disciplined, and trust in institutions is eroded. Instead of reinforcing logics of neurotypicality, this project explores other linguistic and embodied possibilities for being in relation—where trust is built through sensory connection, shared experience, and an ethics of care." (first page of the catalogue)

ITEM 2025.012 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

STIM CINEMAThe Neurocultures Collective, Steve Eastwood

The Stimming PoolThe Neurocultures Collective, Steve Eastwood

ZoetropesThe Neurocultures Collective, Steve Eastwood

Cartes et linges d'erre: Traces du réseau de Fernand DelignyJanmari, Jean Lin

A Brief History of CirclesGeorgia Kumari-Bradburn

Drawing on AustismAlex Widdowson

ScrapbookMike Holboom

The MaskSharif Persaud & Tim Corrigan

In My LanguageMel Baggs

Autism Plays ItselfJanet Harbord

We've created these invisible systems and structuresSophie Broadgate

A is for AutismTim Webb

Visual DisturbancesEric Faden