URL: https://jamesaldridgeart.wordpress.com/2022/02/09/art-ecology-and-autism/
So how do I see it? Well that’s a work in progress. To discover you are autistic at almost 50 is pretty mind-blowing. Looking back at your life and realising why you are the way that you are – the good bits and the more challenging times. But basically if I wasn’t autistic I wouldn’t be me, and I like me, I like what I’ve achieved in my work over the years and the friends and family that I have gathered along the way, and none of that would exist without autism.
As my autism is an inherent part of me, it’s also an inherent part of my arts practice. I am extremely empathic, which is sometimes tricky when other people’s emotions are overpowering, my mirror neurons work on overdrive (I’m assuming that’s what’s happening – see this article), which can be intense, but it’s also what has made me such an effective connector and communicator when working within education and health settings.
I am also drawn to explore the relationship between the parts of a system, whether an ecological, social or cultural system, and the interconnections between them, which informs my work on people’s relationship to place, and the climate/ecological crisis.