Café des Alpes — UM Project + unblock.space

Objects for non-verbal communication
Institut Saint-Agnès
Sion, Switzerland
A project supported by “Café des Alpes”

Most children and pre-teens at Institut Saint-Agnès in Switzerland are autistic, some of them non-verbal. They were treated as designers. They were asked to consider objects differently, not so much as ends to themselves (such as functional tools or outcome of a production process), but as elements to be manipulated and combined for communication and expression.

The starting point was a broad selection of objects, that functioned a bit like a catalog with multiple entry points. The result was a sense of playfulness, possibility and accessibility, allowing participants to do and say things they would not have done otherwise.

Photography by unblock.space