Here's to the crazy ones.
PIRATES
Neuro Pirates was created to bring together people who feel different and struggle to fit into the rigid structures of Danish society. With a special focus on neurodivergent Pirates – both those with psychiatric diagnoses and those who do not wish to define themselves through society’s narratives – we create a safe community where it is possible to experiment and think outside conventional frameworks.
Cheers to the crazy ones
We know that something magical happens when a Pirate meets a community of Pirates. Pirates are driven by purpose, and therefore our shared mission is to prove — through data collection and grassroots research — how we see and sense the world differently, how we experience communities in our own way, and how this spectrum of difference can create unique spaces where we can be together.
Communities can be excluding — and that is dangerous!
When children in school repeatedly hear: “Sit still. You’re ruining everything for the others. YOU WILL NEVER BECOME ANYTHING,” it becomes a burden that shapes identity. Pirates are often programmed to feel that conventional communities are not for them. It shouldn’t be true, but the statistics whistleblow how our tribe often ends up in crime, addiction, poverty — but also as entrepreneurs, inventors, artists, and creative frontrunners. These contrasts clearly show that the rigid 8–16 structure of the school system and labor market is experienced as excluding for The Pirate Tribe.
Lack of knowledge about human diversity creates absurd systems where everyone is expected to fit into invisible frameworks — frameworks that determine access to education, work, and social belonging. Many who see and experience the world differently fall outside. Not because they lack value, but because society fails to see and understand us.
Become part of the change!
Support our grassroots research and help us prove that the world can be seen through different funkey lenses — and that differences are a strength. Sign up as a member, participate in our projects, or share your story with us. Together, we can change the narrative!
Creative Workshop
Carry Me As I Am
— autistic statements in textile print, created collectively
Date
sommer 2026
Place
København, Aarhus, Kolding, Silkeborg
Organiser
Neuro Pirates & Shocking Stuðios v. Jimmy Sommer.
With support from
Spar Nord Fonden
Spaceship 1
A free space for originals
Vision & mission
SpaceShip 1 is Neuro Pirates’ experimental ground.
Two shipping containers with a shared rooftop terrace, located in the heart of Aarhus’ free zone at Institut for X.
SpaceShip 1 is created by neurodivergent Pirates who believe that healing and well-being emerge through nutrition, movement, and community — three pillars that can be heavy to carry alone, but become lighter when lifted together.
Provianten, the communal kitchen, is the heart of SpaceShip 1. Here, food is used as regulation, care, and a point of gathering. The surrounding outdoor areas invite community-driven events, workshops, and experiments where we play with formats and explore what actually works — for example when it comes to social anxiety and participation.
All Pirates on board are neurodivergent. We work with language, conversation, and shared movement as tools for getting out of the head and back into the body. Away from performance and ego — and toward communities where vulnerability, difference, and mutual care are welcomed.
SpaceShip 1 is an experiment.
A response — from us, for what we are living through.
An attempt to find solutions that make more sense than many of those we have encountered within the established support system.
Din Ven i Solen
Did you know that your gut plays an important role in regulating your brain?
That what you eat affects your mood, energy levels, and patterns of thought?
And that regular, nourishing meals can help your nervous system move toward greater calm and mental balance?
Provianten is our communal kitchen, where we explore how to find calm and balance — starting from the inside.
Neuro Pirates works from a research-based foundation
The research connected to Neuro Pirates is fundamentally grounded in a bottom-up approach. It grows out of, moves with, against, within, and from what is happening in practice. Neuro Pirates is a grassroots movement that works dynamically and pragmatically in relation to the realities it exists within.
The research must move alongside these shifts — while remaining scientifically rigorous. In more classical ethnographic research, participant observation and participant involvement are central principles. Participants are co-creators of the empirical material, and the researcher is actively involved in the practice being studied — in this case, Neuro Pirates and the activities and movements that continuously unfold.
Empirical material is gathered through multiple sources, as spoken language alone can be exclusionary. The research therefore works with reflections, bodily and sensory experiences, visual and other creative expressions, temperature measurements, and ongoing documentation.
The lived life is the point of departure:
How do neurodivergent people and participants in Neuro Pirates experience and understand their own situations and possibilities?
How do they experience the value created through participation in Neuro Pirates?
At the same time, the research gathers important knowledge about how encounters with standardized welfare institutions, institutional frameworks, and structural systems impact participants’ lives.
— Charlotte Løvstad
Neuro Pirates grew out of the project Sport and Neurodiversity – A Deeper Understanding.
In 2024, the project was supported by Gammel Skanderborg Fonden and explored how neurodivergent people can gain better access to sports and community participation.
The project was grounded in practice and lived experience. It showed that participation increases significantly when settings are informal, performance pressure is removed, and community is valued more highly than output. What mattered most was not how much one could perform — but that one showed up, and that someone was there, waiting.
Neuro Pirates was created to carry these insights forward into practice and to build communities where neurodivergent people can participate on their own terms.
Movement affects brain chemistry. When we move, dopamine is released, playing a key role in motivation, focus, and a sense of meaning. At the same time, the production of serotonin and endorphins increases — substances associated with improved mood and reduced stress.
These mechanisms are particularly important for Pirates, for whom regulating attention, energy, and mood can be challenging. Regular movement can contribute to greater well-being, improved concentration, joy, and a more stable mental state.
In our Spaceships, we approach movement in a slightly quirky and playful way, experimenting with how, where, and what movement can be. It is an ongoing experiment in moving together — in search of a recipe for taking the anxiety out of shared movement.
AntiParty
AntiParty emerged as a direct response to nightlife and concert culture.
There is a particular kind of grief in standing outside something beautiful.
In knowing that communities exist around music and culture — and at the same time feeling that those spaces are not meant for you.
For many neurodivergent people, the environment is everything. We sense sound, frequencies, moods, and movement intensely. When a space is filled with high volume levels, crowds, alcohol, and drugs, being present becomes difficult — and often impossible.
All too often, the only way to participate is by numbing oneself. By lowering oneself to a different level. By turning down the senses just enough to endure being in the room. That comes at a cost.
AntiParty was born from that experience.
From the desire to be included — without having to sedate oneself.
From the wish to create music and cultural experiences where the nervous system also has room.
Here, the conditions are not a compromise.
They are the foundation.