If our brain were to let all daily stimuli through, it becomes chaos in our heads. And also in our bodies! But how do your brain and body process everything that comes in? And how can we empathize with someone whose stimulus processing works differently than our own? For example by creating conditions through which we can experience stimuli differently?

Schweigman& took the initiative for the long-term project Prikkel, because we felt the need to give this – for many people – very personal, but also urgent social theme more attention. For many people, stimulus processing is something they struggle with on a daily basis. Our society as a whole is also under pressure. More and more people feel rushed and lived by outside impulses. We hardly take time to dwell on our body’s signals anymore and become detached from ourselves and each other. It causes a variety of complaints, with overstrain and burnout increasingly on the horizon. This observation led to the question, “Are we collectively overstimulated and what can we learn about stimulus processing from neurodivergent people?”

The artists and scholars who created new work for the exhibition Prikkel in residence at Buitenplaats Doornburgh are: Johannes Bellinkx, Margriet van Breevoort, Roos van Geffen, Silvana Hurtado-Dianderas, Vinny Jones, Anouk Keizer, Molly Palmer, Boukje Schweigman, Deanne Spek, Shertise Solano and Odile van Stuijvenberg.

With this project – in which we collaborate cross-domain and from a coherence of perspectives with Buitenplaats Doornburgh, the HKU and the UMCU – we want to give more familiarity to the subject of stimulus processing. To create more understanding for ourselves and for the other. To deal with each other out of respect, curiosity, tolerance and recognition.

Bezoek de tentoonstelling

Praktisch
6 oktober 2023 t/m 7 januari 2024, van woensdag t/m zondag van 10:00u tot 17:00u.
Je vindt Doornburgh – buitenplaats voor kunst en wetenschap – op Diependaalsedijk 17 in Maarssen, vlakbij Utrecht.

Download de perskit van PRIKKEL hier.

Also listen to De Prikkelpodcast (The Stimulus Podcast)

In the podcast series The Stimulus Podcast, we talk to a (neuro)diverse group of guests about stimuli and stimulus processing. The motto of the podcast series is: ‘Only in a conversation with the other, you find out how differently you experience the world’. Through the conversations, we explored how differences in perception of the world may or may not affect people’s behaviour, moods and everyday existence. In the exhibition Prikkel, the artists and scientists who curated the exhibition challenge you to especially undergo and experience the differences in stimulus processing. The Prikkel podcast focuses on the experts by experience or those closely involved themselves. In the five episodes, expect heartwarming conversations about high sensitivity and creativity, about dyslexia, about getting an autism diagnosis later in life, AD(H)D, colour blindness and coping mechanisms and about young people’s experience of overstimulation at school. You listen to the podcast (bi-)weekly on its own, or as an addition to a visit to Prikkel.