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“Everyone can be dyslexic, you just need to try harder.”
– Benedict L Phillips
Over the past 30 years, multimedia artist Benedict L Phillips has used his creative practice to explore personal experiences of being dyslexic in our text heavy society.
From the age of 9, Phillips attended a special educational unit, however the severity of his dyslexia lead him to leave school at 16 being almost completely illiterate. While Phillips now understands his dyslexia through the lens of neurodiversity, this term was not coined until the late 1990s by sociologist Judy Singer and understandings of neurological conditions in both a social and medical sense have been rapidly shifting and evolving ever since.
Below, we share a selection of key works produced by Phillips over the course of the past three decades, which playfully unpack, re-present and reclaim dyslexic identity.
The Agenda of the Agresiv Dislecksick is an activist manifesto that rejects ‘normal’ social constraints and offers an insight into a neurodivergent perspective on the world. The Agenda was originally published in DAIL (Disability Arts in London) Magazine in 1995. At the time of its publication, dyslexia was seen as a childhood disease that made you bad at reading and writing.
Following his difficult schooling experience, Phillips had come to the conclusion that acceptance and celebration was the only way he could live his life without being worn down by the day-to-day experience of the text heavy society we live in. In this work, Phillips therefore seeks to reject almost all of society’s interpretations around what it means to be dyslexic and instead builds upon the position that he is very good at being dyslexic.
When institutions mistake "can’t" for "won’t" they often describe an individual as aggressive. Similarly, when you appear to refuse to conform to "normal" rules, society perceives you as aggressive. However The Agenda inverts this notion of aggression to reinforce the fact that, when you sit outside of the normal experience, simple day-to-day activities can require extraordinary almost aggressive acts of will that pass most people by.
The Benedictionary is the world’s only ‘lecsick’ to 'dislecksick' translation dictionary, supporting the proposal that ‘everyone can be dyslexic, you just have to try harder’. The original Benedictionary was created as part of The Myth of Dyslexia, a project which then developed in 2001 into an online dictionary translating Standard English into ‘Dislecksick’, working with an archive of over 1,000 words. A limited-edition hardback version of the Benedictionary was published in 2011 and contains a total of 2,544 words, one more word than the world’s first recognised English language dictionary.
The DIV in White (The Teacher), 2005
The DIV in Red (The Evangelist), 2011
The DIV persona is a recurring character in Phillips’ work. DIV, standing for dyslexic intelligent vision, has been subverted from the slang word div, meaning idiot or someone to pity. He wears a dunce’s cap, an old-fashioned tool of discipline used in schools to mark out children who were disruptive or ‘slow learners’. The character takes multiple forms, as distinguished by their coloured uniform: white (the teacher), black (the anarchist), grey (the architect) and red (the evangelist). Each DIV persona performs in different and specific ways, for example by presenting readings, sharing invitations to participate or by presiding over events.
As part of a residency at Yorkshire Arts Space in 2005, supported by Creative Partnerships, Phillips created the performance The Invisible Apartheid of Words, in which 60 people sat a 45 minute exam in becoming dyslexic. Presided over by the DIV in White (the Teacher), the performance was designed to turn tables on the non-dyslexic or 'leksick' individuals in the room so that simple written tasks became complicated and confusing. It also ensured that ‘dislecksick’ people in the room experienced an enjoyable exam experience for the first time. Two weeks later, a dyslexic intelligent vision award ceremony in which participants were presented with a certificate.
The DIV, a 30 minute documentary of this project, can be watched here.
Invisible Conversations is a series of photographic portraits of adult dyslexics that explores the diversity of individuals’ experiences of dyslexia. The portraits offer a photographic record of the conversation that takes place between the sitter and the artist, during which the sitter is invited to draw a picture of their dyslexic experience onto a chalkboard. This drawing forms the backdrop and context for the portrait and provides the viewer with a glimpse into an otherwise invisible conversation. The use of the chalkboard is a reference to the negative memories, which many dyslexics have of their experiences at school, and an opportunity to put their own mark onto it. The portraits were taken in the USA and the UK between 2005 and 2009.
How to Be Dyslexic and Other Stories was a short course in which the artist worked with a group of 11 neurodivergent adults. It was hosted by Tetley Leeds and supported by a specialist team including an educational consultant, a sculptor and a seamstress. The course took the group on a journey, exploring the relationship between themselves as neurodiverse adults and their experiences of functioning in a text-heavy society. How would it feel or even look to have these invisible experiences drawn out?
This lead to the creation of personal statements exploring and inverting negative interpretations of self, expressed through costume, performance for camera and creative writing. Each participant worked with Phillips to document and capture the moment that their new character came into being.
Here we share 4 of 26 short films from Phillips’ A-Z of Neurodivergent Ideas exploring the past, present and possible futures of the neurodiverse experience.
Phillips is an established artist, curator and consultant. His practice is eclectic, encompassing a broad range of methodologies, generating work as diverse as public art, performance, sculpture, photography and media art. He is particularly concerned with the interrelationship and shifting hierarchy between photography, sculpture and performance.
Phillips recently rescued the Art Dyslexic Trust Archive (1992 - 2012) from destruction and is currently developing a project that encompasses and reflects on the past, present and possible futures of neurodivergent creative practice. He is a director and founding member of several arts groups and organisations including: Field Study, Digital Media Labs and Lens Lab Project. He has been a regular guest lecturer at universities in the UK and the US for the past 25 years, delivering professional development and artist talks and is a member of the expert panel at Manchester school of Architecture.
Banner image: Benedict L Phillips, The Benedictionary, 2011. © and courtesy the artists.
All images on page: © and courtesy the artist.
About the artist image: Photograph by Jonathan Turner.
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