My cousin Talliesin is Autistic. He's very obsessed with certain things including trains & penguins.
I thought of him while we were discussing the Great Britain project, as i loved the idea of interviewing a child and playing with visualising their imaginations.
My cousin is the only child I know, he's 10 years old. But obviously he's different from most other 10 year olds.
I find his brain, and all people's brains with autism to be very interesting. I don't think it's a hindrance, I think it's a gift. And I thought it would be interesting to explore the mind of autism in a very simple & not in your face way.
I want to interview tallie and ask him about trains. He was just about to embark on a trip to London for a sponsored train hop around the London Underground. I felt that this might be an interesting subject to discuss. I would visualise his words with typography & visuals.
I approached my Aunt to ask if this was ok, and at first she warned me that he cannot articulate why he likes trains, he just tells you facts and statistics. I didn't mind this as i thought it was show how clever he is, and how much he loves trains.
I then approached her again and she had concerns over how the rest of my family might react to the project, so i decided it would be best not to pursue it.