A collaboration between Helen Edgar and Ryan Boren, Stimpunks Foundation
We wanted to make something together that said, “You belong here, all the way down to your star stuff!”
Did you know?
Every atom heavier than hydrogen was forged inside a star. The calcium in your bones, the iron in your blood and the oxygen you are breathing right now all lived inside a star before they became part of you (Sagan, 1980). We share around 97% of the same atoms as the galaxy itself (Howell, 2017). This is not a metaphor. It is who we are.
Made for difference
For those of us who have spent a lifetime being told we are too much, not enough or somehow wrong, this can land very deeply. The universe did not create a single correct configuration of matter and call everything else a mistake. It made diversity: endless variation, always becoming, always connecting, always transforming.
We are all part of the same galaxy, connecting, interconnecting and interdependent.
Physics, philosophy and Autistic experience
This project grew out of conversations between Ryan and me, and it weaves together threads that do not often get to sit together: quantum physics, Deleuzian philosophy and Autistic experience.
Relational quantum mechanics tells us that nothing exists in isolation, and that what something is only makes sense in relation to everything around it. Deleuze gives us difference before identity, the idea that variation comes first and sameness is the thing that had to be built.
Held together, these ideas offer a different starting point for thinking about neurodivergence. It is not a deviation from a baseline but difference that was there from the beginning, the way stars were never one kind of star.
Come and explore
Star Stuff has become a shared home across two spaces: a reflection here on More Realms, and a whole constellation of writing, zines and art over at Stimpunks.
- 🌌 Read the full Star Stuff page: the heart of the project, with the manifesto, the science, the philosophy and reflections from the community, all together at Stimpunks.
- 📖 Read the zines: eleven so far, including my own guest zine, Why Difference Comes First, which follows the quantum and Deleuzian thread in full, alongside community favourites like Bone Song and Underground.
- ✨ Wander the Field Guides: neurodivergent constellations, the elements you are made of, and the life forms that thrive in places we once thought impossible.
- 🎧 Listen along: a 26-track playlist that carries the same spirit in sound.
References
Howell, E. (2017). Humans really are made of stardust, and a new study proves it. Space.com.
Sagan, C. (1980). Cosmos. Random House.