Culture File: Recent Episodes
RTÉ
Luke Clancy’s excursion into art, design, music, performance, media, technology and a world of intriguing possibilities. Broadcast weekdays on Lorcan Murray's Classic Drive on RTÉ Lyric FM.
Luke Clancy and panel make the case for loving some teeming critters of the invertebrate kingdom. Advocating for their favourites are: Rachel McKenna (shieldbugs); Liam Lysaght (wasps); Cassia Gaden Gilmartin (earwigs); and Nessa Darcy (woodlice). Recorded live at National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin as part of Dublin Book Festival.
Growing up on tour with Neil Diamond gave Daisy Press a unique outlook on the magic and mysteries of music, and started a journey that leads from Indian Ragas via the 12th century chant of Hildegard von Bingen -- all the way to Frederic Rzewski, whose work she performs at this weekend's Louth Contemporary Music Society festival, Coming Together.
1990s teenage trance prodigy and superstar DJ, James Holden on lighting out for the territories of modular synthesizers, spiritual jazz, Moroccan ceremonial music and Live Coding.
Colm Tóibín suggests getting down to zero with Shostakovich's last string quartet; Poet, Karen Solie points out Nathalie Léger's 2012 book, Suite For Barbara Loden,; and Luke Clancy is learning to assemble a soundsystem in the Moroccan outback with the help of director Óliver Laxe's 2025 film, Sira
In Dublin, an armoury of sonic devices are improvised and repurposed by Abbas Zahedi, including a commercial sonic weapon called an LRAD, which the artist has converted to broadcast poetry; then some post-appalachian sounds from the fiddle and the banjo with Nora Brown and Stephanie Coleman; and for dessert, an island postcard from Inishturk
The Shortwave Orchestra is a collection of experimental musicians who came together to play for the first time in Dublin in April. Following their world premier performance, Culture File convened a panel featuring Orchestra members to talk about the modular synth scene, endangered communities and surviving in the avant garde. (photo: Fergus Kelly)
The Comfort Zone's Colm Tóibín suggests reading a new literary biography by Nicholas Boggs, Baldwin: Alove Story; artist Harold Offed thinks a trip to your local Brazilian foods store would be a solid idea; and Luke Clancy recommends Emily leBarge's art 'n' trauma memoir, Dog Days.
Y'know, Cecil Taylor is way easier to enjoy if you slow it right down, and other insights from composer, musician, and .25 speed YouTube clip enthusiast, claire rousay.
Why you need to see Truong Minh Quy's film, Viet and Nam, listen to Connie Converse's album, How Sad, How Lonely and read Tove Jansson's Finn Family Moomins. Colm Tóibín, Meghan O'Gieblyn and Luke Clancy have their reasons.
Are you coming for an echtra, or ancient Irish outing to the otherworld, with artist Louis Haugh? Paddy Woodworth is waiting within, the greatest ever photobook of Costa Rican caterpillars in his hands; and Welsh triple harpist Cerys Hafana recounts a harp journey away from everything that is high, washy or angelic.
Canadian composer, Thierry Tidrow who features in this year's New Music Dublin festival on the strange history of Claude Vivier, the art of capturing online speech in music, and his attraction to making opera for children.
Legendary jazz vocalist Norma Winstone on learning to understand the voice as an instrument, the genius of bandmate, Kenny Wheeler, and how Drake became her most famous fan. Also, Paddy Woodwth awards Scott Weidensaul's Living on the Wind some cherished space on the Naturalist's Bookshelf.
Composer, improvisor and evangelist for the power of children's music, Ríona Sally Hartman leads a tour of her musical world.
Orit Gat takes in the new Tate Modern show from former YBA, now officially OBA, Tracey Emin; Rachel Andrews is at Cork's Make2026, with Prof Helen A. Fielding to learn which AI to love; and Patrick O'Laoghaire's Island postcard comes from a road near Clifden.
If you enjoyed Orit Gat's essay on Tracey Emin's sort-of-retrospective at Tate Modern (which you can hear in the current edition of Culture File), here is some further conversation between Orit Gat and Luke Clancy, around Emin, Autofiction, Bad Museums, Rose Wiley and Nobel Prize Winners.
The Comfort Zone's Colm Tóibín suggests spending (quite a few) minutes with The Met's latest production of Tristran und Isolde (screening in select Irish cinemas this weekend); artist Rónán Ó Raghallaigh offers Carlo Ginsberg's The Cheese and The Worms; and Luke Clancy counters the two series of Lucia Keskin's sitcom, Things You Should have Done.
Events on Valentia Island around 360 million years ago set in motion an exhibition from artist Bryony Dunne, currently at the Irish Architectural Archive in Dublin.
Sound artist and composer Tarek Atoui, musician and recordist Natalia Beylis, and Oxn drummer, Eleanor Myler probe the act of making a sound, and the art of receiving one. Recorded at IMMA, Kilmainham. Photo: Louise Williams
Rion Hanora O'Donovan on the place of 'bad' graffiti in her clothes designs; Dermot Rogers puts some sunlight on the legacy of jazz guitarist, Louis Stewart; Paddy Woodworth slips Esther Woolfson on to the Naturalist's Bookshelf; and Patrick O'Laoghaire starts a new series musical Island postcards.
After a troubled Northern Irish childhood, Vivien Hewitt found a new life in Italy, and in opera. The director and designer takes a seat in the afternoon quiet of Trieste's Theatre Verdi to talk about a life in the dreamworld of opera. (Photo credit: Vivien Hewitt)
After a troubled Northern Irish childhood, Vivien Hewitt found a new life in Italy, and in opera. The director and designer takes a seat in the afternoon quiet of Trieste's Theatre Verdi to talk about a life in the dreamworld of opera.
The Culture File panel explores the place of quiet and loud in the contemporary attention economy, with poet, Paula Meehan and musicians and composers, Siobhán Cleary, John Godfrey, and Christine Tobin. Recorded live at New Music Dublin 2025. (From 260425)
The Culture File panel explores the place of quiet and loud in the contemporary attention economy, with poet, Paula Meehan and musicians and composers, Siobhán Cleary, John Godfrey, and Christine Tobin. Recorded live at New Music Dublin 2025. (From 260425)
How birds and their metaphors move through the work and the lives of novelist, John Banville, art critic, Orit Gat, novelist, Sara Baume, journalist and author Paddy Woodworth. Under consideration are: The Pigeon; The Swift; The Wheatear; and The Crane. But which scribe fancies which wìngéd muse? (First broadcast Dec 24)
An ancient Irish farming tradition that sees the wisdom of leaving some farm land free from the imperatives of production -- ‘The Hare’s Corner’ -- is celebrated in poetry, story, discussion and music. Paddy Woodworth leads a panel featuring Jane Clarke, Catherine Cleary, Jane Carkill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire.
An ancient Irish farming tradition that sees the wisdom of leaving some farm land free from the imperatives of production -- ‘The Hare’s Corner’ -- is celebrated in poetry, story, discussion and music. Paddy Woodworth leads a panel featuring Jane Clarke, Catherine Cleary, Jane Carkill and Colm Mac Con Iomaire.
Outlandish Theatre's latest, Freedom works with the myth of Antigone to focus on the act of speaking about Gaza, about the world in which it exists, and about the limits of art and speech. After the show's Dublin debut, the creative team gathered to explore further for the Culture File Debate.
Outlandish Theatre Company's performance event Freedom uses the myth of Antigone to explore the act of speaking about Gaza, about the limits of art and speech. Recorded live at Samuel Beckett Theatre, TCD, Dublin in November 2025.
24 Hour Raga People at a festival in Redhook, NY; by the banks of the River Nore, Tadhg O'Sullivan journeys into art that might not get made ; and in Piccadilly, the largest ever European Survey for the veteran American, Kerry James Marshall, a painter of Black American life like no other.
Hamburg-born composer and pianist, Niklas Paschburg on the shortcomings of perfection and his footstamping solo piano outings.
Luke Clancy and panel make the case for loving some teeming critters of the invertebrate kingdom. Advocating for their favourites are: Rachel McKenna (shieldbugs); Liam Lysaght (wasps); Cassia Gaden Gilmartin (earwigs); and Nessa Darcy (woodlice). Recorded live at National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin as part of Dublin Book Festival.
Luke Clancy and panel make the case for loving some teeming critters of the invertebrate kingdom. Advocating for their favourites are: Rachel McKenna (shieldbugs); Liam Lysaght (wasps); Cassia Gaden Gilmartin (earwigs); and Nessa Darcy (woodlice). Recorded live at National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin as part of Dublin Book Festival.
Curator, Beulah Ezeugo takes a tour of some of the work she's brought into the big tent of TULCA Festival of Visual Arts 2025, including the immense quilts by artist, Jessica Zamora-Turner. Photo by Chaz Scott
Dennis Harvey and Lars Lovén on the music of a Celtic Utopia in their new documentary, plus Light Moves festival teams up with Palestinian Movement Film Festival, as well as Catherine Young Dance and the Palestinian company El Funoun, for a Palestinian dance solidarity happening.
Worshiping giant sturgeons at the Iron Gates in Barbara Kneževic's new film; keeping the Hot Club de Paris sound alive on the banks of the Tolka; and Navid Navab and Garnett Willis on their Organism platform, erected around a collection of organ pipes salvaged from a Montreal church.
Musical director of African Gospel Choir Dublin, Adeniyi Allen-Taylor on the ingredients of his music - and his Oba Nlá 2025 concert, showcasing his Afro-beat Orchestra.
Culture File | The place of perfume in music making with DJ-Producer, Moving Still; how Dublin pub Grogan's defies the partification odds; the sound of Palestine, with all-female choir, Banat Al-Quds; and Paddy Woodworth on the cosmic lives of swifts.
The myths and meanings of fire with: Dr Cathy Smith of Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires; ANNEX co-founder Donal Lally; Andrew Scott, Professor of Modern and Ancient Fire Systems, and artist and performer, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh. (First broadcast 291022)
The horticultural turn in contemporary art has a long history, but the urgency with which artists address our patches of green has never been greater. Laura Ní Fhlaibhín, Sara Muthi, Helen Flanagan and Elida Maiques join Luke Clancy to discuss artists and gardens. Recorded live at Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, County Wicklow.
This Culture File Digital Single meets Filmmaker, Tadhg O'Sullivan who speaks about his new film starring Brenda Fricker, The Swallow, a watery, elegiac meditation on memory and loss, and memory loss.
This Culture File Digital Single meets artists and curators who've been thinking about gardens, and growing, as well as getting involved in dirt-under-the-nails projects such as Bray's community-based Mermaid Garden Project taking part in Composting Colonialism: Towards the Radical Garden exhibition at the Mermaid Arts Centre.
The artists are digging about in the colonial history of the garden at an exhibition at Bray's Mermaid, at Ars Electronica, there's a calming tech that harness the power of human humming, Paddy Woodworth is proposing a new volume for The Naturalist's Bookshelf, and performance poet, Rob McGlade.,
Culture File goes for full immersion into some extended realities at Immersive Island at Venice Film Festival, and at Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria, meeting the creators of experimental experiences designed to dip users into new worlds, including the Irish team behind Irish dance gameworld, Foolish Flame.
Recorded live at Beta Festival '24, writers and artists Noam Young-rak Son, Joanna Walsh and Leon Butler to help chart recent shifts at the intersection of art, design and AI. (First broadcast 140125)
Recorded live at Beta Festival '24, artists Basil Al-Rawi and Conan McIvor, researcher Dr Autumn Brown, and historian Ciaran Wallace explore how we preserve and reimagine our cultural archives in a world of digital tools. (First broadcast 110125)
An extended mix of our Caravaggio program in which Colm Toibin, Orit Gat, and Luke Clancy go to see this year's blockbuster once-in-a-lifetime gathering of the painter's work at the Barberini - as well as the many Caravaggios that are permanent Roman residents, and then gather to imagine what the painter might mean to the 21st century.
A visit to Daingean Uí Chúis, where Michael Keegan-Dolan is creating a dance work around The Bothy Band's 1975 debut album; To Kilkenny for a collaborative exhibition in Rothe House with a botanical artist, a paper maker, a composer, and much local weedlife. Plus, our debut Twitch livestream with Renault4-based art project, Tour De Force.
The spiritual calling that is running a rave; the sylvan sci fi of Cecilia Danell; unfinished art; and Paddy Woodworth's The Naturalist's Bookshelf.
Sound artist and recordist Kate Carr talks to Culture File about her sonic practice and principles, and the importance of messy urban soundscapes.
Cityscape-appreciating sound artist ,Kate Carr, on her urban practice; Dublin-based musician-composer-carpenter, Zoe Basha on getting into and out of music; and how to play mini-golf in your "fursona" with Berlin's favorite pianist-fox, CoVahr.
For the latest version of his Culchie boy, I Love You exhibition, artist Kian Benson Bailes, has added in some ceramic flutes, with which he finds some tunes, as part of his exploration of traditional Irish culture and storytelling.
Culture File Debate broadcasts live from Eyeries Village Hall, Rachel Andrews is your host with three panelists who will give a broad and unique understanding to the myth of An Cailleach Beara (The Hag of Beara), to give listeners context to this myth ahead of the two hour Ambient Orbit following it..
The frontline of knitting, DIY monuments and macabre collections, and our latest suggestion for books to include on the ideal Naturalist's Bookshelf.
Caravaggio is celebrated this summer in Rome with a once-in-a-lifetime meetup of paintings normally living in museums around the world. Colm Toibin, Orit Gat and Luke Clancy went to see that blockbuster in the Barberini and then gathered to imagine what the painter might mean to the 21st century.
Artist, Marianne Keating on her archival voyage into the lives of Irish migrants to the UK; Tadgh O'Sullivan's further encounters with artworks that never were; and harpist, Alannah Thornburgh plays the tunes of the fairy folk.
Rachel Ní Bhraonáin reginites her award-winning dance-theatre take on the mosh and the moshers at Dublin Dance Festival; conductor Gabriel Crouch dives the fathomless depths of Jóhann Jóhannsson's enigmatic music-out-of-time choral work, Drone Mass; and Paddy Woodworth's latest book for the Naturalist's Bookshelf.
Ghost bands and circus values, with LA artist, Marnie Weber; Tadgh O'Sullivan on art that never was; and an in-the-end surprisingly pleasant visit to Berlin's Disgusting Food Museum.
Percussionist, James Larter reboots of the Four Season; the allure of ancient craft in New York; and Paddy Woodworth suggests a new old volume about New England as essential reading for today.
At this year's New Music Dublin, American Irish clarinetist, Berginald Rash presents Bombast! his program of chamber music from contemporary Black and Latiné composers. He talks to Culture File about a fraunt moment for music and art in the United States, and beyond.
Classical music and hiphop meet with a bang in Belfast composer, Anselm McDonnell's latest project; the textile stories of Gee's Bend, Alabama at a new show at IMMA; and a program of premiers of chamber music from Black and Latiné composers at next month's New Music Dublin.
Pianist and composer, Ethan Iverson, formerly of The Bad Plus, on working solo, standards v hits, and the music of Igor Stravinsky. He plays The Cooler, Dublin on Friday March 14th, and Triskel, Cork on Saturday 15th.
An extended version of our conversation with Sonic Youth co-founder and explorer at the furthermost limits of the sonic spectrum, Thurston Moore, on noise, improvisation, fascism and his new guitar suite based on cloud formations, which debuts at this year's New Music Dublin festival of contemporary music.
Composer, Eoghan Desmond on his nature-infused new work for Chamber Choir Ireland, Guthanna ar an gCnoc; Orit Gat on the slide shows, activism... and playlists of Nan Goldin; and satnav and cacti crash the soundworlds of Foteini Tryferopoulou.
Mulholland Drive: Anna Kornbluh ("Immediacy") joins Luke Clancy to wave Colm Tóibín off on a journey out of his comfort zone, and into David Lynch's mysterious, melancholic drift into Hollywood's dream machine/mincer.
Artist-farmer Lisa Fingleton's new exhibition takes its title from a sci-fi fruit: The Square Tomato; "corn smut" at The Third Kingdom mushroom-based restaurant in New York; and Paddy Woodworth finds a place for Olivia Laing on The Naturalist's Bookshelf.
The Culture File Debate on breath, from the need for breathable air to states of mind and body rooted in breath. Featuring IMMA's Mary Cremin; artist and climate change activist, Nina McGowan; Ireland's next Venice Biennale representative, Isabel Nolan; and Ian Robertson, co-director Global Brain Health Institute, TCD. (First broadcast 170924)
A "double emergence" of two broods of periodical cicadas near Springfield, Illinois for the first time in more than 200 years inspired a band of sound recordists, musicians, poets, composers and entomologists to gather beneath the trees to listen, record and improvise with a trillion-piece orchestra of singing critters. (First broadcast 29/06/24)
In this special All-Rembrandt-All-The-Time edition, we're in Amsterdam to join in the Netherland's celebrations of the 350th Anniversary of Rembrandt Van Rijn. The Rijksmuseum puts on display every one of its Rembrandt holdings; a treasure through which curator and Rembrandt biographer Jonathan Bikker leads Culture File. (First broadcast 15/03/19)
Recorded live at Beta Festival '24 in Dublin's Liberties, The Culture File Debate brings together artists Basil Al-Rawi and Conan McIvor, researcher Dr Autumn Brown and historian Ciaran Wallace to explore how we preserve and reimagine our cultural archives in a world of digital tools.
Walking a few momentous blocks of Dublin on the scent of a constellation of chancers, charities, literal bigwigs, choristers and 18th century It Girls that somehow resulted in the Irish capital being the venue for the premiere of Handel's Messiah.
The Irish Institute of Music and Song in Balbriggan's "Pathway to the Well" offer children in North County Dublin experiences of Irish music and tradition, such as The Fingal Mummers, who recently brought their mischievous musical theatrics to the children of Balbriggan Educate Together.
Fairy tales, they're not just for kids you know, suggests Tadhg O'Sullivan in his latest Cloud of Unknowing.
A taste of our forthcoming Culture File Debate: Wìngéd Muses, for which we asked some of our favourite writers—Orit Gat, Sara Baume, The Naturalist, Paddy Woodworth and John Banville—to speak to us about a bird they cherish. Here, John Banville puts in a good word for the Swift. Full program Dec 28th, 6.30pm, RTÉ lyric fm.
Artist and perception wrangler, Renata Pekowska, on a few of her favourite things, which include a book about religious relics and the smell of tomato vines.
How do artists capture the limitless beauty and complexity of the natural world? Paddy Woodworth chairs a panel of image-makers, featuring Jane Carkill, Melissa Culhane, Killian Mullarney and Yanny Petters, recorded live at the National Botanic Gardens as part of Dublin Book Festival 24.
As a taster for this week's Culture File Debate: Seeing Natures, Paddy Woodworth asks his panel of nature image-makers - Jane Carkill, Melissa Culhane, Killian Mullarney and Yanny Petters - about the effects of the climate emergency on their work and their lives.
Conversations, impressions and quick sketches from this year's Galway Cartoon Festival, in cartoonist Caoimhe Lavelle's festival notebook.
VR visionary, Curtis Hickman, on how even good old-fashioned legerdemain can teach a creator about working with the "hyper-reality" of VR storytelling.
Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for his ideal shelf of nature books is The Signature Of All Things by 'Eat, Pray, Love' author, Elizabeth Gilbert.
Conductor and researcher, Peter Whelan on what we're still learning about Handel in Dublin; Orit Gat attempts to see Monet in London through the fog, and artist, Rada Iva Sibila on working with pain.
Neuroscientist and cyberdelic evangelist, Till Holzapfel, on some of his favourite things, including Alejandro Jodorowsky's The Magic Mountain and the smell behind his dogs ears.
Among the ingredients for Rada Iva Sibila sound installations are the Zagreb artist's spoken words, captured as she experiences the pain of arthritis. Image credit: Serhii Shapoval @photo_by_shapoval
Is it possible to see once-breathtaking images from Monet or Van Gogh at all now? Orit Gat gives it a go at two current London shows from the Modernist mainstays.
What did George Frideric Handel hear at the Messiah's first performance in Dublin in 1743? Irish Baroque Orchestra's Peter Whelan turns his attention to the composer's little giant.
Rewalking a memorable path through "Handel's Dublin" in the company of the late historian, Jonathan Bardon. (4/4)
On the trail of the probably German writer behind The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Tadhg O'Sulllivan, the art of playing the violin while reciting verse with soloist, Larissa O'Grady; an unorthodox way of finding a bed for the night in a new Irish short film, Room Taken and a visit the an "art cabin" in Limerick City.
Composer, John McLachlan shares some of his favourite things, which include all six volumes of Karl Ove Knausgård's My Struggle, and that perennial scent choice, the smell turf.
A couch-surfing homeless immigrant who doesn’t know his luck encounters a blind woman who doesn't know he's there, in director TJ O'Grady-Peyton's Room Taken.
Culture File makes a studio visit to the "Art Cabin" at Brother Russell House in Limerick City.
Tadhg O'Sullivan's latest journey into the cloud attempts to follow the elusive author of The Treasure of The Sierra Madre, B. Traven.
Rewalking a memorable path through "Handel's Dublin" in the company of the late historian, Jonathan Bardon. (3/4)
Some of the good things as rated by composer, Timothy Brock, including Vincenzo Lamagna's re-score for Akram Khan's Giselle, and a certain bowl of pasta-ragu you might find in Trattoria Serghei in Bologna.
At IMMA, an audio guide provides a platform for kids' takes on contemporary art; uilleann piper, Cillian Vallely teams up with Fidelio Quarter for what you might call a contemporary classical/trad crossover... if you dared; and the brain candy of cyberdelics at Berlin's Gamer Ground festival.
The musical paintings of John B. Vallely inspire a series of works by Irish composers for Fidelio Trio and uilleann piper Cillian Vallely to perform together.
At Berlin's Games Ground gaming festival, Cyberdelic technologists and researchers demo some of their immersive wares, such as Squingle, Syndelica, Cosmic Sugar and Brain Candy.
Rewalking a memorable path through "Handel's Dublin" in the company of the late historian, Jonathan Bardon. (2/4)
Composer and conductor, Timothy Brock, on his "historically informed performance" of silent film music, and bringing back to life the movie scores written by Charlie Chaplin for his own films.
Orkney composer, Erland Cooper on some of life's delight's including the film music of Isobel Waller-Bridge and a special scented candle that smells of the Pacific South West.
Beta Festival visitors artist Maeve Stone and her cyborg shamen mentor, futurist Adah Parris, drop round for a cup of something soothing with Caoimhe Lavelle.
Timothy Brock has restored scores for a dozen of Charlie Chaplin's films, most recently A Woman of Paris. (2/2) Music from A WOMAN OF PARIS Copyright © Roy Export S.A.S. Audio extracts from the Chaplin Archive Copyright © Roy Export Company Ltd.
Bringing back to life the music created by Charlie Chaplin for his own films, such as Modern Times, is the calling of composer and conductor, Timothy Brock. (1/2)
Rewalking a memorable path through "Handel's Dublin" in the company of the late historian, Jonathan Bardon. (1/4)
Why flavour is in the brain and not the glass at Taste Week in Paris; robotic eye rolling at Beta Digital Festival in Dublin's Liberties; Orit Gat's celebration of pigeonkind; and Paddy Woodworth's Naturalist's Bookshelf.
The watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling pleasures of musician, composer and sound designer, Anna Mullarkey.
Warming up for our live session at The National Botanic Gardens, writer Orit Gat makes the case for loving 'n' leaving alone the pigeon.
Updating the legacy of Auguste Escoffier with some brand new flavours and techniques at "Taste Week" in Paris.
The subversive power of the eye roll this time, with artist Caroline Mac Cathmhaoil creator of This Is How Eye Roll, an artwork programmed to respond to world events with the gesture.
Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for "the shelf" is a deeply illustrated nature book for younger readers from Michael Fewer and illustrator Melissa Doran (Melissa Culhane).
The uncanny side of being bilingual with seanos singer, Ceara Conway; Caoimhe Lavelle on the lost Dublin - and lost body -- of Gothic author, Charles Maturin; and sountracking trauma and anxiety on stage with sound designer Anna Mullarkey.
Composer, musician and longtime Gil Scott Heron collaborator, Brian Jackson on some things to look up in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
A twilight tour through the lost city of once-celebrated Dublin author of gothic fictions, Charles Maturin, creator of Melmoth The Wanderer.
Bilingual singer and artist, Ceara Conway on her recent work exploring disappearances and losses - in language and birds.
Soundtracking the inner spaces of trauma and anxiety, as composer and sound designer, Anna Mullarkey teams up with Enda Walsh.
Lady Gregory in America, and in jail, in Colm Toibin's new opera at Wexford, Jemiriye of Les Amazones D'Afrique on campaigning in song, drinking stars in the piano music of John McLachlan and Paddy Woodworth's latest entry for The Naturalist's Bookshelf.
A few of the favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling of Dublin-based Colombian-Italian composer, Caterina Schembri.
Thirty years of piano composition meets up on a new album from Dublin-born composer, John McLachlan's Drinking The Stars.
Jemiriye, part of African women's super group, Les Amazones d’Afrique on campaigning in song.
Novelist, Colm Tóibín tries out comic opera in his Wexford Festival production, set during The Abbey Theatre company's US tour of Playboy of the Western World in 1911.
Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for inclusion on his shelf of nature books celebrates the undersung—and unsung—work of Irish nature artists.
A few of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling from TCD historian, Philippa Byrne.
An audio jaunt to Espiscol Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City for an animal mass, rethinking the ear with Norwegian artist and musician, Camille Norment, and sensing sea salt and turpentine in the music of composer Caterina Schembri.
Norwegian artist and musicker, Camille Norment, is ready to question everything we know about sound, starting with any notion that the ear is at the centre of things.
Goats, llamas, snakes, birds, a camel, a horse, a cow, a tortoise and some oysters all take part in the St Francis feast day mass at New York's Episocal Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.
Composer Gerry Murphy on a day in the life of Kapellmeister of Thomaskirche, Leipzig: the industrious Herr Bach.
Italian-Colombian composer, Caterina Schembri on the images and substances behind her new album, Sea Salt & Turpentine.
Singer, composer and Irish wake enthusiast, Róis, on a few of her favourite things in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
New essays from Tadhg O'Sullivan on the agit-horror film, Threads; Orti Gat on the rebirth of the Turner prize, and Paddy Woodworth on Irish nature poetry, as well as Outlandish's theatrical rethink for our moment of Gorky's Summerfolk, at Dublin Theatre Festival.
Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for inclusion on the Naturalist's Bookshelf is Windfall, an anthology of Irish nature poetry edited by Jane Clarke.
Tadhg O'Sullivan remembers his initiation into the horrors of nuclear armageddon via the 80s BBC TV program, Threads.
Maxim Gorky's Summerfolk, premiered in St Petersburg in 1904, gets refocused on the world of today in Dublin-based Outlandish's Dublin Theatre Festival show, Global Desires.
What use is the Turner prize for contemporary art? Plenty, decides Orit Gat in her latest Voice Notes.
Artist and filmmaker, Mikhail Karikis tells us about some of the sweet things in his cultural diet.
Meet the would-be "artisanal white noise" mogul who is opening up the functional sound market with his app Fuzzzel; musicologist Jeremy Dibble on the Down-born composer and conductor, Hamilton Harty, and pianist, composer and musical right arm to Gil Scott Heron, Brian Jackson on music, justice and the legacy of Alice Coltrane.
Working with artists such as composer, Owen Pallet, harpist, Mary Lattimore, pianist Kelly Moran and nature recorder, Chris Watson, Christopher Weingarten is exploring the market for "artisanal" white noise with his Fuzzzel app.
An unpublished masterpiece by Down-born star of the 20th century British musical world, Hamilton Harty, gets an overdue outing.
Pianist and composer, Brian Jackson on songwriting with Gil Scott Heron, and his initiation into the musics of Alice and John Coltrane. (Part 2 of 2)
Pianist and composer, Brian Jackson's long term collaboration with Gil Scott Heron left behind some of the 1970s most enduringly potent political music.
Ballina prepares to enjoy Brian Irvine's all-comers Totally Made Up Orchestra; Paddy Woodward on the pursuit of endless spring; the fluttery sound world of the Middle Ages; and Róis finds the fun in traditional approaches to death.
Tokyo-based AI influencer IMMA on some of her favourites in film, music, podcast, food and scent. Possibly.
Award-winning Belfast composer Brian Irvine's super scratch orchestra The Totally Made Up Orchestra invites all comers to join in making some beautifully free music. Join the band by signing up at www.ballinafringefestival.ie
A journey into medieval sound, with historian Prof Philppa Byrne, who has been trying to summon the sonic atmospheres of lost worlds.
A new collection of music and found sound from Róis called "Mo Léan" offers the ancient musical practices of keening the kiss of life.
Paddy Woodworth's latest selection for inclusion on the Naturalist's Bookshelf is what you might call a sleeper, at least for Paddy: Tim Dee's Greenery "Journeys in Springtime"
Artist, activist and Slow Touring advocate, Lie Ning on some of their favourites in watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Trombone virtuoso Filippo Vignato dreams of architectural improvisation; percussionist Evelyn Glennie improvises to the poetry of Raymond Antropbus, Lie Ning cooks up sustainable pop; and How to make friends with an Irish Bog.
Lie Ning's Slow Tour offers an experimental approach to gigging while reforming the unsustainable impact of the pop mega-tour.
Experimental Italian trombonist and improvisor Filippo Vignato's All About Dreaming is a freewheeling, trombone-dismantling improvisation, designed to explore the spaces of the venues he plays.
Another Noise is a collection of pieces recorded one afternoon when the world's most famous deaf musician, Evelyn Glennie, met British-Jamaican deaf poet, Raymond Antobus, amidst her collection of thousands of percussion instruments.
A coalition of locals, including everyone from turf-cutters to artists and archaeologists, has teamed up to protect and celebrate the rare ecosystem at Ardee Bog in County Louth.
Dublin artist and holy well aficionado, Carmen Quigley on some recent pleasures in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
At Sara Walker Gallery an exhibition brings together two artists who've had long, parallel careers in painting since they met in art college in the 1960s, Charles Tyrell and Martin Gale. They meet up now in a show curated by another duo who first met in art school in the 1980s, gallerists Sara Walker and Nuala Fenton, with host Rachel Andrews.
A taste of Saturday's Culture File Debate exploring an Irish art constellation centred on West Cork, featuring painters Charles Tyrell and Martin Gale.
At an exhibition of the artworld star in New York, Orit Gat wonders where the work of Jenny Holzer might sit in our wasteland of inspo?
Composer Erland Cooper's latest project involved a big risk: burying in the masters of his work, Carve The Runes Then Be Content With Silence in the soil of his native Orkney to hear what happened to the music.
Artist, Niamh Hannaford, shares on some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Does virtual human, IMMA spell the end of the flesh 'n' blood influencer?; the many meanings of milk for the artist, Niamh Hannaford; Paddy Woodworth's nostalgic bird guides; and the power of DIY music video.
Filmmaker Anna Heisterkamp on DIY filmmaking and the special powers of the pop music video.
Creating the standard for virtual human AI, with Japan's No 1 virtual influencer, IMMA.
Odd as it may sound, there is one type of book that Paddy Woodworth has not pointed out on the 'shelf until now: bird guides.
Artist Niamh Hannaford's latest imagines milk as an ideal substance for thinking about time, care and the larger extractive economy.
Artists and academics working in the realm of sleep join Luke Clancy to explore the politics of sleep, from the sleep gap, to sleep and the city, and the emancipatory work of dreams, with a panel featuring Black Power Naps, Dr. Cressida Heyes, Peter Power and Dr. Antonio Zaadra. (First broadcast 24/02/24)
Recorded live at IMMA's Take a Breath season, The Culture File Debate panel explores our ways of understanding breath, from our communal need for breathable air, to the personal act of breathing, to the uncommon states rooted in attention to breath.
Lorcan catches up with renowned pianist Christopher O'Riley to talk about Bach, Radiohead, the Irish connection... and Aurora!
Why does Irish trad sound like it does? Some answers from composer and guitarist, Dave Flynn who uses his guitar to examine the sounds and techniques that make Irish trad unique.
From giving the Velvet Underground their name (and part of their sound) to teaching maths on public access television, the late American composer Tony Conrad was influential and unpredictable. Composer and improvisor Jennifer Walshe, who collaborated on Conrad's final album, steers us through the sounds, ideas and joys of a unique artist.
Jennifer Walshe on 1960s Manhattan's other definition of minimalism, and its chief exponent; Parisian patisseries put away the butter for a kinder croissant; an accidental photo-history of Donegal; and a very specific definition of "quiet" via Cork's Quiet Music Ensemble.
Northern Irish audiovisual artist, Stephen McLaughin, aka An Trinse, shares some of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
The rich, complicated legacy of late pioneering musician and artist, Tony Conrad, seen through the eyes of his champion and former collaborator, Jennifer Walshe. (An extended version of this program airs August 3rd in the Culture File Weekly)
Four decades of Donegal life in the accidental archive of Donegal News photographer, Declan Doherty.
Along the boulevards, a revolution is marching, as a wave of French bakers learn to soar with plant-based croissants and other 21st century delights.
Soprano and Irish Baroque Orchestra collaborator, Rachel Redmond on a few of her favorites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
A cooling sip from a holy well in Dublin's Phoenix Park, served up by artist Carmen Quigley; Jennifer Walshe on what the music industry is misunderstanding about generative AI; Orit Gat on everything the artist knows about the family; and E The Artist's escape from the terrors of quantization.
Irish-Yoruba sound and visual artist, Doranijoh Sanna, a.k.a. E The Artist, on his new collaboration with contemporary music innovators, Crash Ensemble.
Orit Gat's art summer brings her to the Kunstmuseum in the Swiss town of St Gallen, for Burning Down The House, an exhibition exploring ideas of family.
Artist Carmen Quigley is finding new meanings—and fresh water—in some of Ireland's ancient holy wells.
BBL Drizzy: A current court case pits the record industry against AI music firms. But does the skirmish overlook something crucial, asks Jennifer Walshe?
Vocalist and Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart member, Andreas Fischer on a few of his favourite things, in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The flickers and flourishes that make Irish music sounds special, with composer Dave Flynn; the sound of a bell that can't be heard inspires a new piece Tadhg O'Sullivan; and Rachel Redmond on re-activating the repertoire of Rachel Baptist, one of the stars of a good night out in 1750s Ireland.
The sound of a bell that isn't there, inspires Tadhg O'Sullivan's latest journey into the mystic.
Rachel Baptist, a Black Irish soprano, who drew crowds in 18th century Ireland singing Handel, Purcell and other hits of the time, "returns" to the concert stage with the help of soprano, Rachel Redmond and Irish Baroque Orchestra.
Composer and guitarist, Dave Flynn on the techniques and tendencies that give Irish trad its uniqueness. (Part 2)
Composer and guitarist, Dave Flynn on the techniques and tendencies that give Irish music its uniqueness. (Part 1)
Organist, conductor and musicologist, Geoffrey Webber on some of his favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Ronan O'Snodaigh's stage show this year had a surprise inclusion: an epic recitation of When Peace Broke Out In The Garden, his extended allegory of competition and cohabitation, played out in a wild Irish field.
Icelandic poet and short story writer, Fríða Ísberg's debut novel imagines her homeland convulsed by a new test to measure empathy.
Orit Gat makes a journey by train, and in her mind, to the seaside, to encounter artist duo Revital Cohen and Tuur Van Balen’s exhibition, Daughter of A Dog.
Naturalist, Negin Almassi of Illinois' Singing Insects Monitoring Program shares some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The double emergence (for the first time in more than 200 years) of periodical cicada Broods XIX and XIII inspired a band of sound recordists, musicians, poets, composers, entomologists and environmentalists to gather beneath the trees in Illinois this June to listen, record and improvise with a trillion piece orchestra of singing critters.
Instigator of the cicada safari, Irish composer and improviser Karen Power de-composes the musical ingredients of the insects' marvellous call. (Part 4)
To celebrate a rare emergence of two broods of periodical cicadas together, Orkin, a US pest control company commissioned a musical work from Bryan Rheude to be performed in the woods to the critters, in what they called "a trillion piece performance 221 years in the making". (Part 2)
A sound not heard for more than two centuries was screeched into the Illinois sunshine this month, as two broods of periodical cicadas emerged together from their respective 13-year and 17-year stays underground. (Part 1)
Emmy-nominated composer of a Cicada Symphony, Bryan Rheude shares some of his favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Norwegian composer Kristine Tjøgersen in her fish-forward orchestral work, Pelagic Dreamscape; the first man to be arrested, wrongly, with the help of AI-enabled policing; an artist-led wiff-waff pow-wow at Cork Midsummer; and organist and scholar Geoffrey Webber on the restored 19th century organ at Sandford church as part of Pipeworks Festival.
Pipework festival visitor, organist and music scholar Geoffrey Webber, gets to know the 19th century instrument in Sandford Church in Ranelagh.
The National Novelty Ping Pong Table Collection's visit to Cork Midsummer involves a wiff-waff showdown for artists, as well as a Cruinniú na nÓg tournament.
Norwegian composer, Kristine Tjøgersen on finding ways to remake the sounds of orcas, kittiwakes, gillemotes, haddock and power boats with orchestral instruments.
Robert Williams holds the unpleasant distinction of being the first person ever arrested with the help of AI-powered policing.
Icelandic poet and novelist, Fríða Ísberg on some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Paddy Woodworth re-litigates whether Kropotkin was a crackpot in The Naturalist's Bookshelf; Tadhg O'Sullivan floats in with his Cloud of Unknowing; Jennifer Walshe's Things Know Things follows the electronic trail of a neighbourhood cat; and the voices behind a performance of Stockhausen's Stimmung on the composer's baby his cosmic vocal workout.
Paddy Woodworth latest choice for addition to our shelf of ideal nature books suggests Stephen Jay Goolde 1988 essay on Russian noble-turned anarchist, Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin.
Andreas Fisher and Guillermo Anzorena of Neue Vocal Solisten on working with Karlheinz Stockhausen on the composer's epic of vocal improvisation, Stimmung, which they'll perform at the Lovely Music festival in Dundalk this weekend.
The Neighbourhood C(h)at: Even the cutest, friendliest of pets cannot escape the reaches of surveillance capitalism.
An audio postcard from the audio idyll of Sherkin Island; drawing as resistance in the attention economy at a Dublin workshop; and an update from the trouser front line.
New York-born, Dublin-based photographer, Ishmael Claxton on a few of his favourite things in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
Audio experiments in genres too numerous (and possibly too unstable) to mention filled the air on Sherkin Island this past June Holiday Weekend at the Open Ear Festival.
Can drawing help resist the over-exploitation of our valuable human attention? Renata Pekowska, who runs drawing workshops with an aim to do just that, thinks maybe it can.
Are your trousers too skinny right now? Or too wide? Is it ever possible to wear the right sort? Joanna Walsh on the mercurial discourse of pants.
An extended musical journey into Irish-American composer, Terry Riley's radical masterpiece, In C, guided by members of the Irish supergroup behind the first Trad version of his pioneering work of Minimalist magic. Featuring Zoë Conway, Donal Lunny, Máirtín O'Connor, Paddy Glackin, Mick O'Brien, Louise Mulcahy, and Michelle Mulcahy.
In preparation for our extended musical journey into his Irish trad version of In C (RTÉ lyric fm, 6pm, Saturday June 1st) one of our guides for that program, Dónal Lunny shares again some of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
An introduction to the first Irish Trad performance of In C at Louth Contemporary Music Society by a trad super-group, including Zoe Conway, Donal Lunny, Mairtin O'Connor and friends. Tune in to RTÉ lyric fm on Saturday June 1st, 6pm for an extended remix of Culture File's celebration of this historical In C seisiún.
Cellist Maja Bugge's preparation for creating her Suite for Seabirds involved time on a remote Norwegian island, collecting the sounds of Sea Eagles, Black Guillemots and other disappearing calls.
Natalie Forget is a virtuoso of the pioneering 1920s electrical instrument, the Ondes Martenot, created for—among other things—communication with angels.
The cellist-filmmaker duo behind the film 'Living The Tradition'—Ilse de Ziah and Maarten Roos—share a few of their favourites in listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
The slow business of finding a place for the cello in Irish traditional music, a history of military hardware invading the Afghan rug at TCD, and composer and academic, Seán Clancy on counting, and the social power of collaborative music.
Composer, Sean Clancy on the political possibilities of collaborative creativity and the task of listening to as much new music as humanly possible (part 2 of 2).
Numbers and counting fill the life and the music of Irish composer, Sean Clancy (part 1 of 2).
Cellist Ilse de Ziah and director Maarten Roos have made a years-long journey into Irish trad on the cello, which they chart in their film Living the Tradition.
A celebration of the poetry and punk of Lydia Tomkiw; opera director, Paul Curran goes back to his roots at an ancient Greek amphitheatre on Sicily; the political football of 1813 FC in Dublin, and Irish representative at the Venice Biennale artist, Eimear Walshe on how to build a cob house.
The team behind The Seed Pavilion in Glenbower Woods, Co Cork share some of their favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
Opera director, Paul Curran, takes on the storied Greek amphitheatre at Siracusa in Sicily for his retelling of the tragedy of Phaedra.
Every week at one or other of Dublin's public football pitch, the members of the 1815 football club - along with anyone who fancies a game - come together to demonstrate the real value of public space.
Caoimhe Lavelle makes the case for the poetry and panache of artist, rocker and aficionado of the rondel, Lydia Tomkiw.
Orit Gat visits Ireland's entry to the current 60th edition of the Venice Biennale, and talks to artist Eimear Walshe about land and housing in Ireland and their meanings.
Sound artist and composer, Joseph Young, shares some of his favourite things in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
Jennifer Walshe on the internet's "invisible literatures", as well as new music from the composer, enlisting generative AI to rethink Kurt Swchitter's Ursonate; Tadhg O'Sullivan consults a "black map" in his latest Cloud of Unknowing; and we listen to the cow who likes butter in Sarah Browne's latest work, Buttercup.
For his latest exploration towards the limits of knowing, Tadhg O'Sullivan has been consulting a "black map".
What does attending to a field of cattle have in common with making art? Agrarian artist Sarah Browne on the entangled worlds of humans and domesticated animals.
Invisible Literatures: Jennifer Walshe on what we do when we listen to ai-created music and sound.
This week's files take us: into the canopy in East Cork, at The Seed Pavilion; to meet Lonnie G. Bunch III, director of the network of museums and galleries that is The Smithsonian Institution; and through 25 years of RTÉ lyric fm in about six minutes.
Composer and academic, Sean Clancy on a few of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
The original Celtic celebration of Bealtaine gets an eco-spin at a temporary treehouse in Glenbower Woods in Killeagh this bank holiday weekend.
Like many American visitors to Ireland, Lonnie G. Bunch III, head of the Smithsonian, has uncovered some Irish heritage. But for him the discovery produces ambivalent feelings.
Like many American visitors to Ireland, Lonnie G. Bunch III, head of the Smithsonian, has uncovered some Irish heritage. But for him the discovery produces ambivalent feelings.
Jennifer Walshe's data springwatch, Joseph Young brings the ancestors black to life in the garden at Kilruddery, a world of bleeps and bips in the experimental electronic music studio, Ruth Clinton sings her latest songbook.
Composer and vocalist, Laura Bowler shares her current worlds in watching, readings, listening, tasting and smelling
Neil O'Connor, aka Ordnance Survey, aka Somadrone, is our guide for a safari among the blinking and beeping hardware at the brand new University of Limerick Electronic Music Studio (ULEMS).
More a gathering of friends than a supergroup, Tradition Now festival act Ruth Clinton teams up with Sinead Landless, Corman Lankum and Consuelo Varo to explore Clinton's new songbook, This Fearless Maid II.
Sound artist Joseph Young's new work, The Ancestors, places the voices of the long departed, among other sounds, around the gardens of Kilruddery House in Co Wicklow.
Spring is Here: The evolution of alarm clocks brings a new understanding of Springtime in composer and artist Jennifer Walshe's latest audio epistle.
Per Elling Braseth-Ellingsen of the Hamsun Centre, Norway, on some of his favourite things in watching, reading (would you guess that it's a book by Knut Hamsun), listening, tasting and smelling.
This year, for the first time ever a European Capital of Culture is located within the arctic circle, in Bodø, Norway, where events focus on the precarious cultures and ecologies of this icy part of the world, as well as the region's most famous, most perplexing writer, Knut Hamsun.
Deep inside the Arctic circle in Hamarøy, the childhood home of Nobel prize-winning Norwegian novelist, Knut Hamsum, a new exhibition deals with the writer's troubling legacy (Part 2).
Deep inside the Arctic circle in Hamarøy, the childhood home of Nobel prize-winning Norwegian novelist, Knut Hamsun, a new exhibition deals with the writer's troubling legacy (Part 1).
English sheep farmer and writer James Rebanks' attention has turned to another type of farming practiced on remote Norwegian islands: eider down gathering.
Beginning a week of programs from inside the arctic circle at European Capital of Culture 2024, Bodø, we meet the man who makes music from an implement traditionally used by Eider gatherers.
Maynooth-based Brazilian composer, Victor Lazzarini has some suggestions for your weekend treats in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
Jennifer Walsh on the AI-imagine colours of old Ireland; All You Need Is Death director, Paul Duane on Irish folk horror in film and song; Laura Bowler tries to sing while getting tattooed in her new piece for New Music Dublin; and Deirdre O'Mahony's eco-opera film, The Quickening goes on a tour of "walls and halls".
Artist, Deirdre O'Mahony's long running project on Irish foodways blossoms into an operatic film installation at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin and a national tour of "walls and halls".
Vocalist and composer, Laura Bowler's approach to New Music demands she gives audiences something to watch, as well as something to listen to and think about, whether that be mid-performance boxing, or for her latest work, live tattooing.
It lives! And by "it' we mean Irish Folk Horror, which is reanimated in the hands of documentary maker, Paul Duane with his first feature film, All You Need Is Death.
Old Ireland In Colour: Jennifer Walsh on what the best-selling books of colourised photos of the country's past can reveal about the nature of remembering, human and artificial.
Flautist and Stone Drawn Circles member, Lina Andonovska shares some of her favourite things in tv, books, music, podcasts, food and scent.
Recorded live at the Fidelio Winter Chamber Music Festival at St. Patrick's Drumcondra, our panel of Fidelio Trio pianist, Mary Dullea, and composers, Ronah Clarke and John Buckley, talk to Luke Clancy about music commissions: getting and giving. (First broadcast 231223)
Dark PR author, Grant Ennis takes a walk through Dublin decoding much motornormative manipulation.
In the final essay of her series on the meanings of amateurism, writer Joanna Walsh notices a spasm in what theorist Cory Doctorow calls the "enshittification" of the online world.
For his latest album composer, Victor Lazzarini has been adding the warmth of human improvisation to the electronic mix; Lina Andonovska of new New Music supergroup, Stone Drawn Circles explains the "why" and "how" of a new musical constellation; and Matana Roberts on the latest chapter of their epic of musical storytelling, Coin Coin.
Musician and composer, Matana Roberts, on the latest chapter of their jazz epic, Coin Coin, as well as the meaning of Beyonce's country turn. (2/2)
Musician and composer, Matana Roberts, on the latest chapter of their jazz epic, Coin Coin, and the unnamed woman whose story it explores. (1/2)
A new album of mysteriously warm and evocative electronic music, VLZ, summons Culture File to the synth-filled lair of composer, Victor Lazzarini.
How (and indeed why) to form a supergroup, with super-flautist, Lina Andonovska of new music constellation, Stone Drawn Circles
Presenter of the RTÉ NSO's new online concert series, Paul Herriott, shares some of his daily pleasures.
This month, Luke Clancy and a panel featuring ecologists Bill Jordan and Catherine Farrel, composer Karen Power and The Naturalist Bookshelf's Paddy Woodworth, discuss the places where art and ecology can usefully mix. (first broadcast 091021)
The Wager: A book by American journalist, David Grann, leads Jennifer Walshe into an unexpected cranny of the internet.
Paddy Woodworth's latest choice for addition to our shelf of essential nature books is a 2013 volume by Potawatomi botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer.
In the latest of her series on the meanings of amateurism in the online world, writer Joanna Walsh defines and celebrates the species of online essay she calls "The Trash Essay".
Paddy Glackin and Donal Lunny join Lorcan Murray live in studio for a St Patrick's Day Classic Drive Special.
Documentary filmmaker, Valentina Signorelli shares some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Isadora Epstein's Voyage turns the travels of St Brendan into performance art, Samuel Lawrence Cunnane turns a van into a travelling darkroom, Kerry Guinan's new exhibition converts a would-be nuclear shelter into a metaphor, and Jennifer Walshe's mission to explore the outer limits of AI arrives at Prompt Transformation.
A nuclear hideaway under Athlone has inspired Dublin artist, Kerry Guinan to contemplate the apocalypse in a new show she curates at Luan Gallery.
San Francisco-born, Dublin-based artist, Isadora Epstein's latest venture stars herself as Jasconius, a whale companion of Saint Brendan.
Prompt Transformation: Jennifer Walshe on what we might learn about the latest LLMs from the writings of Lester Bangs.
Dublin guitarist and composer, John Lambert, aka Chequerboard shares some of his favourites in watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
This week, files with Mohammad Syfkhan, the man at the heart of the Kuridish music scene in Leitrim; AP Giannini, the Italian financier without whom we might never have heard of Charlie Chaplin, Walt Disney or United Artists; Chequerboard on thinking differently about sounds and images; and Orit Gat on the art of Douglas Gordon.
Musician and designer, John Lambert, aka Chequerboard recently turned to, among other things, Eno's Oblique Strategies cards, in search of new ways of working and making.
Filmmaker, Valentina Signorelli's new documentary explores how a bank servicing poor Italian immigrants invented film financing as we know it.
Orit Gat’s latest Voice Note comes from Scottish artist, Douglas Gordon’s current London exhibition, which brings together four decades of work, spilling In movies and texts from the gallery to the nearby Underground.
Mohammad Syfkhan's first Irish album, "I Am Kurdish" is a message from the rich underground music scene in Leitrim.
Snaps shot of creativity around the island, and the world, with Cyborg Soloist, with Zubin Kanga; Star Wars tunes from Leo Pearson; poet Adam Wyeth words on his there will be no silence collaboration, and Jennifer Walshe on the largeness of LLMs.
Composer, pianist and technologist, Zubin Kanga shares some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
There will be no silence, in theory, in poet, Adam Wyeth's music and words collaboration with composer, David Downes at this year's New Music Dublin.
Pianist and composer Zubin Kanga is on a mission to discover how the technologically augmented classical soloist of the future might sound.
Musician and producer, Leo Pearson on building musical worlds, including for Cartoon Saloon's banshee-powered Star Wars ghost story, Screecher’s Reach.
Natural History Museum (Berlin Edition): Everything you can learn about AI by looking at dinosaurs (and beetles).
Musician and academic, Matthew Noone on some of his favourite in film, books, music, podcasts, food and perfume.
Artists and academics working in the realm of sleep, join Luke Clancy to explore the politics of sleep, from the sleep gap, to sleep and the city, and the emancipatory work of dreams, with a panel featuring Black Power Naps, Dr. Cressida Heyes, Peter Power and Dr. Antonio Zadra.
Documentary filmmaker, Tadhg O'Sullivan steps into the world of fiction, with his latest, The Swallow, starring Brenda Fricker as a painter recalling lost love.
The experiences of the Polish diaspora in Belfast offer a key to knowing displacement and exile around the world, in a new song cycle from composer, Anselm McDonnell.
Seeking the non-human hidden in the human voice, with Swedish experimental vocalist and composer, Sofia Jernberg.
In the latest of her series on the meanings of amateurism in the online world, writer Joanna Walsh wrestles with the kitschness of AI, and the AI-ness of kitsch.
Why the grain of the human voice is as important as ever in a world of AI music; the musical multiverse of British composer, Basil Kirchin; surprise celebrity in the world of autism tiktok; and improv improv at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance 30th birthday celebrations.
Dublin classicist and debut novelist behind Glorious Exploits, Ferdia Lennon shares some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Author and columnist, Eleanor Flegg is documenting on Tiktok the everyday challenges and triumphs of an adult with recently diagnosed autism.
Need some sonic nutrition? It's time you added to your playlists the rainbow magic of unclassifiable British composer, Basil Kirchin, suggests performance poet, Caoimhe Lavelle.
Interdisciplinary improvisations at the The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, marrying, among other collabs, contemporary dancers with a piper.
AI is the Grain of the Voice: In her latest exploration of the impacts of AI technologies, Jennifer Walshe AI encounters the potentials of voice cloning.
DJ Lychee on some of their favourites in watching, listening, tasting and smelling, with nods to musician Olan Monk and Old Spice deodorant.
The snowdrop wranglers of Altamont Gardens in Co Carlow, Joanna Walsh on being an amateur online and the meaning of LOLcats, and novelist Niamh Mulvey takes a waterside tour of the Kilkenny City that seeps into her fiction.
Kilkenny writer Niamh Mulvey takes us for a walk and some readings, along the banks of the River Nore.
Snowdrop hunters of the world have been assembling to spot rare examples in Altamont Gardens as part of Co Carlow's month-long celebration of the flower.
Writer, Joanna Walsh continues her series exploring what it means to be an amateur online with a visit to icanhascheezburger.com
Pianist and composer, Leon Michener, aka Klavikon, shares some of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
The Dubliners of Ancient Sicily in debut novelist, Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits, set in a Magna Graecia convulsed by the Peloponnesian war; DJ Lychee's Lunar New Year dance soundtrack; and Sadhbh O’Sullivan's Bridgidian song cycle “In Cloak and Womb"
Irish-Vietnamese producer and musician, DJ Lychee creates a soundtrack for Lunar New Year aerial dance spectacular for Dublin.
The malleable legacy of Brigid of Kildare inspires a song cycle from composer and vocalist, Sadhbh O’Sullivan.
Dubliner, Ferdia Lennon's debut novel, about an attempt to stage a play with Athenian captives on Sicily, uses a familiar brand of hiberno-English to storm the ancient world.
This time, the man v machine music magic of Klavikon, Joanna Walsh on what it means to be an amateur in the world of the gig economy, performance poet Caoimhe Lavelle on what a hula hoop adds to a poem, a tribute to master typographer, Phil Baines.
Hula-hooping poet and performer, Caoimhe Lavelle shares some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Composer Leon Michener, creator of the app (amplified prepared piano) he calls a Klavikord, points his unique instrument at the big questions of humanity, machines and the spaces in between.
Master typographer, designer, inspirational teacher, writer and walking tour guide, Prof Phil Baines has died. He was our guide, here, on the very first episode of Culture File, in which he brings us through the streets of Dublin, uncovering the casual beauty in the capital's letterscape.
The obvious, but little-explored benefits of bringing a hula hoop to poetry readings, with writer-performer Caoimhe Lavelle.
Writer, Joanna Walsh begins a new series exploring what it means to be an amateur online.
Anthropologist and water-being whisperer, Veronica Strang on some of her cherished stuffs in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Anthropologist Veronica Strang on water beings, the slippery creatures who have been helping humans to understand their planet for millenia. Jennifer Walshe on the sincerity of ChatGTP; and into deep space in the music of jazz composer, Meilana Gillard.
"Water beings" in cultures around the world are ready to teach us again about how to live on planet earth, suggests anthropologist, Veronica Strang (2/2)
Water Beings in cultures around the world are ready to teach us again about how to live on planet earth, suggests anthropologist, Veronica Strang (1/2)
Chasing Comets, saxophonist, Meilana Gillard's new suite for the RGB Trio, takes inspiration from the cosmos - and Nintendo and Sega game sound.
Unaccustomed as it is to public speaking, ChatGPT has been making inroads at our most important social events and moments. Jennifer Walshe wonders if we really should be surprised.
A special edition of The Culture File Weekly on filmmaker Tadhg O'Sullivan's cultural history of ignorance from Fawlty Towers to new born babies, The Cloud of Unknowing.
Another chance to hear the word "wild" hunted down by our panel: writer/artist, Lisa Fingleton; Nature File's Anja Murray; sailor/artist, Gwen Wilkinson; The Naturalist Bookshelf's Paddy Woodworth; along with chair Luke Clancy.
At the inaugural Beta digital arts festival in Dublin, writer, Joanna Walsh, artist//designer, Leon Butler; and writer/academic, Jennifer O'Meara join Luke Clancy to discuss creativity, authenticity and AI.
Composer and MIDI maven, Jeff Rona shares some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Recorded live at this year's Fidelio Winter Chamber Music Festival at St. Patrick's Drumcondra, our panel of Fidelio Trio pianist, Mary Dullea, and composers, Rhona Clarke and John Buckley, talk to Luke Clancy about music commissions: getting and giving.
Lisa Fingleton reads her seasonal tale of Walter, a man whose pursuit of everything might just have left him - and the rest of the world - with nothing.
The artist, Lisa Fingleton responds to the unease of our moment with a story for children and adults inspired by (among other things) a climate activist who went to work at an oil company. Check out the podcast feed for a full download of "Walter The Warmonger".
Composer and technologist, Jeff Rona on the bedroom music revolution that the arrival of MIDI sparked. (2/2)
Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) celebrated its 40th birthday this year, but the ideas behind the music making technology have millennia deep roots. (1/2)
Conductor and fiddle player Sinead Hayes deconstructs the trad session, Conor O'Reilly's CóR project eyes sustainability for choral music, and Belfast polymath and techno magician Max Cooper's experiments in 3D/AV magic.
Conductor violinist and Tangletrad inventor, Sinead Hayes shares some of her favourites in watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Choir conductor and composer, Conor O'Reilly's new venture, Cór wants to see choral music in Ireland act a bit more like the GAA.
Conductor and violinist, Sinead Hayes on "Tangletrad" - her 20 rules for creative intervention at your local seisiun (2/2)
Conductor and violinist, Sinead Hayes has a masterplan for developing musical infrastructure in the West of Ireland involving, among other things, a large number of candles (1/2)
Digging up the revolution that dare not speak its name in Ciara Hyland's documentary, Croíthe Radacacha; Sam Gandy on a new future for psychedelics; Kilkenny's Moot Tapes collective celebrates five years of DIY action; and the art of the robo-cello, as practiced in Sweden.
English organist, Bach specialist and star of this week's Pipeworks festival, David Goode on some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Composer, Joao Pedro Oliveira projects some music for the eyes; Pipeworks festival star, David Goode on the power and glory of his chosen instrument; experimental vocalist, Lore Lixerberg teams up with composer, Karen Power and Tadhg O'Sullivan has been stealing work from the AI for his latest Cloud of Unknowing.
Californian based Portuguese composer, Joao Pedro Oliveira, explores how seeing and hearing are not always as distinct as we'd like to imagine.
Mezzo-soprano, Lore Lixenberg and composer, Karen Power team up with Amazonian birds and Namib Desert critters for a sonic adventure in Language, Land, Sea.
In his latest cloud, Tadhg O'Sullivan contemplates the will to datafy and the myths of Palo Alto.
English organ star, David Goode on power, faith and the particular life of the organist.
Balbriggan teacher and novelist, Kevin Curran shares some of his recent favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
This week, composer Caroline Shaw on the joys of Tiktok and ABBA; Jennifer Walshe's Things Know Things explores the relationship between AI and EVP; the progressive politics of witches celebrated in Junk Ensemble's Ritual, and Aisling Kelliher on what the movies have lead us to expect from Apple's Visio Pro headset.
Prof Aisling Kelliher of USC School of Cinematic Arts on Apple's Vision Pro and the cinematheque of dystopian dataspaces.
Prof Aisling Kelliher of USC School of Cinematic Arts on Apple's Vision Pro and the cinematheque of dystopian dataspaces, in an extended version.
Finding love on TikTok and other adventures in the life of Pulitzer and Grammy winning composer, violist and vocalist, Caroline Shaw.
The dissident potential of witches is under inspection in Junk Ensemble's latest, a live performance installation created with a collaborative team that includes Jesse Jones, Aideen Barry and Planningtorock.
AI is EVP: In the latest of her attempts to uncover all the things that AI is like, Jennifer Walshe strikes upon the uncanny business of Electronic Voice Phenomenon.
Vocalist and songwriter, Aoife O'Donovan on the tools for telling stories in song; teenage voices of Balbriggan filtered through the writing of Kevin Curran in a new novel about life in Ireland's most diverse town, and Orit Gat on the baked art of Uri Aran in his exhibition, Take This Dog for Example.
Irish composer, Emma O'Halloran on some of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Art writer, Orit Gat sends some voice notes from amongst the chocolate chip cookies and letter shaped bread of artist, Uri Aran's Dublin exhibition, Take This Dog For Example.
Writer Kevin Curran and actor, Gabriel Adewusi, on bringing stories of teenage life in Ireland's youngest and most diverse town to life for the audiobook version of Curran's latest novel, Youth.
American folk vocalist, songwriter, and sometime Yo-Yo Ma collaborator, Aoife O'Donovan brings it all back home to Clonakilty
Jennifer Walshe on possibly the best way to pronounce AI; composer Dave Flynn on the sounds that fill the air of Aotearoa/New Zealand, and Prof Jennifer Edmond on the benefits of having machines read novels for us - at least some of the time.
Writer and historian and author of a new study of the long history of Palo Alto, Malcolm Harris shares some of his favorites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
Prof Jennifer Edmond, of Trinity Center for Digital Humanities, on what we gain when we engage machines to read novels. (2/2)
TCD's Prof Jennifer Edmond's approach into literature involves, among other things, using data analytics to explore vast collections of novels.
Irish composer Dave Flynn falls under the spell the Tuis and the Kakapo and other birds that fill the air of Aotearoa/New Zealand with unique sound.
The musician and composer behind Ordnance Survey, Neil O'Connor on some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Palo Alto became a centre of technology while horses were still providing much of the world's horsepower. But the story of this San Francisco suburb and its approach to the people and resources offers a useful way of understanding the contemporary world, according to historian Malcolm Harris' new book.
Malcolm Harris' epic new history of Palo Alto unpicks some of the stories Silicon Valley likes to tell about itself. Plus this time, the rise of former Stanford Philosophy grad and current ultra-right billionaire, Peter Thiel. (3/3)
Malcolm Harris continues the story of Palo Alto, home to eugenics-inspired Stanford university, which grew into the engine of Silicon Valley. (2/3)
Historian Malcolm Harris on his new book on the San Francisco suburb that gave the world the "Palo Alto System". (1/3)
Paddy Woodworth's imaginary shelf of the world's best nature writing adds a slim volume (or three) of poetry by Seamus Heaney.
A spectral reimagining of the music of Seán Ó Riada, Marco D'Agostin's tribute to the late English dance artist, Nigel Charnok, a visit to "the longest stage in the world" and Jennifer Walshe on all the many ways that AI is like an energy drink.
Choreographer, dancer and former cross country skier, Marco D'Agostin on some of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
The GrünflächenUnterhaltung is a yearly event held in the German city of Münster creating "the longest stage in the world" with four kilometers of musicians performing on a Saturday afternoon in May.
The musical territory of Seán Ó Riada reimagined by Ordnance Survey, the current moniker of Irish composer and musician, Neil O'Connor.
The dance philosophy of late British choreographer, Nigel Charnok is honoured in a show from one-time pupil, Marco D’Agostin.
AI Is An Energy Drink: Jennifer Walshe on how generative AI has much in common with your favourite can of caffeinated pop.
Composer and creator of the NCH's new sound installation in Stephen's Green, Ellen Reid on a few of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Musician and theorist, DeForrest Brown on The Otolith Group, the origins of Detroit techno and his Make Techno Black Again campaign; Susan Stenger on the sound of Connemara granite, and Berlin cellist, Anne Müller on her great escape from the orchestra.
DeForrest Brown on the music and the underwater mythos of Detroit techno duo, Drexciya. (2/2)
American writer and musician, DeForrest Brown is on a mission to rewire ideas of what Techno really is -- where it came from and what it's for.
Some reasons not to join an orchestra, and other things cellist and composer, Anne Müller learned on the way to creating her own tech-augmented cello sound.
Flautist, composer, sound artist, sometime Nick Cave bassist, Susan Stenger on finding the musical form of Tim Robinson's Connemara.
An extended interview with contemporary dance innovator and voguing aficionado, Trajal Harrell; composer, Ellen Reid on adding a headphones soundtrack to Stephen's Green in Dublin; and Jennifer Walshe on AI music as fan fiction.
American composer, Ellen Reid's globe-spanning, GPS-based headphones-music project arrives in Dublin's Stephen's Green.
Everything from Keith Jarret's piano improvisations to the queer subculture of voguing provide inspiration for dancer and choreographer, Trajal Harrell.
Music As Fan Fiction: Jennifer Walshe on how generative AI is reshaping how we understand music.
Sound excursions from the bogs of Monaghan with artist Siobhan McDonald, a cellar in Brno with "imaginary folk" band Širom, and a symposium for Tim Robinson in Kylemore Abbey, Connemara; plus Orit Gat on the scent of freshly cut grass and other alarm calls.
Some favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling from musician and filmmaker, Dónal O'Connor.
A childhood incident in the bogs of Monaghan form part of the inspiration for artist, Siobhan McDonald's new body of work at The Model, Sligo.
Slovenian trio, Širom use strictly acoustic, often home-made instruments to create a world of sound that is entirely their own.
Landscape scholar, Finola O'Kane on the vast, yet small distances between pineapples and potatoes, and other quirks of Connemara cartography.
In the final part of her series of reflections on scent and memory, writer Orit Gat pursues the reasons to think and write about scent. (5/5)
Joe Greene of Belfast cosmic popsters, Documenta on some of his favourite stuff for watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Twenty years of thinking through art gathered in Sarah Pierce's show, Scene of the Myth at IMMA; Tadhg O'Sullivan's Cloud of Unknowing settles on the peak of double empathy; and Robert Curgenven builds a "Pavilion of Air" in Merrion Square, Dublin.
Robert Curgenven takes a walk through Merrion Square, Dublin, where the latest instance of his ambient/ambulatory sound work, Pavilion of Air is currently floating.
What is an exhibition supposed to be, and other questions from Scene of the Myth, a survey of 20 years of work in forms from archives to performance by artist, Sarah Pierce.
A new show at IMMA performs the tricky task of looking over 20 years of artist, Sarah Pierce's activities in installations, performances, talks, publications and archives.
Tadhg O'Sullivan contemplates othermindedness; beginning, as has become the tradition, by considering the bat.
English writer and filmmaker, Alex Harvey explores Tom Waits' LA music, and the sounds, streets and cinema that inspired it. Plus: Orit Gat on the meanings of "signature scents".
Actor, writer, comedian and podcaster, Joe Pera on some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Alex Harvey, author of Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles, on Waits' debt to the movies. (2/2)
English documentary maker, Alex Harvey explores Tom Waits' LA-inspired music in a new book, Song Noir: Tom Waits and the Spirit of Los Angeles. (1/2)
In the latest of her series of reflections on scent and memory, writer Orit Gat decodes the idea of having a signature scent. (4/5)
A selection of audio eggs containing everything from Jennifer Walshe on an intriguing editing trend on TikTok, to a dropin on the moshpit with Hastings Punk choir, via everything you might learn about Irish 16th century women's lives through their cookbooks.
For his latest choice of essential writing on the natural world, Paddy Woodworth selects Robert Lloyd Praeger's exploration of Ireland, The Way that I Went.
The late historian and writer, Jonathan Bardon on how the contralto, Susanna Cibber, came to perform in the premier of Handel's Messiah (Repeat)
Monday night is rehearsal night for the members of the "anti-choir" Hastings Punk Choir...
Corecore: Jennifer Walshe on a Tiktok style that just might be more than a viral trend.
On the program this week, the world's oldest voices recorded among the centenarians of the Talysh Mountains, the synthesised voice of her brother, David, in Holly Marie Parnell's documentary Cabbage, falling asleep to Joe Pera's voice in the comedian's new sleep podcast, and Orit Gat on art that smells.
Vocalist and fungi fan, Lauren Kinsella on some of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Producer Ian Brennan and Italian-Rwandan photographer, Marilena Umuhoza Delli travelled to the Talysh Mountains to record and document the "The Oldest Voice in the World" - and to hear the life hacks of the centenarians.
Concertina player Maura O'Connor from the Sliabh Luachra region joined Lorcan in studio for a chat and some tunes.
Writer and comedian Joe Pera brings the capacity for everyday awe celebrated in his TV show, Joe Pera Talks With You to the stage.
In her latest work, Cabbage, filmmaker, Holly Marie Parnell collaborates with her mother and her brother, David, a non-mobile, non-verbal person, who communicates using eye-tracking technology.
In the latest of her series of reflections on scent and memory, writer Orit Gat recalls times when art and the sense of smell converged. (3/5)
Jennifer Walshe in the imaginary real Oxford/Longford, Lauren Kinsella in the kingdom of mushrooms, Micheál Mac Liammóir at An Taibhdhearc, and Yves B Golden airside and enjoying it.
Director of the New Music Dublin festival of contemporary sounds shares some of his regular delights in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The ghost of Micheál Mac Liammóir - along with Oscar Wilde's revenant singing George Michael anthems - roams the earth in Wáltsáil Abhaile, Fíbín theatre company's latest show at An Taibhdhearc in Galway.
Among the treats at The Ark's Big Bang festival are mushrooms, conjured in the mesmerising music of improvising vocalist Lauren Kinsella and friends.
Fictional Tourists: Composer and artist, Jennifer Walshe keeps finding her everyday world reproduced in art. Or is it the other way around?
The North of England's many efforts at cultural renaissance in a new memoir from Alex Niven; Orit Gat, on a satisfyingly difficult to pin down smell that lives in an apartment in Brooklyn; and Ella De Guzzman, the bag detective of Siopaella, on things that last.
Alex Niven, author of a new cultural history-cum-memoir of Northern England continues his tour of attempted Northern renaissances (2/2)
Writer and academic, Alex Niven's new book, The North Will Rise Again, is a cultural history-cum-memoir of Northern England.
In the latest of her series of reflections on scent and memory, writer Orit Gat recalls an old love, and an apartment in Brooklyn. (2/5)
Salvation through making at this year's MAKE symposium in Cork with academic, Tim Ingold and artist, Ann Hamilton. The long-term impact of a 19th century plant hunting expedition to America, through the lenses and other tech of Dublin artist, Anthony O'Connor, and Jennifer Walshe on everything she's learned about chatbots from her cat, Nomi.
200 years after David Douglas set sail for America in search of tree specimens to plant in the British Isles, artist, Anthony O'Connor explores the trip's legacy today.
Artist Ann Hamilton on the business of knowing through making, and her recent work, Chorus, sited in a subway station beneath the World Trade Centre.
Prof Tim Ingold, who spoke at this year's MAKE symposium, has a vision of turning art from a sector built around professionals, to something bigger and broader that involves us all.
Attention! Chatbot Bizarre!: playing with her cat, Nomi (see pic) leads Jennifer Walshe towards an epiphany about Bing and the new wave in chatbots.
Rennaisance-to-Leonard Cohen music interpreter, Joel Frederiksen shares some of his favourites for watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
From creative collaborations to the messy ethics of machine learning, this month’s Luke Clancy and a panel of composer, Jennifer Walshe, digital ethics researcher, Abeba Birhane and AI copyright specialist, Andres Guadamuz, on the coulds, shoulds and woulds of AI.
Fiddler and filmmaker, Dónal O' Connor's new film, Litir ó Do Chara, looks at the trad legacy of guitarist, Dennis Cahill.
Paddy Woodworth returns to choose the latest volume for inclusion in his imaginary shelf of the world's best nature writing.
Athlone composer, Emma O'Halloran explores opera writing through the stage plays of her uncle, Mark O'Halloran
In the first of a series of her reflections on scent and memory writer, Orit Gat recalls the olive oil soap of her Tel Aviv childhood.
Kerry-based artist, Laura Fitzgerald shares some of her favourite things in watching, listening, readings, tasting and smelling.
Composer, Grainne Mulvey on carrying historical speeches from great Irishwomen into her new work, Tadhg O'Sullivan on what Dunbar's number signifies in the world of the Irish small town novel; percussionist, Caitríona Frost on the quirks of Irish traditional playing on marimba, and Jennifer Walshe on a domestic apparition.
For his latest radio poem, Tadgh O'Sullivan meditates on the challenges that Irish small town life offers to "Dunbar's Number".
Composer, Grainne Mulvey's ongoing musical exploration of speeches from Irish women builds with the words of Harriet Morison, Hannah Sheehy-Skeffington, and Elizabeth Coppin.
Caitríona Frost, 50% of percussionist duo Bangers and Crash, is coaxing the sounds of Irish traditional playing techniques from the marimba.
Images Obscure and Not: Jennifer Walshe has an appointment to catch the optical wonders happening in her hall.
Patricia Hurl's retrospective at IMMA; picturing Care with the help of generative AI; jazz singer, Christine Tobin falls for the boglands; and we celebrate World Radio Day, with a tale of peace in the sewing workshop.
Artist-farmer, Orla Barry shares some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Prof Ioana Moldovan gets some help from image-generating AIs to better understand human ideas of care.
40 years of catching up to do at a new retrospective in Kilmainham of the often darkly funny work of veteran Irish painter, Patricia Hurl.
Jazz singer and improviser Christine Tobin's return home to live in rural Ireland has steered her gently towards a new sound.
As part of UNESCO's World Radio Day, Luke Clancy uncovers the peace found in a sewing workshop
Artist, Ruby Wallis leads a tour of the Dublin area once known as "The Monto" for a feminist rethink of the nightime city; Aisling Kelliher on AI and the life cycle of hype; plus Yves B Golden's latest radio poem, The Theatre of Winter.
Artist and researcher, Anthony O'Connor on a few of his favourites for watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
The current torrents of hype around AI leads Aisling Kelliher to think about the sometimes not so subtle interplay of technology and enthusiasm.
Among the happenings for the inaugural Brigit's festival was artist Ruby Wallis' dérive leading a group of women on a nightwalk through Dublin city.
For her latest Culture File radio poem, Yves B Golden reflects on the shocking joy of rain and other Californian winter pleasures.
Vaari Claffey and collaborators on the many good reasons not to be an artist in an exhibition at NCAD, finding a new philosophy for understanding technology at a conference in TUD, and Jennifer Walshe on the gamification of the auld sod.
Curator, Vaari Claffey on a few of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Noel Fitzpatrick, professor of Philosophy at TUD, on imagining new ethical imperatives for everyday tech.
Techne logos, Care And the (Neg) Anthropocene was the title of a recent conference at TUD. Noel Fitzpatrick, professor of Philosophy and one of its organisers, offers some help with the twisty title.
Curator, Vaari Claffey on her new collaborative film exploring the ideas of artist and former head of NCAD, Noel Sheridan, with the help of a 90s performance film.
The Digital Soil Beneath Our Feet: Jennifer Walshe on the other earths of farm simulator gaming.
A special edition from Vienna includes: art at the re-modelled Austrian Parliament building; artist duo, Muntean/Rosenbloom; crowdsourcing modular opera; and a cross-cast production of The Threepenny Opera.
Maurice Lenhard, director of Vienna's Volksoper's studio, on his cross cast production of a Brecht and Weil classic
Vienna artist duo, Muntean/Rosenblum on how Renaissance music flavours their work, and the escape of uniting to create a single practice.
How to make opera about experiences that are unique to the 21st century? Vienna-based Civic Opera Creations, and their co-founder, Carmen C Kruse have a plan.
In the first of a week of reports from the Austrian capital, a new art program at the just reopened Austrian Parliament building makes the case for democracy in unexpected ways.
Vienna Volksoper based director, Maurice Lenhard, on a few of his favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Jennifer Walshe goes into the woods, David Stalling trawls the sound of the undersea Atlantic, the power of Care at a conference in TUD, and the music of Leonard Cohen reimagined as the sound of the french renaissance.
Irish scholar and author of Care and Capitalism, Katheleen Lynch, talked about the political project of care at a TUD conference exploring Care in our moment.
After trying out the approach with Nick Drake and John Dowland, early music specialist, Joel Frederiksen crosses French Renaissance chanson with the songs of Leonard Cohen.
The School of Wild Listening aims to enlist our ears in a new relationship with the planet. The work starts with the surround sound performance of "audifications" recorded in the North Atlantic by composer, David Stalling.
Up The Forest Track: Jennifer Walshe heads into the woods near her Roscommon home, where the talk is of The Tuatha Dé Danann. And AI.
Authors, Éanna Ní Lamhna (Wild and Wonderful) and Eoghan Daltun (An Irish Rainforest) in conversation with Luke Clancy in a special program recorded live at Dublin Book Fair 2022 at The National Botanic Gardens.
Culture File always asks "Likes" guests about scent - a steady portion of people take the question in the direction of cherished smells from the natural world.
Dr Linda King, Aisling Lyons, Mary Louise O’Donnell and Cormac De Barra assemble to examine how the harp wound its strings around every aspect of Irish life.
In a journal of journeys that takes in Berlin, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Sequoia National Park, Yves B Golden remembers her 2022 - and its tunes.
For his latest radio poem, Tadhg O'Sullivan attempts to discern the limits of knowing in his baby daughter, Sibéal
Paddy Woodworth's latest addition to his shelf of essential writing about the natural world is, somewhat unexpectedly, Laudato si', the second encyclical of Pope Francis.
Jennifer Walsh on distilling the sound of the season; Supercomposite, the artist behind the AI generated phantom, Loab; and Anouchka Grose and Robert Brewer Young, the psychoanalyst/luthier pair who've pooled their understandings of listening.
Artist-filmmaker, Bryony Dunne shares some of her favourite cultural moments and stuffs.
We've all done it, haven't we? Played around with image-making AI until we summoned a ominous, inexplicable presence from within the maths? Well, Steph Swanson, aka, Supercomposite has.
Listening to the endangered worlds of wood, and eco-anxiety with psychoanalyst, Anouchka Grose and luthier, Robert Brewer Young, co-authors of Uneasy Listening. (2/2)
Anouchka Grose and Robert Brewer Young, a psychoanalyst and a luthier respectively, team up to explore listening in their professions and beyond. (1/2)
The Sound of Christmas: Jennifer Walshe on the sound of the season, as reconstituted via AI
Prof Aisling Kelliher on the generative AI boom, Alex Niven on a new edition of the influential jeremiad, Capitalist Realism, plus messages from the birds of Lesbos, relayed via artist, Bryony Dunne.
The second part of our conversation with Alex Niven, author of the introduction for a new edition of Mark Fisher's germinal, Capitalist Realism. (2/2)
Alex Niven has written the introduction for the new edition of Mark Fisher's Capitalist Realism, a book that continues to haunt 21st century culture.
Why is the timeline suddenly full of machine-made illustrations, photos, films, texts? Because generative AI says USC's Prof Aisling Kelliher
Psychoanalyst and author, Anouchka Grose choses some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Paddy Woodworth, the voice of Culture File's The Naturalist's Bookshelf, causes a chain reaction as he invites naturalists Richard Nairn, Jane Clarke and Tina Claffey to select their favourite volumes of nature writing. Recorded live at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin as part of Dublin Book Fair 2022.
Since it was founded 45 years ago, Huddersfield has been a staging post for some of the biggest names in contemporary music from Stockhausen to Louis Andriessen, John Cage and Steve Reich. This year, many of the names were Irish composers.
Inescapable cog of the Irish new music scene, Nick Roth on why knowing via music is the best type of knowing.
Harper-composer, Úna Monaghan on her festival premier of Notwithstanding, scored for, among other things, harp, motion-tracked clarinet and a trio of turntables.
One of several Irish composers celebrated at this year's Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival was Birr-based, Ann Cleare
Life and death on an Irish bog, the comings/goings of Insta-travel, the music of exile and the films of Crash Ensemble resident filmmaker, Laura Sheeran.
Gotland-based composer, Lisa Reich on a few of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
A visit to the refugee camp at Calais led Limerickwoman-in-Paris, Fiona Olivier to create Musique Sans Frontières as a platform for exiled musicians
Photographer Tina Claffey on an extraordinary encounter with a moth, on an Irish bog. (An excerpt from Culture File Presents: The Naturalist's Bookshelf Live, which will be broadcast on 6.30pm, Saturday, Dec. 3rd)
How much has the Insta-lifestyle disrupted "real" travel? Sisters Tara and Rebecca Scanlan connect for a catch up.
[Extra Time Podcast Only edition] Art writer, Orit Gat, filmmaker, Juliet Jaques, and author, Adrian Duncan, join Luke Clancy to work out if it is possible, or even acceptable, to love the beautiful game. In association with Paper Visual Art.
CEO of the contemporary music powerhouse Crash Ensemble, Siân Cunningham shares her favourite in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
A new three-woman exhibition looks at farming and gender, features everything from a 'heartbroken' letter to a ram to a life-sized reproduction of the rear end of a cow.
Muireann Nic Amhlaoib on premiering Patrick Cassidy's Beatha an Scolaire for orchestra, choir and sean nos singer, at UL's Sounding Sionna 50th anniversary concert.
Stony Grey Soil of the Metaverse: artist and composer, Jennifer Walshe on the fragility of the virtual land beneath our feet.
Head curator for The Complex in Dublin, Mark O' Gorman on some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The scentscape of Leo and Molly Bloom in CoisCéim's Go To Blazes, Paddy Woodworth on the wooden world of Roger Deakin, Aisling Kelliher on the thin skin of Elon Musk, and a cure for claustrophobia from Jaki Irvine and Lockie Morris.
When Elon Musk bought Twitter he did wonders for one of the site's competitors, the open source platform, Mastodon. Should it be your new favourite micro-blogging site?
Paddy Woodworth's latest addition to his shelf of essential nature writing is Roger Deakin's hymn to wood and woods, Wildwood: A Journey through Trees
CoisCéim's latest 'deploys' the knowledge of dancer/aroma alchemist, Justine Cooper to create the scent of No 7 Eccles Street.
Artists, Jaki Irvine and Locky Morris collaborate for a show of hypnotic video poetry at The Complex, Dublin.
Swedish nyckelharpa virtuoso, Erik Rydvall, shares some of his favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
How to move effortlessly between the world of musical and opera, with composer-writer-director, Conor Mitchell, Jennifer Walshe on the sound of samhain, and Anu Productions delve sonically into the experience of epilepsy
Conor Mitchell, the creator of Abomination: A DUP Opera, and now Les Selenites at WFO, on the subjects that make him burn to write 21st century opera.
Anu Productions, best known for its off-site works, create a sound-driven installation inspired by Debbie Boss's experience of epilepsy, following brain surgery.
Samhain: artist and composer, Jennifer Walshe on some of the subtler sounds of the dark days.
In this podcast-only edition of the Culture File Weekly, we wander among the artists and activists at IMMA's inaugural Earth Rising eco-arts festival, to hear about the history of Irish sugar, rap about trade agreements, sniff the scent of the bog, and learn why our minds need the wild.
Wexford Festival Opera artist-in-residence and creator of "Les Selenities” at this year's festival, composer-director, Conor Mitchell on a few of his favourite things.
On Samhain Weekend, the Culture File Debate takes on the myths and the meanings of fire with Dr Cathy Smith, researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires; Donal Lally, co-founder of ANNEX; Andrew Scott, Professor of Modern and Ancient Fire Systems, and Rónán Ó Raghallaigh, an artist whose work involves performance and trance painting.
In this podcast-only edition of the Culture File Weekly, we wander among the artists and activists at IMMA's inaugural Earth Rising eco-arts festival, to hear about the history of Irish sugar, rap about trade agreements, sniff the scent of the bog, and learn why our minds need the wild.
Wexford Festival Opera artist-in-residence and creator of "Les Selenities” at this year's festival, composer-director, Conor Mitchell on a few of his favourite things.
On Samhain Weekend, the Culture File Debate takes on the myths and the meanings of fire with Dr Cathy Smith, researcher at the Leverhulme Centre for Wildfires; Donal Lally, co-founder of ANNEX; Andrew Scott, Professor of Modern and Ancient Fire Systems, and Rónán Ó Raghallaigh, an artist whose work involves performance and trance painting.
Former NME journalist, Lucy Jones's personal re-engagement with nature led her into the world of scientists researching what happens to our brains when we encounter the wild.
Former NME journalist, Lucy Jones's personal re-engagement with nature led her into the world of scientists researching what happens to our brains when we encounter the wild.
A barrowful of beets and some tiny phials of bog perfume power the work of artists, Rennie Buenting and Luke Caserly, who have separately been weighing lost industries of Ireland.
A barrowful of beets and some tiny phials of bog perfume power the work of artists, Rennie Buenting and Luke Caserly, who have separately been weighing lost industries of Ireland.
As part of IMMA's new eco-art festival, the activist hip hop artist known as The Accidental Rapper brought his bars and beats to the museum.
As part of IMMA's new eco-art festival, the activist hip hop artist known as The Accidental Rapper brought his bars and beats to the museum.
For his latest radio poem, Tadhg O'Sullivan meditates on weaponised not knowing via the literary durability of an old con trick.
W David Marx, the Tokyo-based author of "Status and Culture" on some of his tops in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
Jennifer Walshe on the meaning of brown noise, music from Martinique by way of Paris from Sélène Saint-Aimé, the rise and rise of Julius Eastman, and rethinking Bach on the nyckelharpa.
The traditional Swedish instrument the nyckelharpa is entering strange new worlds from JS Bach to the Lord of The Rings soundtrack, thanks to virtuoso Erik Rydvall.
To celebrate Black History Month, another chance to hear The Otolith Group's Kodwo Eshun on the re-emergence of "ecstatic militant minimalist" Julius Eastman.
"Singing in tongues" and the many other gifts of double bassist, singer and composer, Sélène Saint-Aimé
Machine Lullabies: Jennifer Walshe on the rise of "brown noise" and the other unexpected comforts of the technologies that surround us.
Some favourites of watching, listening, readings, tasting and smell from Dundalk act, Negro Impacto's Laurence Kapinga.
Paddy Woodworth on Kyo Maclear's Birds Art Life Death; community history project, Tiny Little Histories; a meeting at WOMAD 22 with kologo master Stevo Atambire of Alostmen; and the late French philosopher of science, Bruno Latour on the power of skepticism.
Stevo Atambire, leader of Ghanaian group, Alostmen, is a master of the two-stringed lute called the kologo, which he grows from seed.
Artists and community groups from across the midwest come together for an audio history project, remembering life "back in them days".
For his latest choice of essential writing on the natural world, Paddy Woodworth selects a work by novelist and children's writer, Kyo Maclear which may or may not have the word "death" in the title.
Influential French writer and philosopher of science, Bruno Latour has died. He spoke to Culture File in 2012 about his wine, science and politics.
Robert Read, head of the National Concert Hall in Dublin. on a few of his favourite things in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
Jennifer Walshe on synthetic actors; skateboarding Dundalk duo, Negro Impacto on building Irish neo-soul; artist and baker, April Gertlet on the meaning of soda bread; and all female mariachi band, Mariachi Las Adelitas.
On the checklist of the festival with everything this year, an all female mariachi band with a penchant for Amy Winehouse covers, Mariachi las Adelitas.
Artist, April Gertler's long-running project exploring feminism, post-colonialism and women's work via cake, turns its attention to Irish soda bread.
Chi-Chi Enyoazu and Laurence Kapinga of Dundalk's Negro Impacto on musical awakenings - and rockstar dreams.
Director and creator of DTF show, Lost Lear, Dan Colley on a few of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
W David Marx on how humans' constant struggle for status drives innovation, shaping our art and culture in the most surprising ways.
W David Marx on how the internet and omnivorous taste are remaking the function of culture. (Part 3 - Extended interview coming up in The Culture File Weekly, Sat 1st.)
How French sociologist, Pierre Bordieu helps us understand culture; plus where the freest jazz comes from, in the second part of our conversation with author, W David Marx. (part 2)
W David Marx's new book, Status and Culture looks at how human hunger for status can't help shaping the art and culture we produce. (Part 1)
For his latest radio poem, Tadhg O'Sullivan meditates on maps, war and the life of Hungarian poet, Miklós Radnóti.
NCH's Robert Read, audience data specialist, Katy Raines, conductor Mark Wigglesworth and Yale School of Music's Astrid Baumgardner on what’s happening to audiences in the “post” COVID world.
Limerick playwright and curator of Bualadh Bos Children’s Festival, Liam McCarthy shares some of his favourite things.
Bicycle-based Ukrainian fusion band / song collecting project, Folknery on lost words and lost worlds.
Director and writer, Dan Colley's Dublin Theatre Festival show rehearses the good bits of King Lear in the service of caring for a woman with dementia.
...and Other Histories of Unreliable Origin is Stephen Brandes' vision of a dubious Irish tour by the Russian revolutionary and his wife.
Glassmaker, sound artist and healer, Karen Donnellan on a few of her favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Healing tones in the art of Karen Donnellan, Luke Fowler on filmmaker, Margaret Tait, performance poets Bambi & Dizarel and Paddy Woodworth on naturalist, John Hay.
Performance Poetry at WOMAD 22, with first timer, Bambi, and veteran of the UK scene, Dizreali.
After films on figures such as Cornelius Cardew and RD Laing, artist-filmmaker, Luke Fowler turns his attention to the Orkney poet and filmmaker, Margaret Tait.
How the 528 Hz "miracle note" and other aspects of sonic healing inform the work of Irish artist, Karen Donnellan.
For his latest choice of essential writing on the natural world, Paddy Woodworth selects the work of John Hay collected in The Way to the Salt Marsh.
Frankfurt-based dramaturg and theorist, Steve Valk to share with some of the things in his culture swag bag
A special edition from the art lollapalooza that is this year's Documenta 15 in Kassel, curated by a collective of collectives, initiated by the Jakarta-based ruangrupa. Plus Jennifer Walshe.
Tania Bruguera founded Cuba's Hannah Arendt Artivism Institute to throw light on the 100s deemed non-artists in her homeland. (3/3)
Culture File's visit to Kassel to the city's once-every-five-years global art event continues with a wander into the palan (Bengali kitchen garden) of Dhaka-based Britto Arts Trust (2/3)
Culture File begins a week of visits to the art event that made Kassel famous, with a tour of the Lumbung Press with Mexican artist, Erick Beltrán (1/3)
The year so far in "things" - in a gathering of composer and artist, Jennifer Walshe's regular Culture File feature, Things Know Things, exploring everything from cloning petfluencers to emergent bookclubs.
Float further up into the canopy with the second part of our Culture File Weekly Slow Remix, featuring woodsman, Aubrey Fennell, along with the oaks and elms, rooks and storms that fill his soundworld. (Part 2 of 2)
Float up into the canopy with of a Culture File Weekly Slow Remix, featuring woodsman, Aubrey Fennell, along with the oaks and elms, rooks and storms that fill his sound world. (Part 1 of 2)
Luke Clancy and a panel featuring ecologists Bill Jordan and Catherine Farrel, composer Karen Power and The Naturalist Bookshelf's Paddy Woodworth, discuss the places where art and ecology can usefully mix. (First broadcast 10/21)
The greatest living violinist and his most gifted disciple come together as Kilkenny violinist, Patrick Rafter and Siberian virtuoso, Maxim Vengerov, prepare to perform Bach's Double Concerto for violin.
Jennifer Walshe preps for a flaming future in the London heat, the spirit of Octavia Butler pervades a new exhibition at Visual Carlow, Transient Ischaemic Attacks fixed in paint; and what happened when Rob McGlade put his poetry collection into the hands of David Sedaris.
Poet and performer, Rob McGlade whose Edinburgh Fringe show this year celebrates his love of Vinegar, on some of his favs in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling.
Rob McGlade's book of comic poetry celebrates, among other things, the poet's love of the stuff you get (and never get enough of) with your chips.
For painter, Gwen O'Sullivan among the things art can offer is a way to understand devastating illness.
The scifi of Otavia Butler gave the title and some inspiration to curator Iarlaith ni Fheorais' group show at Visual Carlow, Speech Sounds
Composer, Jennifer Walshe experiences a (very) dry run for the apocalypse in England's 2022 heat explosion.
Artist, publisher, and former Irish representative at the Venice Biennale, Sean Lynch on some recent pleasures in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
A special edition wandering this year's Galway International Arts Festival, taking in art from Maria del Pacheco, John Gerrard, Sean Lynch, Jack Phelan and Annex.
Improbable rituals, impossible legends and plain made up stuff in Sean Lynch's latest show at GIAF 2022.
Luke Clancy tours the visual art program at Galway International Arts Festival, taking in work by John Gerard, Luke Jerram, Ana Maria Pacheco and Annex.
Jennifer Walshe on her meeting with "the boyo"; Paddy Woodworth on the macro lens of Tina Claffey; Maeve Stone's activist jewelry; and composer, Susan Geaney leads us in some Deep Listening.
Some favorites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling from Kerry-born composer, Susan Geaney.
Composer and instrumentalist, Susan Geaney on the Deep Listening theories of Pauline Oliveros, and her own new work, Tape Melt.
Director, activist and jewelry maker, Maeve Stone has a vision of a world beyond the climate collapse.
Paddy Woodworth finds room for Irish photographer, Tina Claffey's volume of macro images, Portal, on his ideal Nature bookshelf
Composer and musician, Jennifer Walshe makes a contact she did not need at a Summer music festival...
A special edition on The Otolith Group as their show, Xenogenesis opens at IMMA. Featuring the show's curator and IMMA director, Annie Fletcher, and one half of the Otoliths, Kodwo Eshun. Also, a visit to Camilla Hanney's show Lament exploring keening the modern context.
The Otolith Group's Kodwo Eshun on some essential reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Kodwo Eshun of The Otolith Group on the group's film "The Third Part Of The Third Measure" and the music of Julius Eastman. (2 of 2)
UK artist duo, The Otolith Group's not-actually-a-retrospective, Xenogenesis, finishes its world tour at IMMA in Dublin. (1 of 2)
The origin story of artist and provocateur, Yves Klein's celebrated attempt at colour branding, Klein International Blue.
Lament, the latest exhibition from Irish artist, Camilla Hanney, explores an overlap between working with clay and grieving in sound.
Poet and performer, Inua Ellams dashes through Dublin as part of 05Fest, Derek Gripper celebrates the kora magic of Toumani Diabate, an introduction to FertiliTikTok and the further adventures of Tadhg O'Sullivan in the land of not knowing.
Composer, sound artist and instrument maker, Gayle Young on some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Poet, playwright, performer, Inua Ellams is the driving force behind 05fest, an innovative mini season at The Abbey.
South African guitarist, Derek Gripper is coaxing the spirit of the kora into the classical guitar repertoire.
The ever-surprising, even growing footprint of social video platform, TikTok reaches a new area: fertility treatment.
A nocturnal Cork ramble in After Light, Jennifer Walshe on the meaning of ownership in AI, Gayle Young on the sonic world near Niagara Falls; and a walk among the cairns and the puppets at SoFFt Nights.
Writer, musician and AI researcher, K Allado-McDowell shares some favourites in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
The landscapes near her home on Lake Ontario, such as Niagara Falls, feed composer, Gayle Young's microtonal music in the gentlest ways.
The mind-expanding possibilities of everything from crows to capoeira, and even music, at the SoFFt Nights Festival in Co Meath.
Artist Peter Power's own experience of insomnia inspired his nocturnal Cork audio tour cum installation cum performance, After Light: These Dark Citizens.
Artist and composer, Jennifer Walshe encounters a recent interview given by Google's LaMDA AI.
Writer and researcher, K Alado McDowell on writing with AI, the statistics of language, and the natures of spirits in the machine, in an extended version of our interview broadcast this week.
Multi-hyphenated theatre makers, Eva O'Conor and Hildegarde Ryan on some recent favourites in watching, reading, listening tasting and smelling
K Allado-McDowell on their AI collab novel, Amour Cringe and the possibility of sentient AI, sound artist, Danny McCarthy's new use for chamber pots, and organist, Amanda Mole gets acquainted with the organ at St Bartholomew's, Ballsbridge.
US recitalist, Amanda Mole is getting to know the organ at St Bartholomew's, Ballsbridge for her dates at Pipeworks 2022.
Cork sound artist, Danny McCarthy's latest homage to James Joyce is a sound installation celebrating a famous potty pun...
What is new about recent AI-generated texts, such as K Allado-McDowell's novel, Amount Cringe, created via GPT-3?
K Allado-McDowell has been using GPT-3 as a writing partner, most recently for a novella, Amour Cringe.
Hearing colours with three musicians who variously experience chromothesia, the musical occult in the form of musical ghostwriters; and Jennifer Walshe enjoys getting a regular email from Dracula.
Writer, talker and Irish Aesthete on the 'gram, Robert O'Byrne on some of his favorites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
In music, there are many ways of "getting the work out there" that don't involve becoming a household name...
Tara Scanlan's experience of 'hearing colours,' she discovered, is something she shares with her friend, fellow composer, Ciaran McGinn.
Even the undead are on Substack now. Jennifer Walshe has been enjoying an email newsletter of Bram Stoker's epistolary novel. And the memes.
Culture File sets sail for Barbados Celtic Festival and hears from among others, champion calypsonian, The Mighty Gabby; Mark O'Callaghan, son of To Hell or Barbados author, the late Sean O'Callaghan; and Barbados' Poet Laureate, Esther Phillips.
An extended version of Culture File's conversation with Esther Phillips, recorded on the poet's back porch in the Parish of Christ Church on the Republic of Barbados, on an afternoon in May 2022.
Barbados poet laureate, Esther Phillips reads and explores her new poem, My Ancestors Gifted Me Their Silence.
Barbados poet laureate, Esther Phillips on her new body of work questing for the real meanings of reparations.
The papers of "To Hell Or Barbados" author, Sean O'Callaghan find a home in the Barbados' Department of Archives.
Culture File's sojourn on the freshly-minted Republic of Barbados begins with a walk on the beach with Rihanna's favourite calypsonian, The Mighty Gabby.
Hip Hop artist and Dublin Dance Festival Dancescape curator, Tobi Omoteso on some of the things he's been enjoying
In an outdoorsy edition, Robert O'Byrne on the history of the Irish garden, Paddy Woodworth on a book examining a square meter of forest, Liam Cagney on a Donegal childhood, and Mark Jenkins thinks bittersweet thoughts of home in Wales
Liam Cagney on a boyhood learning to love Orbital, The Orb and all the pomps of a Rave New 90s World.
Robert O'Byrne, along with designer David Meaney, lead us through the exhibition "In Harmony with Nature: the Irish Country House Garden 1600-1900". Recorded at City Assembly House, Dublin. Presented by the Irish Georgian Society
Robert "The Irish Aesthete" O'Bryne's latest project is "In Harmony with Nature" an exhibition tracing the history of the Irish Country House Gardens. Presented by the Irish Georgian Society
For her latest plunge into the life of a musician in turbulent times, Cliodhna Ryan talks to Welsh-born double bassist, Mark Jenkins.
Paddy Woodworth's latest addition to The Naturalist's Bookshelf is David George Haskell's minutely observational 2012 volume, The Forest Unseen.
Amala Dianor on uniting dance scenes from across West Africa, Tobi Omoteso on the past present and future of Street Dance, and digging in with the struggle to turn dance into words with Liz and Jenny Roche.
For Dublin Dance Festival, choreographer and Liz Roche Company co-founder, Liz Roche shares some of her favourites in watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Choreographers Liz and Jenny Roche lead fellow dance artists on a journey deep into words, written and spoken, in their Modes of Capture workshop. (Part 4 of 5)
Street dance battle kingpin and founder of Top 8 Street Dance Battle, Tobi Omotesso on the past, present and future of his art. (Part 3 of 5)
Amala Dianor gathered dance artists from across West Africa to create Siguifin, a contemporary dance show nourished by dance from Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. (Part 2 of 5)
Dublin Dance Festival artistic director, Jazmin Chiodi on her first steps in dance, and imagining the future through dance. (Part 1)
Cork-born Lisbon-based DIY producers, Garden Collective heads into the undergrowth of crypto, NFTs and DAOs; Hildegard Ryan and Eva O'Connor seek solutions with their climate arts festival, Future Limerick; and Benoit Nicol on the trail of the world's best smells.
Musician, producer and curlew collaborator, Merlyn Driver shares some of his favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The scent hunter behind Irish brand, The Nature of Things, Benoit Nicol on the business of special smells.
It's about time there was an arts festival facing up to the climate emergency, suggest Eva O’ Connor and Hildegard Ryan, co-directors of Future Limerick climate arts festival.
Cork-born In Lisbon-based Garden Collective are discovering what the blockchain has to offer cultural producers. (Part 2 of 2)
In Lisbon, Cork-born DIY cultural organisation, Garden Collective has found a welcoming home. (Part 1 of 2)
Merlyn Driver on the "simmerdim" bird sounds of his childhood home on Orkney, composer Anselm McDonnell on why all his music is religious music for him, and Colombian sculptor, Iván Argote takes a stroll through St Anne's Park in Dublin.
Kerry Guinan, the Dublin artist behind The Red Thread, shares some of her pleasures in watching, listening, reading, tasting and smelling
Colombian artist, Ivan Argote's commision for St Anne's Park in Dublin, Elevation, will offer the people a plinth's-eye view of their park.
Belfast composer Anselm McDonnell on the unwanted distinction between secular and non-secular music.
Musician and producer, Merlyn Driver gathered musicians including The Unthanks and Talvin Sigh to do a little sonic PR for the endangered Eurasian Curlew.
Sound artist, composer, musician and New Music Dublin artist, Natalia Beylis on some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
In the thick of the New Music Dublin festival, we talk to one of the charismatic megafauna of contemporary music, John Luther Adams. Pianist, Izumi Kumura has been improvising to the soundscape of Dun Laoghaire; and Louise William encounters some traditional Japanese cherry blossom patisserie.
Pianist, Izumi Kimura flavours the NCH Chamber Series with the sounds of Dun Laoghaire, with help from sound artist, Anthony Kelly.
Environmentalist-turned-composer, John Luther Adams' latest sortie into musical landscape plunges deep into the Grand Canyon (Part 1)
Michiko Ishimoto's Gopan Bakery is cooking up seasonal Japanese treats, such as sakura ampun and sakura mochi in Bray Co Wicklow.
Accordionist and performer for next week's New Music Dublin premier of Jennifer Walshe's PERSONHOOD, Andreas Borregaard shares a few of his favs in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The rural soundworlds of Leitrim-based composer, Natalia Beylis; the long, disguised walks of performance artists, Pauline Cummins and Frances Mezzetti; and life beyond Ensemble Klang for Saskia Lankhoorn and Pete Harden in their "almost song" but-not-quite-pop project, Avenue Azure, which arrives in Ireland as part of New Music Dublin 2022.
New Music Dublin visitors, Saskia Lankhoorn and Pete Harden formed their duo, Avenue Azure as a place to create new music they'd never found on the page.
Leitrim-based sound artist and composer, Natalia Beylis harvests the music of her neighbourhood, from birdsong to woodshed work and decomposing pianos.
Artists Pauline Cummins and Frances Mezzetti on their long-running performance series in which they wander through the streets of European cities in the guise of men.
Peter Whelan on INO's production of Vivaldi's Bajazet, which has won this year's Olivier for Outstanding Achievement in Opera.
A timely spring hymn to the daffodils - and their pickers - with Dutch "conceptual choreographer" Edd Schouten.
From Kinshasa to Buenos Aires via London with musician Juanita Euka; from Dublin to Bengaluru with artist Kerry Guinan; how to read a film from just three frames with Nick Rombes, and Jennifer Walshe on the Patron Saint of the Internet.
Writer, academic and inventor of the 10/40/70 film review, Nicholas Rombes shares some of his favourite things in reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Artist Kerry Guinan's biggest project yet involves connecting Dublin and Bangalore via a set of Arduino-enabled sewing machines.
Junita Euka's first album sees the Congo-born, Argentina-raised and British-based singer-songwriter find her voice in Lingala, French, Spanish and English.
Nicholas Rombes is the creator of a unique approach to film criticism: just look at the frames at 10th, 40th and 70th minute of any film.
Artist and composer, Jennifer Walshe sings a hymn of praise to the patron saint of the Internet. Which is a thing.
From the heart of Europe to Galways via the string quartet; the immerise electronics of Éliane Radigue in Berlin; hacking anti-skate architecture in Dublin; and swaying to the samba in a forest in Roscommon at Festival In The Forest.
Painter and mushroom fancier, Mark Francis on some of the things he's been enjoying in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Bianca Fachel has created Music In The Forest, a sustainable hybrid festival at her Roscommon base, bringing together Brazilian and Irish sounds.
Artist and and skateboarder, Matthew Stickland has been tracking the ways his city cancels his right to roll.
Music writer, Liam Cagney underwent some deep immersion at a recent Berlin celebration of the pioneering French composer, Eliane Radigue.
After much travel into the unknown and unexpected, a Galway project to play string quartets from all 27 EU states is nearly complete.
Sara Greavu, Curator of Visual Arts at Project Arts Centre, Laura Raicovich author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest, artist Emma Roche and curator at Kilmainham Gaol Museum/Pearse Museum, Brian Crowley, assemble to navigate the contested space of museums.
Journalist, writer and curator, Mary Morrissy on some of her current favourite watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Jennifer Walshe on the latest twists in robot technology, which involve a robot goat; Claire Halpin deals on her exhibition created from random playing cards found on the streets; we peep through the tiny windows of box of rehearsing metal musicians in Limerick; and Kit Fryatt collaborates with an AI on some poetry.
Poet Kit Fryatt has been collaborating with an AI to create text about a long-lost medieval painting as part of an ‘algorithmic storytelling’ performance.
Artist Michelle Doyle's latest work, Models of Practice, encouraged the public to eavesdrop on the creative process of Limerick metal bands, such as Red Sun Alert
Artist, Claire Halpin is finally at the end of her project to assemble an entire deck via finding random playing cards on the street
Jennifer Walshe sifts through the products at the world's biggest robots trade fair, Tokyo's IREX 2022.
Music done otherwise is the business of Dabbledoo, a program that aims to give young learners the best possible first taste of listening, performing and composing.
Mary Morrissy remembers the glowy moment she discovered a love for the paintings of Una Watters; Paddy Woodworth breaks the rules by adding a second book by Helen Macdonald to The Naturalist Bookshelf, and Aine Gallagher heads into a pleasantly distressed industrial space in central dublin to hear how to do music education right.
Paddy Woodworth gives over a rare second spot in his collection of essential nature writing to Helen Macdonald's troubling collection, Vesper Flights.
Writer, Mary Morrissy on the painting that launched her journey into the work of Irish 20th Century painter, Una Watters
Composer and organist, Robert Curgenven on some of his favourite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
Lithuanian accordion virtuoso, Martynas Levickis on folk music and sanctions, the curators of Metabolic Time on rethinking the museum, Ailis Ni Rian's new salty song cycle, Watershed, and Jennifer Walshe on AI in the Russian infowar.
Sara Greavu and Cairo Clarke on thinking time - and museums - differently in Metabolic Time, their co-curated exhibition at Project, Dublin.
Martynas Levickis, the virtuoso who brought both Vivaldi and Lady Gaga to the accordion, celebrates a poignant Lithuanian Restoration of Independence Day.
How to articulate the inarticulable, in a new song cycle from composer Ailis Ni Riain, inspired by and featuring the poetry of Jessica Brown
Jennifer Walshe on how technology for creating synthetic human faces is being deployed in the information war for Ukraine.
Paleobotanist at La Brea Tar Pits, Regan Dunn on some of her favorite things in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Aine Gallagher's postcard from LA, with the first drag queen elected to public office in the US; the history and power of cultural sanctions with Laura Slattery; and a show combining new and old work from painter Mark Francis opens at Kerlin Gallery.
For his latest show at Kerlin Gallery, the painter started with some crate diving. He talked to Culture File about time, space, paint and sound. And crisps. (Although not that much about crisps, TBH.)
From Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko to the Eurovision Song Contest, Russian artists and performers are finding themselves targeted in a wave of anti-invasion sentiment. The Irish Times' Laura Slattery on the history and power of cultural sanctions.
Culture File's Aine Gallagher has been using her post-pandemic freedom to return to Los Angeles, where this time she brings her mic to the bubbling tar at La Brea Tar Pits.
Culture File's Aine Gallagher has been using her post-pandemic freedom to return to Los Angeles, where she's noted changes in the Echo Park neighborhood.
Prof Paige Harden, author of The Genetic Lottery, on using genetics for equality; Giita Hammond's images of her grandmother for whom she is a carer; and Jennifer Walshe on the post-human world of Kimberley biscuits
Paige Harden, author of The Genetic Lottery, on some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Irish/Icelandic visual artist and photographer Giita Hammond's new exhibition centres on the world of her grandmother, Maureen, who is living with dementia.
Prof Paige Harden's book The Genetic Lottery explores at how genetics might be used against discrimination and inequality. This time, a thought experiment about redheads.
Prof Paige Harden's book The Genetic Lottery explores at how genetics might be used against discrimination and inequality. This time, GWAS and how genetics changed since you were at school.
In her latest exploration of the unstable edges of things and people, Jennifer Walshe recalls her uncanny, delicious relationship with a childhood toy.
Clare artist and gallerist, Sara Foust on some of her current favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling.
The Irish artist-physicist team exhibiting at the International Space Station, Paddy Woodworth on the only book about Hawks you may ever need, on the trail of collective art action in Ennistymon, and the phygital life of cardigans.
Artist/physicist team of Gillian Fitzpatrick and Justin Donnelly have collaborated on a micro artwork destined for a display in outer space.
What Harry Styles' phygital cardigan tells us about the exploding world of digital fashion, from virtual couture to screen-based crochet.
Paddy Woodworth's latest choice for inserting on his shelf of essential nature writing is Helen Macdonald's H is for Hawk.
Katsura Sunshine on the sit down comedy of rakugo, the traditional Japanese art of comic storytelling; Caitriona Frost on whatever good things a musician might have learnt in these past two years, and Jennifer Walshe on the promises of cloned Insta-pets.
Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Annie Fletcher on some of her favs in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
During the pandemic, violinist Cliodhna Ryan recorded frank conversations with some of her musician friends and colleagues - this time percussionist, Caitriona Frost - about the path they've chosen.
Katsura Sunshine on the codes and the gags of Rakugo, traditional Japanese comedy storytelling.
Katsura Sunshine, the Canadian immigrant to Japan who currently has Rakugo traditional Japanese storytelling shows running both on Broadway and in the West End.
Jennifer Walshe on the very obvious attractions of cloning for the superstar pets of social media.
Pandemic nostalgia with Carpet Theatre's Breath, the fleeting painted world of Ciarán Murphy, nurturing Irish female conductors at The National Concert Hall, and to Davy Byrnes for a glassful of literary revisionism (and orange curacao with brandy).
"Science Fictions" author, Stuart Ritchie shares some of his favourites in reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Ciarán Murphy continues a hypnotic journey into paint inspired by an encounter at Dublin's Natural History Museum.
Updating a traditional Jocean celebration at Davy Byrne's pub with some Orange Curacao.
Helping improve gender balance on the podium is the Female Conductor Programme at the NCH, led by conductor Alice Farnham.
Director, Ciaran Taylor, actor Karl Quinn and fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, Steve Wickham collaborate in a show exploring the little worlds of the pandemic.
Jennifer Walshe on the machines learning to farm, Aisling Kelliher on why you don't need any NFTs, the many meanings of water with artist, Marie Hanlon, and escaping the classical trap with avant popster, Sfiiinx.
Director of Forensic Architecture, Eyal Weizman, on some of the things he's been enjoying listening to, watching, reading, tasting and smelling
How many of humanity's problems can blockchain tech really fix? Prof Aisling Kelliher on some recent twists in the crypto tale.
Water's presence in everything from fracking to pee inspires the installation work in artist, Marie Hanlon's exhibition Water - More or Less.
Vocalist and composer, Síobhra Quinlan, on building her own musical space outside "bel canto" and "spectralism"
Do blockchain technologies represent new hope for artists to control their own work, or are they just another twist in the financialization of art? On the panel to discuss, Virginia Tech's Aisling Kelliher, painter, Hughie Donoghue, NCAD's Rachel O'Dwyer and crypto-art pioneer, Ruth Catlow. (First broadcast May 2021)
The future of the farm has been occupying the waking and sleeping life of composer and artist, Jennifer Walshe.
Si´obhra Quinlan, vocalist and composer behind sfiiinx, shares some of her favourites in watching, reading, listening, tasting and smelling
Founder and leader of activist art/research group, Forensic Architecture, Eyal Weizman on investigating racism in the polluted air of the deep South, Xueting Christine Ni on the rise of donghua, or Chinese animation, and Paddy Woodworth celebrates literary hymn to the birdlife of Essex that is JA Baker’s The Peregrine.
Forensic Architecture founder, Eyal Weizman on investigating the racist roots of pollution in the American South
Forensic Architecture founder, Eyal Weizman on how the research group began to look at violence that comes in the form of gas, of clouds.
Paddy Woodworth finds shelf space for J.A. Baker's 1960s classic evocation of English birdworlds, The Peregrine.
Xueting Christine Ni on the deep roots of new Chinese animation blockbusters such as Netflix' White Snake and Pixar's forthcoming, Turning Red.
A new orchestral podcast listens to the voices from the pit; the rise of ultrafast fashion giant, Shein; Jennifer Walshe on emojis in real life, and INO's touring production of Vivaldi's "mixtape" opera, Bajazet.
Violinist, Cliodhna Ryan used her "pandemic pause" to join the ranks of podcasters, with an intimate look at the life of working (and pausing) musicians
This month, the panel discusses "not knowing" in all its flavours - from how artists employ not knowing, to what knowing could mean for the future of all our institutions. Joining Luke Clancy are: Prof Rebecca Fortnum, author of On Not Knowing: How Artists Think; filmmaker, Tadhg O’Sullivan; and dramaturg and educator, Steve Valk.
Culture File correspondent and radio poet, Yves B Golden shares some of her delights in sound, words, sights, tastes and smells
Conductor and harpsichordist, Peter Whelan on what Vivaldi's opera, Bajazet, has in common with your favourite mixtape.
Fashion researcher, Amelia O'Mahony-Brady on the rise of hyper-fast fashion pioneer, Shein.
Jennifer Washe on the unexpected ways in which emojis are changing how we communicate - offline.
Jennifer Walshe on the enigma of Loot NFTs, the story of refugee journeys in We All Come From Somewhere, a choir map of Ireland, a journey into winter with Robert Curgenven, and Yves B Golden on ending and beginnings.
LA-based artist, dj and activist, Yves B Golden's latest radio poem for Culture File contemplates a year's endings.
Composer and organist, Robert Curgenven mails an audio postcard from a winter spent inside the Arctic Circle.
A new map of choral activity in Ireland helps join the dots for music in health and wellbeing.
Inclusive theatre companies in Italy, Czech Republic, Greece and Ireland spent years planning a continent-spanning show together. But then... [gestures broadly at everything].
Jennifer Walshe's seasonal 'gift' guide continues with a look at Loot NFTs and their community of fans
The selections in watching, listening, readings, tasting and smelling of James Riordan of Galway's Brú Theatre
Apocalyptic sights and sounds of Aideen Barry's Oblivion; that state of keening in 2021 in Brú Theatre's show, Gol; finding the lost women of uilleann pipes; and a night at the Walt Disney Theatre to catch the LA Phil.
LA-based artist, dj and activist, Yves B Golden's latest radio poem for Culture File is Welcome Home.
Piper Louise Mulcahy's new documentary, Mná na bPíob, rights an historical wrong, restoring women uilleann pipers' place in musical history.
Aideen Barry collaborative artwork, Oblivion / Seachmalltacht finds images of global collapse in the archive of harp music savior, Edward Bunting.
The latest from Galway's Brú Theatre Company, who've recently been exploring VR, go with the ancient technology of keening in their show Gol
Composer and organist, Robert Curgenven's organ works are as much about what listeners can feel through the floor as hear through their ears.
The earthshaking organ music of Robert Curgenven, Jennifer Walshe on a surprise hookup between robots and ecology, the Made in Ireland craft show in Kilkenny and Moyra Davey dares to re-examine the photography of Peter Hujar.
A new open call exhibition at National Design and Craft Gallery gathers the best of contemporary Irish makers and their wares
For The Shabbiness of Beauty, artist Moyra Davey created a new body of work in response to the innovative, questing images of photographer Peter Hujar.
Jennifer Walshe spots a quiet invasion at the bookshop, featuring: Peter Brown's The Wild Robot; Tom Gauld's The Little Wooden Robot and the Log Princess; and David Lucas' The Robot and The Bluebird.
Elaine Kelly's new role as INO's first conductor in residence sees her sailing The Lighthouse, Peter Maxwell Davies' story of odd going on among the 'keepers.
Catherine Young Dance's long postponed, Irish-Palestinian dance collab, Floating on a Dead Sea opens in Longford.
Paddy Woodworth picks Edward Abbey's memoir, Desert Solitaire as the latest volume for his ideal shelf of nature writing.
How not to do science, according to Stuart Ritchie; changing ideas of representation at the recent Narrating The Nation museums conference, and Jennifer Walshe takes on the Zuckeraverse.
Some of the best things in listening, reading, watching, tasting and smelling, according to composer, Eugene Birman.
At the Narrating The Nation conference, Oein DeBhairduin and Rosa Meehan talked about the future of Traveller representation in Irish museums.
Stuart Ritchie on the necessary work of the website, Retraction Watch, and the problem with "instinct" in scientific experiments. (Part 2)
Stuart Ritchie on "the replication crisis" and other malfunctions in how we are doing science.
Composer and artist Jennifer Walshe sees at least as much peril and promise in Meta's plans for the Metaverse.
Prof Clémentine Deliss has a vision for the future of museums she calls "The Metabolic Museum" she told NCAD/NMI's recent Narrating The Nation conference in Dublin.
The Monaghan Asylum Soviet becomes an opera from Michael Gallen and the Abbey Theatre, Chris Morash decodes the messages of the first transatlantic cable, composer Eugene Birman on his avant choir work, Lamentations, and the waking the museum at a conference in Dublin.
Pianist Xenia Pestova Bennet shares some of her favourites in reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Composer Eugene Birman's contemporary choral work, Lamentations explores the boundlessness of the human voice.
TCD's Chris Morash explores the meanings of the first transatlantic cable running between Valentia island and Heart’s Content, Newfoundland,
Monaghan composer Michael Gallen's opera Elsewhere is inspired by the 1919 strike, occupation and declaration as a soviet of the local asylum.
Xenia Pestova Bennet takes on composer, Karlheinz Essl's Gold.Berg.Werk, which blends a Bach landmark with contemporary electronics and specialised audio
Róisín Blunnie on her collection of wintery contemporary vocal music, Ghost Songs, Xenia Pestova Bennet on an electronic variation on the Goldberg variations, the start-up-cyclers behind Refunk, and Jennifer Walshe on petting dogs in video games.
Ellie Walters and Ellen Ryall of upcycling startup, Refunk share some of their reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling pleasures
Laetare Vocal Ensemble's seasonal new album showcases new choral work by Irish composers inspired by wintery texts from writers living and dead.
Dublin upcycling startup, Refunk, has a plan to stop good, old furniture heading to landfill.
The wanderings of her cat Nomi, propel Jennifer Walshe into the realm of human-digipet interaction.
Singer and composer, Fehdah shares some of her favourite reading, listening, watching, tasting and smelling.
Aine Gallagher brings her recorder to Studio Donegal, in Kilcar, to listen to the looms, and their operators.
Channelling Joseph Beuys with Druid performance artist, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh, listening to the looms at Studio Donegal and walking Shannonside with the man behind a concept album for Limerick pedestrians.
The art and ideas of Joseph Beuys inspire the Irish painter, performance artist and shamanic conduit, Rónán Ó Raghallaigh.
In Limerick, a popular Shannon walk inspired a concept album for pedestrians from local act, Anna's Anchor.
Her Parisian salon was legendary for its famous guests, but equally for the music Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy played there.
Inside the headset studio of digital artist, Elaine Hoey, Jennifer Walshe on the joy of objects you might touch, the music of pre-revolutionary Paris, and prepping for the famine in Irish language feature, Arracht.
The stupidity of crowds meets the amorality of technology in a new solo show from digital artist, Elaine Hoey
James Bond has some stern competition in Colmán Sharkey, the central character of Tom Sullivan's famine drama.
Two enigmatic stoneworks, 700-odd miles apart, remind Jennifer Walshe of the uses and attractions of non-virtual objects.
Extended version of this week's conversation with composer, artist and Oxford Prof of Composition, Jennifer Walshe, touching on, prepping, hugging walls, William Gibson, Meredith Monk, Databots, Early Music, AI, music education and some musical confusion.
Pioneering long distance swimmer, Mercedes Gleitze celebrated in the work of Dublin-based artist -- and long distance swimmer -- Vanessa Daws
Botanical artist, Yanny Petters, spent much of her time in recent months studying the garden her German parents began in Co Wicklow in the 1960s.
Composer, artist and Things Know Things creator, Jennifer Walshe on her new role as Professor of Composition at Oxford.
This month, Luke Clancy and a panel featuring ecologists Bill Jordan and Catherine Farrel, composer Karen Power and The Naturalist Bookshelf's Paddy Woodworth, discuss the places where art and ecology can usefully mix.
Artist and soldering-iron wielder, Adam Gibney shares some of his favourite reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling.
Paul Hillier and Chamber Choir Ireland polish a lost gem in Andrea Gabrieli’s 1585 Italian choral take on Oedipus Rex
Paddy Woodworth adds William Jordan's exploration of 'restoration ecology' to his shelf stocked with essential nature writing.
As a post-pandemic Dublin Theatre Festival opens, Luke Clancy attends a biosecure opening night
A tentative return to the life of a travelling post-pandemic musician, for Jennifer Walshe.
A global history of the soft power of hummus; what happens when an AI helps create a gallery press release; the complex business of pie (ie, money) slicing on Spotify; and Silvija Šcerbaviciute's journeys into flute.
Hobby computers armed with sensors for everything from noise to humidity animate the complex, sometimes humorous work of Dublin artist, Adam Gibney.
Some reading, watching, listening, tasting and smelling favourites from violinist and crash ensemble member, Larissa O'Grady.