Ripple Effect

ADHD and Diffractive Practice

Abstract

In this essay, following a recent diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), I retrospectively explore how one might reclaim ADHD, not as a disorder but as part of a creative methodology. In doing so, I explore what happens when you map the concept of diffraction onto a human-canine artistic collaboration to uncover how ADHD creatively shapes and influences methodologies of doing. Focusing on our current practice of deep canine topography—the collaborative practice of human, canine, and landscape—I employ the concept of diffraction, as developed by Donna Haraway and Karen Barad, to try and imagine the creative process as a number of interlocking ripples, rhythms, and diffractive patterns through the collision of a collection of fractured thoughts and ideas wrestled into words and pictures.