Timothy Speed

Identifiants chercheurs

IdHAL :

timothy-speed

ORCID :

0009-0002-0143-5949

VIAF :

37811735

ISNI :

000000001636722X

ResearcherID :

PTF-0449-2026

Présentation

“Knowledge does not arise primarily in propositional representations but through embodied, relational processes that simultaneously generate world, value and work. Institutional systems, however, recognise only propositional validation and thereby systematically exclude these processes and the realities they produce.”

Timothy Speed (b. 1973, Middlesbrough, UK) is a British–Austrian neurodivergent artist, author and researcher whose work operates at the intersection of ontology, epistemology, political economy and law. His oeuvre establishes a rare form of autistic knowledge production in which theory, lived experience and systemic intervention are not separate domains but structurally inseparable.

In his work, reality, cognition and labour are not treated as distinct categories but as interwoven processes. His research does not merely describe existing systems but investigates the conditions under which world, value and knowledge are produced and stabilised. In doing so, it moves beyond conventional disciplinary boundaries and exceeds purely descriptive or discursive approaches.

Speed has lived and worked in Germany (Berlin–Brandenburg region) for nearly three decades, following formative years in Austria. He is the father of three children and lives with a feminist artist and their child south of Berlin.

Artistic Research and Operatoric Approach

Trained in film and media under Richard Kriesche (HTBLA Graz), Speed developed early on a form of artistic research that treats the world not as an object of representation but as an active research field. His practice combines aesthetic production, theoretical modelling and real-world intervention into a unified epistemic process.

Rather than relying on a purely representational mode, his work is grounded in operatoric structures: processes through which reality is produced, stabilised and transformed. These processes traverse domains such as physics, consciousness studies, economics and social systems, enabling an integrated analysis of phenomena that are usually treated separately.

Timothy Speed operates as a thinker in a rarely occupied domain where constitutive, embodied and system-transgressive modes of thought converge — his work does not merely describe the world but intervenes in its formation and, in doing so, lays open the structural limits of existing epistemic and social orders.

Neurodivergent Cognitive Architecture

Speed’s work emerges from a specific neurodivergent cognitive architecture (AuDHD), characterised by high pattern resolution, cross-domain integration and non-simulative modes of reasoning — that is, forms of cognition not based on role adaptation or imitation. Knowledge here does not primarily follow symbolic abstraction but operates through relational and process-based coherence.

Insight does not arise despite autism but through it. Perception, cognition and action form a continuous system. External demands for simulation, role adaptation or normative conformity do not stabilise this system but tend to disrupt it. This dynamic is not merely biographical but constitutes a central object of his research into the structural limits of contemporary institutions.

The “Inner Laboratory”

Speed describes his research mode as an “inner laboratory”: a continuous, embodied domain in which perception, affect, cognition and action are cyclically intertwined. Knowledge does not emerge from distance but through engagement with real conditions, including long-term interactions with administrative, legal and economic systems.

This approach is enactive rather than representational. Reality is not treated as a fixed object but as something that is generated, negotiated and transformed through relational processes. His work therefore functions simultaneously as theory and as empirical material.

Relation to Existing Discourses

Speed’s practice intersects with, yet exceeds, approaches such as:

Karen Barad (agential realism)Donna Haraway (situated knowledges)Robin Wall Kimmerer (relational ecology)Damian Milton, Nick Walker, Melanie Yergeau (neurodivergent theory)

While these frameworks emphasise embodiment and situatedness, Speed’s work goes further: embodiment, identity and vulnerability are not merely the context of knowledge but part of its structural production. Knowledge is not validated solely through external criteria but through coherence, relational consistency and real-world consequences.

Autistic Science and Integrated Models

Speed develops the foundations of a post-neurotypical mode of scientific practice. Rather than prioritising objectivity, optimisation or role-based performance, his work is oriented toward:

structural coherencecross-domain resonancecognitive integritytruth-bound actionexistential responsibility

Across his books, films and long-term interventions, he introduces a series of interconnected models, including:

MNO TheoryOntic DisplacementAutistic VocationDiversity Threshold and Value BoundaryOperatoric CognitionStabilisation Society

These are not isolated concepts but components of an integrated theoretical framework that connects physics, consciousness studies, economics, labour and poverty analysis, and legal critique.

Position

Speed’s position outside institutional structures is not primarily a matter of rejection but of structural incompatibility. His work operates across levels that are typically kept separate — from ontology to concrete social and legal systems — and thereby challenges foundational assumptions of academic and administrative orders.

At the centre of his research lies the systematic exclusion of non-standard forms of cognition and knowledge production. His work foregrounds cognitive integrity as a social resource and understands autistic intelligence as an autonomous research tradition capable of generating new scientific architectures rather than merely contributing to existing ones.

Short Version (Citation / Press)

Timothy Speed is a neurodivergent artist and researcher whose work connects ontology, cognition and social systems within an integrated model of embodied knowledge production.His practice combines theory, lived experience and systemic intervention, challenging fundamental assumptions about science, labour and value while opening the horizon for a post-neurotypical epistemology.

Publications

Pré-publication, Document de travail (1)

1667:25 Violence, Health Harm and the Denial of the Rights of Autistic People in Germany - Proceedings before the Social Court Cottbus and the Higher Social Court Berlin-Brandenburg - On the Practical Impossibility of Enforcing Effective Legal Protection for Neurodivergent People Timothy Speed 2026 Pré-publication, Document de travail hal-05572871v1