About Designing Instruments of Change - Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind
How can we design learning encounters that extend what neurodivergent students perceive as possible for themselves?
That question guides Designing Instruments of Change, the exegesis of Alisdair Gurling's practice-informed design PhD at WonderLab, Monash University, read aloud chapter by chapter. The preface and the interludes are read by the author; everything else is read by a synthetic voice.
It follows a series of co-learning workshops with neurodivergent young people, the instruments of change a learner can assemble to extend their own cognition (digital prosthetics, mind-body strategies, relational practices and space-making practices), and the Neurodiversity Playbook and Neurodiversity.tools (http://Neurodiversity.tools) database the work produced.
Read along, with the figures and tables, at phd.neurodiversity.tools (http://phd.neurodiversity.tools)
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch5 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch5)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00 Chapter 5: The Swans
00:23 5.1 Introduction
14:11 5.2 For the Community of Experience (Neurodivergent Learners)
31:32 5.3 For the Community of Care (Space Makers: Teachers, Facilitators and Parents)
50:02 5.4 Conclusion
50:37 Interlude 6: Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 4: Ugly Ducklings
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit2 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit2)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00:00 Fit the Second: Travels
00:02:23 Interlude 4: This Is Water, David Foster Wallace (read by the author)
00:03:36 Chapter 4: Ugly Ducklings
00:03:45 4.1 Introduction
00:05:49 4.2 What did I do?
00:07:54 4.3 Eggs (Initial Realisations)
00:19:22 4.5 Ducklings (The Messy Middle)
01:44:50 4.6 In summary: What the Workshops Revealed
01:47:58 4.7 Four Types of Instruments of Change
01:52:45 4.8 From Workshops to Playbook
01:53:55 4.9 What Took Flight
01:54:30 Interlude 5: Expert at the Card Table, S. W. Erdnase (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 6: Contributions
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit3 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit3)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00 Fit the Third: Territories
00:26 Interlude 7: Little Gidding, T. S. Eliot (read by the author)
00:44 Chapter 6: Contributions
00:52 6.1 Introduction
02:27 6.2 Research Orientation: A Contribution to Practice-Informed Design Research
20:22 6.3 Designing learning experiences: A Contribution to the Neurodivergent Community
40:26 6.4 Designing Transformation: A Contribution to Transformative Design Practice
55:26 6.5 What this project offers
57:55 Interlude 8: Education as Initiation, Richard Peters (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 7: Reasons to Be Excited!
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch7 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch7)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00 Chapter 7: Reasons to Be Excited!
00:22 7.1 Introduction
01:39 7.2 Conclusion
05:24 7.3 What’s Next: Invitations for Future inquiry
10:55 7.4 The Stilts
14:53 Interlude 9: The Bone People, Keri Hulme (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 3: Charting a Course
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch3 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch3)
Sections
00:00 Chapter 3: Charting a Course
00:20 3.2 Introduction
02:05 3.3 Research Design
15:33 3.4 Methods
23:15 3.5 Workshop Trajectories
27:20 3.6 Research Questions and Contributions
30:41 3.7 What Does Success Look Like, and Who Gets to Define It?
31:55 3.8 Boundaries of the Inquiry
34:12 3.9 Conclusion
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 1: The Boat
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit1 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#fit1)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00 Fit the First: Dolphin Diving
02:45 Chapter 1: The Boat
02:55 1.1 Introduction
05:44 1.2 Positioning Myself
20:37 1.3 Locating the Research
25:26 1.4 Why This Work, Why Now?
27:46 Interlude 2: Who You Were Meant to Be, Lindsay Gibson (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Chapter 2: The Ocean
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch2 (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#ch2)
The interludes are read by the author.
Sections
00:00:00 Chapter 2: The Ocean
00:00:21 2.1 Introduction: A Narratively Informed Literature Review
00:06:20 2.2 Dis/ability & Neurodiversity: A Foundational Re-framing
00:27:24 2.3 Mindset Shift, Learner Autonomy & Change
00:37:01 2.4 Learning and Transformation
00:50:54 2.5 Technology, Cybernetics, and Extended Cognition
01:23:38 2.6 Design, Creativity & Play
01:50:26 2.7 Conclusion
01:51:09 Interlude 3: Vigil, George Saunders (read by the author)
29 Oct 2026
Preliminary pages
Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode! (https://rss.com/podcasts/designing-instruments-of-change/voicemail)
From Designing Instruments of Change: Neurodiversity, mindset shift, and the extended mind, the exegesis of a practice-informed PhD by project by Alisdair Gurling (WonderLab, Monash University).
Read along: https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#pre-abstract (https://phd.neurodiversity.tools/read/#pre-abstract)
The preface and the first interlude are read by the author.
Sections
00:00 Abstract
05:04 Acknowledgements
11:20 Exegesis Structure
14:30 Engaging with this PhD by Project
18:10 Wayfinding the PhD Components
21:44 Prolegomena: Conceptual Foundations
28:46 Preface (read by the author)
33:02 Interlude 1: Some Things I Like, Lemn Sissay (read by the author)
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