Case Notes: the clinic of perception is a spoken-word performance by poet, musician and clinician John Biddulph, exploring the strange, intimate and sometimes uneasy territory between clinical observation and lived experience. Drawing on a lifetime of listening - as a psychologist, musician and writer - John takes the language of assessment, diagnosis and the clinical case file and gradually turns it inside out. The poems encounter different ways of seeing, hearing, speaking, remembering, feeling and making sense of the world, moving through autism and other neurodivergent conditions, sensory difference, language, identity and perception. Behind the apparent certainty of the clinical record, another question begins to emerge: what is lost when a human life is reduced to what can be observed and recorded?

Moving between the stark language of case notes, lyrical poetry, humour and moments of unsettling ambiguity, the spoken words are threaded with subtle undercurrents of electronic sound - fragile textures, distant signals, resonances and barely perceptible shifts that sometimes seem to sit at the edge of hearing. Rather than simply accompanying the poems, these sounds create another layer of perception: something sensed as much as heard. As the performance unfolds, attention gradually shifts from the person being observed to the person doing the observing. Who decides what is typical? Where does description become judgement? And what happens when the clinician, assessor or observer discovers that they too are part of the assessment process? Case Notes: the clinic of perception ultimately proposes no single standard way of experiencing the world. Instead, it invites us to listen more closely to the many different ways in which a human being can perceive, communicate and be understood - until, finally, one case file remains open and unsigned.

John Biddulph is a poet, spoken word artist, composer and autism clinician whose work explores perception, identity and the fragile boundaries between diagnosis, memory and lived experience. His performances combine the precision of clinical observation with the emotional resonance of poetry, drawing on themes of neurodivergence, communication, sensory experience and social justice.=

His current spoken word project, Case Notes: the clinic of perception, presents a series of imagined clinical records that gradually reveal the humanity behind diagnosis, inviting audiences to reconsider the relationship between labels and lived experience.

Each case notes poem has a companion case study that explores the condition from the lived experience perspective. Often accompanied by subtle electronic sound, his performances inhabit a space between poetry, theatre and experimental music, creating immersive works that are both intellectually engaging and deeply affecting.

John has performed his poems at events all over the UK and for his music work, he is currently a recipient of the Britten / Pears Composers’ Bursary with a residency in Aldeburgh in late 2026.