Scheherazade’s Sea is an interdisciplinary creative work, which brings together
music, visual art, literary text, digital media, and performance art. Interdisciplinary
creativity has existed for centuries in history. In fact, the ancients of different
civilisations viewed the disciplines of science and art as inseparable. The late
nineteenth century and early twentieth century saw a resurgence of interdisciplinary
interest in the form of artistic collaborations among proponents of the different arts
forms, mainly music, visual art, theatre and dance. Today, this coalescence now
includes digital and electronic media. However, such works focus mainly on the
more dominant distal senses of sight and sound and fail to consider the
multimodality of natural sensory perception in the experience of art, and many of
these works are performed in settings where artists are separated from audience by
physical and psychological barriers. In Scheherazade’s Sea, I shall address the
limitations of prevalent approaches, by including the proximal senses, removing the
traditional physical barriers and encouraging audience participation.
On another level, Scheherazade’s Sea serves as a vehicle for exploration and
reflection of the inherent sensory and cognitive peculiarities associated with
Asperger’s Syndrome, and their possible influences upon creativity and artistic
expression. Sensory and cognitive idiosyncrasy is a common feature in Asperger’s
Syndrome. Individuals suffer from extremes of either heightened sensitivity or low
arousal to external sensory stimuli, and their innate cognitive patterns differ from that
of the typical majority. As a result, the sensory and cognitive world of a person with
Autistic Spectrum Disorder can be fragmented, disjointed and confusing. While there
exists substantial literature about famous artists with Asperger’s Syndrome and
various aspects of their creativity, there is, to date, limited documentation from the
perspective of the artist with Asperger’s Syndrome, using an original
interdisciplinary work to illustrate the possible ways in which sensory and cognitive
differences may affect and influence creative choices and outcomes. By charting and
examining the features and various processes in the creation of Scheherazade’s Sea, I
hope to discover and contribute more insights into this area of interdisciplinary study.
The purpose of this examination is not to add to the already vast body of
programmes aimed at social rehabilitation and adaptation to the neurotypical world,
but rather to open more avenues for the identification and development of innate
abilities in autistic individuals. My intention is not to ‘fix what is broken’, but to
discover and empower beauty in the unusual and the different. / published_or_final_version / Music / Master / Master of Philosophy
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/146147 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Leong, Sau Mun, Dawn-joy. |
| Contributors | Chan, JKB |
| Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
| Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PG_Thesis |
| Source | http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B47295909 |
| Rights | The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works., Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License |
| Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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