Alicia Radage - neurodivergent video artist

In the first of a series of special episodes talking with neurodivergent and autistic filmmakers and film workers, we welcome video artist Alicia Radage to the podcast. Alicia's practice combines performance art, shamanistic ritual and videography that attempts to reach an understanding of neurodivergent connections to the 'more-than-human'. We discovered her through brilliant Shape Arts commission 'Quake', where she performs a ritualistic cycle of singing, meditating and dancing for worms - find the link to the work below. We discussed the possibilities of a neurodivergent aesthetic, how film allows performance artists to make enriched use of time and detail, and problems with the terms 'high and low functioning'.

We also spent some time talking with John-James Laidlow, our regular host, about his video work Another Way is Possible and Peeling Tatties, available to view on his website. Recently, John-James has decided to step down from the podcast as a regular host so we'd like to say a big thank you to John-James for all his brilliant contributions to Autism Through Cinema. 

A quick word of warning: there is some use of strong language in this episode, so please use caution if that is an issue for you. Also, Alicia's work that we link to below on her website contains nudity and some challenging themes.

Huge thanks to Alicia for agreeing to be on the podcast and for being such a fascinating guest!

Alicia Radage's website: https://www.aliciaradage.com/

Quake on Shape Arts: https://www.shapearts.org.uk/blog/watch-quake-a-new-performance-work-from-alicia-radage 

Quake on Alicia's website: https://www.aliciaradage.com/quake (CW: nudity)

Alicia at the Whitstable Biennale with MOTHER BENT, 11th June: https://whitstablebiennale.com/project/mother-bent/ 

Alicia as part of 'The Healing Collective' at Giant Gallery in Bournemouth from the 19th June: https://www.giant.space/upcoming 

John-James Laidlow's video work: https://john-james.hotglue.me/ 

The philosopher Erin Manning's book Always More than One: https://www.dukeupress.edu/always-more-than-one 

Autistic musician John Biddulph and his moss music: https://johnbiddulph.bandcamp.com/album/perambulations-i