Tourette's Man: Game for Change

Tourette's Man: Game for Change

Artist Statement

           I have had Tourette's syndrome since I was about 3 years old.  My tics started off with me grabbing handfuls of rocks in my backyard, sifting them through my fingers, then returning to whatever activity I was doing.  Now, my tics mostly include finger twitching and making strange noises with my mouth.  Fiddling with string is often involved.  I have become so accustomed to my tics that I sometimes forget how strange it actually is.  I have met very few people who have Tourette's Syndrome, even though it is a surprisingly common disorder.  Reading the Cracked.com article "5 Ways Life with Tourette's is Way Weirder than in Movies" helped me to see that not only do other people suffer with the same things that I do, but others have even worse symptoms, including self-inflicted pain and painful body spasms.  In creating my game, I wanted to give players an idea of what it is like to live with Tourette's.  I wanted to emphasize the involuntary nature of my condition.  Most people seem to grasp the strange nature of my condition, but many have a hard time understanding that a person with Tourette's syndrome is not consciously choosing to say strange things and move their bodies in strange ways.  In fact, I have had several strange arguments about this very subject, and I included some of these conversations within my game. Most of the situations in my game are based on my own personal experiences or the experiences of other people with Tourette's Syndrome. 

            As stated in Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk, if we continue to hear the same stories over and over again, we start to believe them, and we inevitably have a harder time telling different stories.  She experienced this when a critic claimed that her book wasn't "authentically African" because the characters drove cars, ate food, and lived middle class lifestyles.  I have a similar experience growing up with Tourette's syndrome.  Tourette's Syndrome is constantly portrayed in the media as a disorder that causes you to swear involuntarily.  This is only one of many different symptoms for Tourette's, but the media keeps returning to this portrayal because this makes for easy comedy.  It completely ignores the majority of what people with Tourette's syndrome actually experience.  By telling the same story over and over about Tourette's, most people begin to believe that this is the only possible portrayal of Tourette's, and it makes it difficult to change their minds.  We need to remember that there are multiple angles to approach a story, and there are many stories that haven't been told yet.  If we're willing to empathize with someone and put ourselves in their shoes, we will be able to learn so much more and break through existing stereotypes and limited, one-dimensional stories.

Sources:
"I have Tourette's but Tourette's Doesn't Have Me", Ellen Goosenberg Kent, HBO, 2005.
Mannen, Amanda, et. all, "5 Ways Live With Tourette's is Way Weirder Than in Movies", Cracked.com, August 14, 2014,
"Research." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.