A sonic exploration of neurodivergent identities, Dr Virginia Carter Leno

Divergent Sounds was a co-created project to communicate neurodivergent identities and experiences to those without lived experience. KCL researchers worked with London Sinfonia to  use music to the audience in the idea of neurodivergent worlds. The project set out to to increase awareness and understanding of neuro-divergence, challenge the idea of the “normal”, and encourage people to reflect on how we could make the world more inclusive for people with all different types of minds. The final composition was developed with focus groups and a composer who identified as neuro-diverse. Divergent Sounds was performed at the Southbank Centre to over 300 people.

Flow Associates worked with Principle Investigator Virginia Carter Leno over the course of two years from the project initiation to the final evaluation and best-practice sharing toolkit for researchers integrating creative commissions in communicating their work.

Flow used a Theory of Change (ToC) methodology, exploring with the researcher the ‘why’ of her project in terms of the impacts she hopes to have on people and society, and working back from that to outline shorter term change for stakeholders, and the steps she would take to bring these about. Working together in this way enabled the researcher to articulate the outcomes they hoped to bring about at the start of the project, informing the activities they would produce to do so.

This ToC also underpinned our evaluation framework and the tools we designed to gather insights, and provided a structure for the final report. We worked closely with KCL to design accessible evaluation tools and to think about the experience of the audience at the Southbank Centre. This included designing stickers for audience members to wear to show if they were open to being spoken to, sticker voting activities, an accessible visual score of the composition communicating potential triggers and stations for onsite support and conversation with the evaluation and research team. We carried out an evaluation of the impact of the digital interventions of the project, including the live transcription during the show, supporting accessible programme guides, and the broadcast and recording of the performance.