Autism.

Autism...as a fractal. The brain here is being struck by autism...the great noisy electric storm if you ask anyone with it. The colors represent the enormous deluge of conflicting sensations and the over stimulation resulting from it.

Apo.

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This fractal is an entry in CathARThis 3 Contest. Autism is a brain development disorder. There is no cure. The disorder impairs the individual's ability to socially interact and communicate. It can also include severely restricted interests and repetitive behavior, sometimes referred to as "stimming" or self-stimulatory behavior. It is one of five known Pervasive Developmental Disorders. The disorder is a spectrum disorder, with severity of the disability swinging in both intensity and type. No two individuals suffering from the disorder are exactly the same and, as such, the methods of therapy implemented must be tailored to the individual. Autism affects one child every twenty-one minutes everyday.

I have long wanted to do a piece on autism seeing as my family has dealt with it for the last six years. It has been a difficult journey but an incredibly rewarding one.

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***IT WON!!! I'm happy to say that this piece won the deviantART CathARThis III contest. [link]

What the judges said:

^Katerina423: "The perfect embodiment of autism. That electrical storm. Autism is such a difficult and misunderstood illness and this helps the viewer gain a tangible grasp on what it must be like. That electrical storm. It's wonderful."

*killjoy: "i'm not given to enjoying fractals, but this is a dead-on representation of the autism spectrum, it's ordered chaos, and for most people with autism, there's a structure to it, something they do with a rigid order or pattern, but the pure chaos in the mind that creates this outward order is pure noise. i've to give this due credit, its just smart thinking to use a fractal."

$Moonbeam13: "I love this because it electrically displays the way the brain messages through this disorder. Using a fractal was brilliant in achieving the message."