Georgia's conceptual framework is grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm and the social model of disability.

Key texts shaping this perspective include:

• Neuroqueer Heresies – Dr Nick Walker

• Unmasking – Dr Devon Price

• We’re All Neurodiverse – Sonny Jane Wise

• Someone Like Me – Jo Case & Clem Bastow (eds.)

• The Autists – Clara Tornvall

Core themes across these texts:

• Reframing neurodivergence as cultural and political, not pathological

• The personal cost of ‘masking’; identity fragmentation

• Intersectionality in autistic experience

• Creative and nonlinear narrative forms
  
  

This project will draw upon and contribute to emerging research in autistic ethnomusicology, which recognises autistic ways of making and experiencing music as a distinct cultural and artistic perspective.

Key academic references include:

• Michael B. Bakan – Speaking for Ourselves (book)
  “Autistic musicians don’t just respond to music differently; they might conceive of it… according to entirely different aesthetic and perceptual logics.”

• Elizabeth J. “Ibby” Grace – I Sort of Think in Music… (chapter)
  A personal autistic account of music as cognition and communication.

• Erin Felepchuk – Stimming, Improvisation, and COVID-19 (article)
  Suggests stimming is improvisation, relating this to music.

• Lital Shalit, Cochavit Elefant and Efrat Roginsky – Exploring music in the everyday lives of autistic women (article)
  Highlights the complex interplay between the participants’ musical, autistic and social identities, and illustrates how music serves as a medium for expressing these intersecting aspects of their identity.

This is a non-exhaustive list of narratives Georgia will research more deeply during the project.

Folklore and Shapeshifting as Autistic Metaphor

• Selkies – Concealing one’s true form to live among others

• Mermaids – Non-speaking and misunderstood beings between worlds

• Changelings / Bortbyting – Historical myth linked to neurodivergent children

Autistically-coded characters

• Roz (The Wild Robot) – Metaphor for autistic mothering

• Elliott (E.T.) – His intuitive connection with E.T. reflects autistic modes of communication and empathy.

Song themes/topics could include:

• Shapeshifting

• Stimming

• Autistic parenting

• Belonging and identity

• Masking/unmasking

• Sensory overload and/or joy

• Mental health and anxiety

• Autistic communication and friendships (potentially a duet)

• Songs that are not about autism per se, but exemplify autistic narrative styles (cyclic/non-linear; detail-focused)

• Special interests

Repetition, Polyrhythm, and Pattern

Georgia will research how polyrhythms, odd-time signatures, melodic patterning and looping can function as a form of stimming.

Specific song references include:

• Feist – In Lightning; Get Not High, Get Not Low

• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Horology; Catching Smoke

• tUnE-yArDs – Bizness; Water Fountain

• Radiohead – 15 Step; Everything In Its Right Place; Pyramid Song

• Pikelet (Evelyn Morris) – Bug-In-Mouth; Miss Her

• Classical fugues and counterpoint

Texture

Inspired by ambient music with delicate, evolving textures and atmospheric sound design, Georgia will research sound elements such as filtered white or pink noise (focusing on high-mid frequencies) to create soothing, layered textures similar to those used in ASMR.

Specific song references include:

• Julianna Barwick – One Half; The Harbinger

• Olafur Arnakds – saman

• Nils Frahm – Ambre

• Nat Bartsch – New Kinds of Love; Evolution, Resolution

Pop Songcraft

Georgia is first-and-foremost a singer-songwriter. With this project she aims to blend rhythmic complexity, loops, and texture into songs with pop appeal.

Pop songwriter inspirations include:

• Cate Le Bon

• Chappell Roan

• Caroline Polachek

• Hannah Cameron

• Sarah Blasko

• Coda Chroma

• Laura Jean

During Phase 1, Georgia will conduct 4–6 informal interviews with autistic musicians and listeners, intentionally seeking participants across intersections of gender, sexuality, race, and disability. These conversations will explore how autistic people engage with rhythm, repetition, and sensory experience in music. Insights may be shared on Georgia’s blog (with participant permission), and may also inform the songwriting process.

Consent will be sought through a clear, written process, and reaffirmed before and during each session. Participants will be free to pause, skip questions, or withdraw at any time, and can choose to be identified or remain anonymous. An honorarium of $100 will be offered in appreciation of their time and expertise, with written credit provided where appropriate.

To ensure accessibility, participants may choose their preferred format: Zoom, email interview, or a quiet, private in-person setting. Interviews will be designed around each participant’s communication and sensory needs — including providing questions in advance, allowing extended time for responses, and welcoming the use of AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) tools.

Some examples of possible talking points include:

• Do you ever use music as a form of stimming? If so, what is that like for you?

• What role does repetition play in how you experience or enjoy music?

• Are there certain sounds, instruments, rhythms, or musical textures that you find especially comforting or overstimulating?

• Do you notice yourself gravitating toward certain patterns in music?

• How does your body respond to loops or ostinatos — do they soothe, energise, overwhelm?

• Are there pieces of music you return to over and over? What do you think draws you to them?

• Do you experience echolalia: repeating words, lyrics, or sounds, either aloud or in your mind? Has that ever felt connected to your relationship with music?

• Are there particular sounds or frequencies that feel physically pleasurable or uncomfortable for you?

• Are there moments when music has felt like a language or communication tool when words weren’t accessible?

• Are there types of music (or musical elements) that “feel autistic” to you?

• What does “autistic music” mean to you, if anything? What might make something feel authentically autistic?

• Do you think there’s such a thing as an “autistic listening culture” or shared way of engaging with sound?

• How do you feel about the way autism and music are discussed in the media, or within therapeutic vs artistic contexts?

• Have you ever felt pressure to “mask” in your music practice? What does unmasking look like for you creatively?

• What kinds of autistic representation in music would you love to see more of?