Something Love

Information about suitability:

At-home

Something Love was created in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and is our first exploration into sensory film. It premiered in July 2021.

About Something Love

Cubbious (adj.) meaning ‘something love’

“My cat Rocco is cubbious. People can be cubbious too. Even objects like security blankets, books, my iPad etc. Things or people who are very special to me…Cubbious is the colour red and feels like love”.

Something Love is a series of films and still images that digs into the richness of autistic relationships with objects. Objects can be a channel to the rest of the world, and connect us to our bodies. Objects can look after us, and connect us to people and places. But mostly, they are themselves: objects have personalities all of their own.

Created for and with Autistic young people, Something Love is about the infinite joy of objects.

Something Love short films:

Something Love – Green Straw
Something Love – Cubbious

Something Love still images

Photograph looking through a green straw. At the other end is a hand holding a red heart. Photo from Something Love, Credit: Franki Ayres
Green straw amongst field of tall crops, against a blue sky
Shadows on grass. Shadow person with red squishy heart placed on chest looks up at a shadow tree with red squishy heart placed on trunk
View through a green straw of a sunset over a river with a cityscape. Photo from Something Love, credit Franki Ayres
Outstretched arm wearing blue jacket and orange fingerless glove holds a green biodegradable straw, bent at the neck. Its shape reflects the shape of cranes in the background, across a river.

Creative Facilitator Max on Something Love and the creative process

Text on yellow background. "The most exciting thing for me about Squishy Heart (the working title for Something Love) was getting to collaborate with these artists, young: Coery and Jetty, and less young: Franki and Rhiannon. But the other thing that really lit me up was getting to dig into the richness of autistic relationships with objects. For me, my relationships with certain objects are reciprocal. We look after each other. Sometimes they are a channel to the rest of the world, something that connects me to spaces and people around me; they can hold the energy of a place, person or time. But mostly they are beings in themselves with personalities of their own. They help connect me to my body; when I move them about in my hands, balance them on my head, feet, knees or feel their individual shape, heat and texture. They light up my brain with their infinite beautiful, joyful detail that I never get bored of exploring and playing with. We got to have space to explore and play with all of these things with Jetty and Coery. In our second session Coery shared his word Cubbious which he explained at the time as meaning ‘something love’. Cubbious is a very good word. In my head it always has a capital C which feels like it’s holding its arms out to the rest of the word, the double b is friendly and warm and the ‘ious’ is unexpected and mysteriously complex. The best kind of words for me are the ones that I can imagine picking up and playing with. When I say Cubbious it feels like a small cool, smooth and soothingly heavy cube sitting in my palm. Later Coery shared some more about his word he wrote: “My cat Rocco is cubbious. People can be cubbious too. Even objects like security blankets, books, my iPad etc. Things or people who are very special to me…Cubbious is the colour red and feels like love”. This describes what really excites me about the word Cubbious; it doesn’t seem to discriminate between people, animals like Rocco the cat and objects. It’s a special red kind of love." - Max Alexander, Creative Facilitator / Collaborating Artist
Audio of Max Alexander’s writing on Something Love (referred to by its working title during development, Squishy Heart)

Behind the scenes

Read our blog about the Something Love creative process and accessible creative practices.

Find out more about our response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including Something Love, in our Uncancellable Programme Report.

Credits

Lead Artist Ellie Griffiths

Collaborating Artist Rhiannon Armstrong, Franki Ayres, Jetty Flowerdew, Coery Nicholson

Creative Facilitator / Collaborating Artist Max Alexander

Creative Enabler Stella Farina

Film-maker & Editor Paul Williams

Sound Designer XANA

Additional performance Ajjaz Awad-Ibrahim, Aya Nakumura

Executive Director Zoë Lally

Alison Garratt Tours Producer

Communications & Engagement Producer Flossie Waite

Placement Student Chloe Stally-Gibson

Show more Show less