A loud, loud world. Sensorialità autistica e sensory overload nelle esperienze immersive

In the last few years, there have been a relevant increase of studies concerning autism, as well as sectoral medical approaches for mapping autistic spectrum. Recently, Davidson and Orsini’s Critical Autism Studies proposal has gained large consensus, as it aims to provide an interdisciplinary approach towards a cultural study of neurodiversity. This new approach also concerns an articulate study of current autism storytelling, in order to analyze dominant cultural stereotypes. This contribution intends to focus on how immersive experiences aim to represent the sensory overload, which may cause a distortion of the perception of reality by autistic subjects. The article analyzes two case studies – Autism TMI Virtual Reality Experience (2016) and The Party: a virtual experience of autism (2017) – in order to clarify how visual and sound design is modified to make us feel the anxiety-provoking feelings of autistic subjects in an ordinary context for neurotypical people. On the other hand, this study tries to go deep into the representation of autism in immersive experiences and its risk of providing a stereotypical representation of autistic spectrum.