Sensory Overload

Image description: Four panels arranged from left to right, depicting a hand, a school classroom, a person's silhouette, and a close-up of a person's face. Acrylic paint, watercolor, paint pen, and collage compose the piece; each panel has a collaged aspect and, respectively, the hand, a school desk, the silhouette, and the glasses that the person wears, have a slight dimension off the page. The piece's style is abstract, applying bright, garish colors and tessellating, frenzied lines to produce an anxious energy.

This series explores the discomfort inherent to sensory overload. For people with severe sensory sensitivity, whether due to neurodivergence or other disabilities. Sensory overload can be debilitating - making it difficult to participate in activities seen as “normal” to neurotypical, able-bodied society. This piece depicts a classroom scene through a perspective jaded by sensory overload. The body feels electric, every nerve alight and buzzing with feeling to the point of pain. Your surroundings are at once an abstract tessellation of unclear shapes and a scene sharp with clarity, simultaneously incomprehensible and “too much.” Because perception isn’t something you can switch off at will. You cannot stop yourself from becoming overwhelmed. Still, you feel the pressure to act “normal,” to not draw attention to yourself and be seen as strange for not experiencing the world the same way as your peers. It is common as a disabled person to be forced to reconcile with certain aspects of your life being limited by your disability; this piece was created during that period of reconciliation.

About the Creator

Matthew Prock