Response to the Exchange 62 Zine

Written by Onyx Ocean in Autumn/Winter 2024/25, edited by Jill Howitt Spring 2025

(image courtesy of 87 Gallery – Floromancy by Sam Metz)

Instagram brought Artlink Hull and 87 Gallery into my circle of awareness, but one day I stumbled upon it quite literally whilst walking and taking note of my new city. I had walked past it before, so I followed the gallery on Instagram and was drawn in by a story shared about someone finding a modernist guide to walking the city stocked by the gallery. I am a big fan of Art Deco architecture thanks to my dad, so I was intrigued to see what the modernist guide to walking the city involved, but I had no idea what else I would find whilst I was there.

For a donation of any amount, I was able to take home the Exchange 62 zine/art book, and I was so glad to have donated. One of my partners read this whole art book before I did and was moved to tears seeing such a showcase of disabled artists’ work and discussion of their work in their own words. 

I was particularly struck by the work of Sam Metz, who discussed drawing as stimming and the collaborative sketchbook exchange that inspired the creation of a ‘sound postcard.’ Sam also discussed choreographic objects, which was something else I found very interesting.

Sam talked about using repetitive mark making during lockdown as something that helped mentally – linking repetitive mark making to stimming as a self-soothing activity. The term ‘stimming’ is short for self-stimulatory behaviour, including movements of the body and repetitive use of an object. Sam described stimming as movement that can be reassuring and is body-based. Some of Sam’s work has been about legitimizing stimming as a valid form of communication, which really spoke to me conceptually. Sam said “during lockdown, this kind of drawing that evidences movement, particularly the kind of movement that is denigrated and censored by the outside world (rocking, tapping, motor tics) seemed vital and invigorating.” I agree that this kind of movement is both vital and invigorating, and I love to see neurodiverse artists talking about stimming openly.

Sam also described being interested in visual empathy – the ability to read the physicality of the body through artwork. I also find this fascinating, perhaps because in the age of so much digital art it feels like people can become disconnected from creating as an embodied experience that we as humans have always been called to do. 

According to Sam, choreographic objects are created through movement and often reference the movement of an unpredictable disabled body and motor tics. Sam worked on choreographic objects with ceramic and performance artist Caroline Tattersall for the Exchange 62 project. Sam pointed out the humanity of sculpting with clay and how the objects show the marks of the maker.

Exchange 62 involved collaboration with other artists. Sam worked on neurodivergent led curation research throughout lockdown, with a particular interest in creating interpretations for exhibitions that don’t privilege spoken or written language and instead celebrates alternative communication – embodiment and sensorial engagement. Sam’s call out for collaboration during the exchange was a stimulus for artwork with a broad range of people. Sam said, “the idea of responding to colour and sound really excites me and is something I am passionate about as I have periods of being nonverbal,” and then they presented a brief for drawing as stimming that acknowledged the rhythm of the artist.

As an educator, I am interested in this brief, especially having witnessed many neurodivergent friends and learners struggle with meeting creative briefs [in formal education settings].The brief also interested me as an instructor of mindful movement because of the calls to noticing and the references to rhythm. Some, like Kai Northcott, say ‘rhythms’ can work better than routines or schedules for some neurodivergent people because of things like time blindness and demand avoidance. Northcott goes on to define a rhythm as a “defined order to our day that provides just enough structure to give us (or week or work session, any time frame) direction and focus and enough flexibility to follow the dopamine, pursue our passions, get distracted, and act on our random whims.” Seeing Sam’s brief for drawing as stimming with instructions like ‘learning the rhythm of a shape’, ‘how patterns tell a story of the rhythms of the line’, and ‘to layer up rhythms’ struck me as a call to listen to the body. On Sam’s website, they describe how in their sculptural work, they investigate the ways the human body is open to its surroundings – incorporating shaped materials, unpredictable movement, and neurodivergence. Sam’s artistic attention to honouring the natural rhythms of the body really moved me as a person who suffers from chronic pain/chronic illness, is constantly fighting inclinations (and societal pressure) to work against my body’s rhythms and past my capacity – but who is also a firm believer in honouring natural rhythms and cycles and has trained to help others attune to their bodies. Such honouring of the natural rhythms of the body is disruptive to the oppressive patriarchy that upholds the capitalist climate destroying society in which we find ourselves situated. This is incredibly important work being done.

I also read that Sam utilised Twine, an internet based open-source tool, for telling interactive nonlinear stories, to create an additional set of instructions for the brief to share with their residency cohort. Sam seemed to enjoy considering web-based tools as resources with teaching functions, which has encouraged me to consider what web-based tools I make use of in my practice as an educator and what others I might be interested in incorporating.

After engaging with the Exchange 62 art book, I went on a bit of a deep dive into Sam’s work. Their website says their rationale responds to the premise of ‘neuroqueering’ (a term first coined by Nick Walker), which seeks to undermine or subvert dominant structures that remain hostile to non-normative neurodivergent bodyminds. This made me even more interested in Sam’s work, as I’d learned the term neuroqueering previously in 2024 in a meeting with Mimi Jones of Queer Out Loud CIC and Stu Watson of NeuDice back when I was living in Plymouth. The website states that Sam is interested in exploring the idea of ‘hostile’ spaces through their work with a particular focus on what relational connections mean within ecology. Space/place, relational connections, and ecology are huge interests of mine as well. Sam’s website also says that their work seeks to answer how can art making offer space for new moralities that incorporate non-normative thinking and celebrate non-conformity with specific reference to neurodivergent non-verbal modes of communication. In their socially engaged practice, they are interested in exploring/co-producing and defining [these] new moralities for social structures that are safer for neurodivergent people. I think that the questions Sam seeks to answer with/through their work are crucial, especially when we remember the majority of work/research done around neurodivergence, and especially topics like stimming and non-verbal communication, arise from the belief/bias that those who exhibit these behaviours are inconveniencing the world, and not a perspective that celebrates the neurodiverse lived experience as real and legitimate.

On Sam’s website, ‘Drawing as Stimming’ has its own page, showing how it has become a bigger, wider-ranging project since Exchange 62. Their website says that ‘Drawing as Stimming’ is a collaboration project offering a variety of modes of engagement including mentoring neurodivergent artists, ‘Quiet Crits’ – a crit session for artists that doesn’t prioritise speech, and tools to provide a safe space for stimming. It also offers tools and processes that encourage embodied methods of art interpretation, support for art organisations to facilitate space for non-verbal interpretation, professional development for students and teachers, a collaboration agreement to support disabled artists and the institutions representing them to include the access needs of disabled visitors in the public programming of work, fieldwork for neurodivergence particularly supporting neurodivergent needs in the built environment, encouragement to engage through touch with materials and explore stimming as communication, and a workshop programme centring alternative communication through embodied practice. So far this work has engaged 1500 and counting people. Since reading about Exchange 62 in September, I reached out to Sam and started to follow their work on Instagram. Sam very kindly asked how they could support my writing of this piece and also shared with me some others who are platforming stimming – Xan Dye (whose medium is dance), Aby Watson (whose medium is also dance), NEUK Collective, Neuroqueering Humans, and Laurie Green (who runs Neuroqueering Humans). 

Since following Sam’s work, they’ve launched a whole website for ‘Drawing as Stimming’, describing it as an ongoing project that exists with thanks to widespread organisational support, particularly from Chris Erskine and ‘Necessity.info’ who have great faith in the project and the ideas. The website states that the project originally started as a platform to legitimize non-verbal communication such as stimming and to find a place for it within art making and art interpretation. It goes on to say that work in this field quickly became and continues to be more expansive, framed by ideas of neuroqueering, and seeks to create radical reconciliation with normative expectations held for neurodivergent people in the art industry and beyond. It further states that Sam Metz has framed a praxis towards depathologisation of stimming, opening up space for consideration of stimming as a form of languaging. In addition, Metz’ claim is that stimming has a richness, affect, and communicative potential that makes it a suitable praxis for paying dedicated attention to space and place. I agree with this claim and look forward to seeing further work in the area. The website also mentions that in problematizing stereotypy of stimming as deficit behavior, Sam describes new and complex relationships with art and ecology. Sam’s practice of drawing as stimming has been forged from widespread collaboration, and the website mentions collaborations spanning from their pedagogy working with medical students to work with many neurodivergent artists of all ages.

In addition to the Exchange 62 book, Sam also produced a video for Artlink/87 Gallery called ‘Drawing to Sound’, in which they explore movement, drawing, and sound. Sam explains they are quite interested in capturing movement through drawing, but particularly repetitive movement that comes from involuntary tics (as a result of having Tourette’s). In this video, Sam describes stimming as self-regulatory repetitive actions and how, through drawing, they investigate, create, and document traces of those movements. As someone who enjoys personal documentation, I find it so interesting that someone would want to document the traces of movement and actions that society shames us for and tells us we should hide. I find this a powerful form of resistance and a call to action for other neuroqueer people (and artists) to stop hiding, to stop marinating in our shame. Sam utilised contact mics in the video to amplify the sound of the drawing in order to amplify the movement through sound in a way that other people can read. This is particularly useful for those who may not understand, engage in, or observe stimming. The people who already get how powerful the concept of ‘Drawing as Stimming’ is might not need to watch the video to understand, but others might. I think Sam very deftly navigates the boundary between championing practices that decentre the normative framework society teaches us and recognising the importance of ensuring the practices are accessible for all without gatekeeping. 

References

87 Gallery (2025) Sam Metz https://87gallery.co.uk/sam-metz 

National Autistic Society (2025) Stimming https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/behaviour/stimming 

Northcott, K. (2022) Rhythms over Schedules  https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdAVU2vD/ 

Metz. S. (2025) https://www.sammetz.com/ 

Metz, S. (2020) Drawing to Sound Youtube https://youtu.be/ZgTaEhePXQE?si=Xyy09uQxZuwtzjoa

Metz, S. and Brady, L. (2025) Drawing as Stimming https://drawingstimming.co.uk/about-drawing-as-stimming 

others’ notable work mentioned

Xan Dye – @xan_dye on Instagram

Aby Watson – @disorderingdance on Instagram, https://www.linktr.ee/abswats 

Neuroqueering Humans – @neuroqueeringhumans on Instagram, https://www.neuroqueering.network/ 

Laurie Green – @liminal_resonance on Instagram, https://www.lauriegreen.substack.com 

NEUK Collective -@neukcollective on Instagram, https://www.linktr.ee/NeukCollective 

Neudice – @neu_dice on Instagram, https://www.neudice.org 

Queer Out Loud CIC – @queeroutloud on Instagram, https://www.queeroutloud.com