Mediated Encounters in Autistic Spectrum Disorder: From the Material to the Digital

Research on autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly describes autistic individuals as displaying: i) a preoccupation with the world of objects and ii) a withdrawal or detachment from the world of subjects. In her insightful and persuasive article, Sofie Boldsen argues that we should not fall into the trap of viewing the world of objects and the world of subjects in isolation from one another. Drawing from her qualitative and phenomenological study on social interaction in ASD, Boldsen urges us to recognize how interacting with material objects can scaffold, facilitate, and regulate different forms of social connectedness in ASD. In doing so, the distinction between the “social” and “non-social” dimensions of ASD is problematized, and a robustly situated and embedded understanding of ASD is presented. Excerpts from both observational and interview-based data are used to illustrate ways in which social interaction in ASD is mediated via interaction with the material world. Line and Helene engage with one another through their mutual attention to a guitar; Ina and Viola dance together, guided by a virtual dance partner; Hanna and Mads connect while playing a board game. Boldsen argues that through engagement with material aspects of the environment various social possibilities are opened; social possibilities that are importantly experienced as less uncertain and overwhelming. Boldsen suggests two ways in which material mediation regulates and grounds social interaction. First, through their sensible nature, objects can scaffold social co-ordination and attunement. The rhythmic structure of music, for example, is socially supportive; it entrains our bodily movements both in time with the music and, in turn, with others also dancing. As such, the music provides a shared structure in which bodily movement and attunement unfolds, guiding and delineating when and how to act. Second, Boldsen highlights how objects can make normative rules and expectations explicit. As such, they not only provide a structure which shapes the spatio-