The Pneumafractalist
The Pneumafractalist
Harmon dot aut
Harmon dot aut
The project explores the intersection of poverty, identity, and social dynamics through the story of an Autistic artist who has experienced life in deep rural poverty and has created art every day since childhood. The stitching of multimedia design, documentary footage and autobiographical stage play highlights the tension between a documentary filmmaker’s observational style and the subjective reality of the Autistic artist, reflecting themes of ownership, misinterpretation, and power structures. The performance turns the tables on the documentary format by making the film director a character being interviewed by the Autistic artist. The artist’s lifelong artwork, made from found materials, will act as the set, propelling the story while representing the fractured and often misunderstood history of a life spent in poverty. These pieces embody both synesthesia and a tactile language of survival, speaking to the sensory experience of the artist’s world. The project asks live audiences to challenge their assumptions by reconsidering what they think they know about individuals who live in poverty and those with disabilities.
One example of a design element is the use of stitched pillowcases and bedsheets purchased from a tag sale at the site of a condemned psychiatric hospital, still stained with the bodily fluids of patients, evidence of lives hidden away. The artwork is stitched, referencing how the artist as a child taught themself to speak by following the rhythm of stitches in their clothes – in the same way that re-editing the documentary becomes an act of appliquéing themself back onto their story, an attempt to reclaim their voice by stitching themselves indelibly into a world that has marginalized them. Through the live re-edit, the artist wrestles with who actually owns their story, “Do I now belong to the filmmaker?” This dilemma reflects the larger wealth gap in America, where the possession of resources and stories is not just about material goods but about who gets to define what’s true or valuable.
But the final act of this project doesn’t rest in performance or even in the art itself—it lives in a shared human experience that can happen beyond the theater. A portion of the awarded funds will be used not for the creation of the project itself but to directly give to individuals in need. Audience members will be invited to take money from a communal bowl, to buy and share a meal with an unhoused person, making a direct connection. This act of kindness and shared presence, without any expectation of return, is the final gesture that embodies the project’s philosophy: the breaking of boundaries between artist and audience, wealthy and impoverished, and between those who give and those who receive. Through these acts, the project invites folks to shed their fear of the “other” and reclaim their own capacity for connection, solidarity, and shared humanity.
Multimedia Performance, Performing Arts, Socially-Engaged Performance, Theater
2026
About Harmon dot aut
Putnam Valley, NY
A new hybrid documentary about Harmon’s life and work is currently in production with Director James Rutenbeck in collaboration with Paul Lieber, and Craig Lucas. An excerpt of Harmon’s award winning short play, Space, is published in We/Us: Monologues for The Gender Minority, Smith & Kraus. Harmon won a Venturous Playwriting Fellowship for their groundbreaking, synesthetic play, Tornado Tastes like Aluminum Sting, 2023-2025. TTLAS is featured as an example of structure in the second edition of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Playwriting with Purpose. Electro Archipelago is a new musical revue for disabled and trans performers, part of the Ruth Easton reading series at Playwrights Center, streaming in March 2026. Crawlspace is an epic prison break play, based on Harmon’s novel of the same name, featuring an Autistic child fighting for a new family – in collaboration with and directed by Oliver Butler. Oliver and Harmon are also developing a new musical, Five O’Clock Dance Party, a loaves and fishes story celebrating diverse bodies and communal sharing. Harmon performed a 20-minute selection from their solo art installation, GravyLand, for The Bearded Ladies Cabaret at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, 2024. Harmon’s visual art and dance pieces are both forays into multi-sensory performance to create an experience that more closely aligns with their divergent processing. Harmon is also at work on two new projects for TV. Founder and Co-Director of t.h.i.n.k. at The Tank, a Neurodiversity artists’ cohort at The TANK Theater, NYC.
A new hybrid documentary about Harmon’s life and work is currently in production with Director James Rutenbeck in collaboration with Paul Lieber, and Craig Lucas. An excerpt of Harmon’s award winning short play, Space, is published in We/Us: Monologues for The Gender Minority, Smith & Kraus. Harmon won a Venturous Playwriting Fellowship for their groundbreaking, synesthetic play, Tornado Tastes like Aluminum Sting, 2023-2025. TTLAS is featured as an example of structure in the second edition of Jacqueline Goldfinger’s Playwriting with Purpose. Electro Archipelago is a new musical revue for disabled and trans performers, part of the Ruth Easton reading series at Playwrights Center, streaming in March 2026. Crawlspace is an epic prison break play, based on Harmon’s novel of the same name, featuring an Autistic child fighting for a new family – in collaboration with and directed by Oliver Butler. Oliver and Harmon are also developing a new musical, Five O’Clock Dance Party, a loaves and fishes story celebrating diverse bodies and communal sharing. Harmon performed a 20-minute selection from their solo art installation, GravyLand, for The Bearded Ladies Cabaret at The Fabric Workshop and Museum in Philadelphia, 2024. Harmon’s visual art and dance pieces are both forays into multi-sensory performance to create an experience that more closely aligns with their divergent processing. Harmon is also at work on two new projects for TV. Founder and Co-Director of t.h.i.n.k. at The Tank, a Neurodiversity artists’ cohort at The TANK Theater, NYC.