Trailer: Pain is a landscape
Artwork by Georgia Mill
Trailer: Pain is a landscape
A Fluorescent Feeling is a new podcast about pain and our bodies – how we talk about them and live inside them.
Over three million Australians live with chronic pain. Being in pain can be lonely, boring, scary and frustrating. But what if it could also be beautiful, colourful and textural? What if we could share it with others?
Hosted by writer and artist Georgia Mill, this audio mini-series introduces you to people with lived experiences of pain, illness and disability. Featuring artists, writers, designers and video journalists, A Fluorescent Feeling looks at creative responses to pain and how pain intersects with all aspects of identity.
The series encourages listeners to look at pain differently: asking questions about how we might record pain in new ways, how pain intersects with power and how pain and intimacy are related.
This three-part series will be released weekly from Tuesday August 24, 2021.
Credits
Producers: Georgia Mill, Michelle Macklem and Beth Atkinson-Quinton
Guests in this episode: Jameisha Prescod and Eugenie Lee
Intro Theme: Michelle Macklem
The title for this series has been inspired by author Anne Boyer when she describes pain as ‘a fluorescent feeling’ in her book The Undying.
A Fluorescent Feeling is supported by the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria.
Get in touch
We love hearing from our listeners. Stay in touch across Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @broadwavepods.
Trailer: pain is a landscape
Georgia Mill: Pain is a landscape with pockets of beauty and intensity.
[Music: bright and sharp tones]
There are dangerous fires that draw you in close and scold you. There are icy channels that penetrate the marrow of your bones. You feel like you are fragile and fierce at the same time – a deadly stalactite ready to drop and shatter.
[Music: a low base and a high tinny clicking sound, like a cicada or someone operating a typewriter at high speed, come in]
It’s hard to tell people how restless and uncomfortable your body feels. They don’t want you to sit there complaining about the sensations within you, they don’t know the words to describe what you’re feeling and you can’t let them in.
[Music: a drum beat starts]
My name is Georgia Mill and this is A Fluorescent Feeling: an audio series about pain and our bodies – how we talk about them and live inside them.
I’m a writer and artist, and in my twenties, I started experiencing chronic back and hip pain. I had years of physical treatment, surgeries and other interventions.
[Music: soft chimes come in – like fresh rain hitting a lake]
I have a lot less pain now but it had an enormous effect on me – in terms of my physical and mental wellbeing. It also really changed my relationship with my body. I really wanted to talk about the sensations in my body and find an outlet for them, but there weren’t many opportunities to explore this without feeling like I was just complaining or burdening someone else with the problem.
Currently, more than three million Australians live with chronic pain.
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live with chronic pain? What all the fuss is about? And just how much it actually hurts?
Jameisha Prescod: Being believed I think when you're experiencing chronic pain is, is everything. Oftentimes the process is really long. It goes on for years. I know mine did. And sometimes you have multiple chronic conditions also where, like it's taken ages for you to get diagnosed for one. You go for your next one thinking okay, they didn't believe me before. They might believe me now like, and then you still don't get believed.
Georgia Mill: In this audio series you’ll meet people with lived experiences of pain, illness and disability and the different ways they navigate it and respond creatively to it.
Eugenie Lee: talking about pelvic pain, in a general sort of social setting is so taboo and stigmatised. So I wanted to make it funky, sexy, and you know, fun, I just wanted to break that stigma. Because automatically people think, "Oh, you got pelvic pain, what's wrong with your vagina?" Or, "what's wrong with your penis?" But, the pelvic region is so complex and surrounded by layers and layers and layers of muscle, organs and nerve endings. So I teamed up with pain researchers who helped me to create this mechanical component...
Because being in pain can be lonely. It can be boring, scary and frustrating too. But what if it could also be beautiful, colourful, textural and what if we could share it with others?
A Florescent Feeling. Coming August 2021. Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts.
[Music: soft chimes come in – like fresh rain hitting a lake]
Multiple voices: [SFX: Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave, Broadwave.]