LUKE’S TOP TIPS FOR RECOGNISING AND UNDERSTANDING INTROVERTS

1 An introvert is someone whose batteries are depleted by social situations and not charged. Instead we draw power from ourselves. Often people see it as something that needs curing - I think that is nonsense.

2 Never tell an introvert they are wrong to sit quietly or not engage.

3 Always ask permission of an introvert – invite them in … remember they might not want to come.

4 Introverts love silence and sitting in silence – they know that silence can be difficult for others, but they know listening creeps in… deep important listening to self, environment, the world.

psychosis and madness and there are things that get lost in mainstream language. They're often lost in cliché’s and mantras…it's easier to create a piece of artwork or performance where people can look at it go, oh I get that. I aim to make things that make me feel understood and maybe help other people feel like there are kindred spirits out there.

You're making work to communicate a personal experience?

Yeah…and no. The communicating is there even if sometimes it's to myself…a sort of catharsis in making. I'm still unpicking what I went through and I'm not an expert on myself. It’s heavy stuff and I'm still working things out. And I really struggled to create during it all. Often there's an assumption that people in these psychotic spaces are super productive, making all of this amazing art. But I was scared of myself and what was going on, and I didn't feel in control. It stopped me making art for what felt like forever.

The first piece I made after was also my first performance - the energy that came out for that was right. At that time I talked a lot about spoons. You know, sometimes I’ll only have so many spoons of energy each day and I don't know what I'm going to have that day, or the next. So I'm different coming out of that experience. More self-aware.

You are a self-declared introvert. Is stepping forward natural for an introvert?

I see myself as confident and introvert. There can be confident and shy introverts, as well as confident and shy extroverts. My energies are spent on people and I think about how many spoons are needed for tasks I undertake - this really helps me navigate with who and how I spend my time.

Quite early on, when I was back at the art school I got chosen for a thing and had to do a massive presentation. I was just a little student and I was like, I'm gonna have to do this. Again there's a performance element to that. I had to sort of put myself in a space and dissociate. In the prison teaching I have a voice that can command the room, which isn't my voice. I tell a lot of them guys I don't shout, I can shout if I need to, but you know it's something that just isn't me.

A lot of people see introversion as something to be cured. Or they think that person isn’t alright there by themselves. It's always an extrovert that sees that and tells us there's something wrong with it. I'm quite confident and happy by myself and I like being around peaceful people, quiet people. I love sitting in a room and not talking to someone as well. Being with somebody in a room in silence. I know many people find that really, really uncomfortable.

What do you notice in that silence?

Noise. It’s a way of creating a certain dominance or control of that space. Hamja Ahsan's Book - Shy radicals, is a very small book with some lovely illustrations and in it he talks about extrovert extremism and how we live in extrovert dominated societies. Due to their very nature, extroverts need noise. But we don't, and what he proposes is a manifesto that lets us lean into what the introverts need.

What are the people that are filling the silence missing out on?

Listening skills. I think sometimes if you're creating too much noise it can be hard to listen to the nuances. I wish people could be more confident in hearing their own voice rather than other peoples.

If you could tell an extrovert anything, what would you tell them?

Shut up. Listen, listen, listen, shut up and listen. Worry less.

I’m also thinking about why you're gifted as an educator, with your particular cohorts, in very particular spaces. Perhaps you empathise but also model, to people who don't have a voice, who don’t have all sorts of things in place, a sense of control?

Is your personal experience a driver for the Feral and working in prisons?

Yeah, it definitely contributes to it. I talk about agitating a lot. Just agitating things towards