Radio Arts Catalyst

S1 Ep2: THREE FIELDS: CAN YOU HEAR A SPICE TALK, WHAT DOES IT SAY?

The THREE FIELDS podcast is an exploration of artists and cultural workers’ perspectives on food justice and digital practices across India, the UK, and South Africa. Over 2 episodes, we delve into conversations, field recordings, and stories emerging from the THREE FIELDS [https://artscatalyst.org/whats-on/three-fields/] project; an international collaboration and co-commission between Abandon Normal Devices, Arts Catalyst, Fak’ugesi, Fast Familiar, and Unbox Cultural Futures. The project brought together inherited and embodied knowledge and personal experiences around food systems and environmentally conscious creative digital practices. In this episode you will hear artists Deepa Reddy, Kaajal Modi, and Samukelisiwe Dube discuss their practices at the intersection of art and food politics, and their dialogue across the three territories they were working from.  The THREE FIELDS podcast was produced by Arts Catalyst and is hosted by Anna Santomauro, Head of Programme at Arts Catalyst. This recording took place online, with sound design and production by Kitty Turner [https://www.kittyturner.tech/]. BSL interpretation and subtitles by Dionne Simpsion (Diverse Digital [https://diverse-digital.co.uk/]). The project was funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants and supported using public funding by Arts Council England. To watch a British Sign Language interpreted version of this episode click here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae1dg5WKrw8].  Visit the Three Fields website here [https://3-fields.com/].   About the Contributors  Deepa Reddy  [https://www.paticheri.com/](India) is a cultural anthropologist, college professor, writer, and blogger. Her blog, Pâticheri, explores food from cultivation to consumption, combining personal narratives, recipes, cultural analysis, and research. Her academic background in anthropology explores the complex relationships between various things in the world which don't seem connected but usually are. Kaajal Modi [https://kaajalmodi.com/] (United Kingdom) is an artist-researcher who has a strong material engagement with food, land, water, and the politics of how humans relate to and through these. Their co-creation practice explores how making in collaboration with diverse communities (human, microbial, and otherwise) can be a way to recover climate practices that open up new speculations on how we might live in the future. Samukelisiwe Siphesihle Dube [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Riloawad_1unMy8HyZZCyvStIIOLuaxo/view] (South Africa) is a Black, queer multidisciplinary artist and practising tattoo artist from the province of Mpumalanga. Deeply influenced by her late grandmother, she and her mother recreated her garden as a tribute and space for healing. Her work explores nature, grief, and identity through printmaking and plant growth on handmade paper.

S1 Ep1: THREE FIELDS: Digital Embodiment; Putting your hands into a bag of rice

The THREE FIELDS podcast is an exploration of artists and cultural workers’ perspectives on food justice and digital practices across India, the UK, and South Africa. Over 2 episodes, we delve into conversations, field recordings, and stories emerging from the THREE FIELDS [https://artscatalyst.org/whats-on/three-fields/] project; an international collaboration and co-commission between Abandon Normal Devices, Arts Catalyst, Fak’ugesi, Fast Familiar, and Unbox Cultural Futures. The project brought together inherited and embodied knowledge and personal experiences around food systems and environmentally conscious creative digital practices. In this episode we hear artists Deepa Reddy, Kaajal Modi and Samukelisiwe Dube and cultural workers Dan Barnard (Fast Familiar) and Lodi Matsetela (Fak’ugesi) dig into the role of digital practices in the context of cultural work that engages with climate and food justice.  The THREE FIELDS podcast was produced by Arts Catalyst and is hosted by Anna Santomauro, Head of Programme at Arts Catalyst. This recording took place online, with sound design and production by Kitty Turner [https://www.kittyturner.tech/]. BSL interpretation and subtitles by Dionne Simpson (Diverse Digital [https://diverse-digital.co.uk/]).  The project was funded by the British Council’s International Collaboration Grants and supported using public funding by Arts Council England. To watch a British Sign Language interpreted version of this episode click here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8pBGVuOPIo].  Visit the Three Fields website here [https://3-fields.com/].   About the Contributors  Deepa Reddy  [https://www.paticheri.com/](India) is a cultural anthropologist, college professor, writer, and blogger. Her blog, Pâticheri, explores food from cultivation to consumption, combining personal narratives, recipes, cultural analysis, and research. Her academic background in anthropology explores the complex relationships between various things in the world which don't seem connected but usually are. Kaajal Modi [https://kaajalmodi.com/] (United Kingdom) is an artist-researcher who has a strong material engagement with food, land, water, and the politics of how humans relate to and through these. Their co-creation practice explores how making in collaboration with diverse communities (human, microbial, and otherwise) can be a way to recover climate practices that open up new speculations on how we might live in the future. Samukelisiwe Siphesihle Dube [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Riloawad_1unMy8HyZZCyvStIIOLuaxo/view] (South Africa) is a Black, queer multidisciplinary artist and practising tattoo artist from the province of Mpumalanga. Deeply influenced by her late grandmother, she and her mother recreated her garden as a tribute and space for healing. Her work explores nature, grief, and identity through printmaking and plant growth on handmade paper. Dan Barnard (United Kingdom) studied at Cambridge University before training and working as a theatre director. Dan now splits his time between Fast Familiar [https://fastfamiliar.com/] and researching interactive digital performance as a PhD student in the Informatics Department at the University of Sussex, where he is part of the Creative Technologies research group. Lodi Matsetela (South Africa) is at the forefront of Africa’s digital creative industries. Lodi was Programme Lead at the Digital Content Hub, Tshimologong Precinct (Wits Incubator), where she championed initiatives such as Digital Lab Africa and operated as a partner in the Afrique Créative Consortium. Her commitment to shaping the digital landscape extends to her previous role with Fak'ugesi [https://fakugesi.co.za/] African Digital Innovation Festival. An award-winning producer and filmmaker, she is also deeply engaged in the evolving discourse on content creation in the age of AI, exploring how emerging technologies can expand narrative possibilities.

Catastrophe Tales

A new broadcast made by students in Year 13 from King Edward VII School, inspired by ideas connected to Dead Cat Bounce: a performance and exhibition by Gary Zhexi Zhang and Waste Paper Opera (Klara Kofen and James Oldham). The project was a satellite element of Dead Cat Bounce and was a collaboration between Arts Catalyst, Yorkshire-based theatre and arts company Chol and experimental theatre collective Waste Paper Opera.  How do you create a world from sound, text and voices? How do you talk about catastrophe? How do you communicate it? Through this project students explored feelings connected to the environment and catastrophe and imagined new worlds, characters and realities that they brought to life through text, sound and voice.  Sessions included games, experimental script writing exercises, singing, performing, drawing, foley sound-making and recording, as well as learning about abstract scores, composition and dramaturgical structures.  Catastrophe Tales was produced through a series of workshops held at Soft Ground and King Edward VII School led by Klara Kofen, James Oldham and Carly Clarke.  Performed and created by students at King Edward School: Anika Stephens, Aoife Murphy, Daniel Macreath, Dennis Husac, Esme Lumb, Holly Charlesworth, Katie Loftus, Maisie Brook, Matilda Stiegler, May Rose-Key, Olive Miller, Tomas Roa Arenas, Violet Hetherington, William Bridge Mixed by James Oldham and mastered by Kitty Turner  Special thanks to Mr. Stephen Carley (Art Teacher) at King Edward VII School This project is part of Arts Catalyst’s ongoing engagement with young people in Sheffield and South Yorkshire, where we give space to young people to share ideas, create and play around themes of environment and social action.  About the Collaborators Chol Theatre and Arts [https://wearechol.co.uk/] are a socially conscious theatre company and registered charity based in Yorkshire since its founding in 1989. Chol work with children and young people from early years to early career across Yorkshire and the North, prioritising work in Kirklees, Barnsley and Sheffield. Their approach is entirely collaborative, working in everyday community and educational settings to co-create stories that are rooted in communities and local heritage.  Waste Paper Opera [https://wastepaperopera.net/] (Klara Kofen and James Oldham) is a collective working between sound, music, performance and film. WPO was founded in Birmingham in 2012 and is run by dramaturg, writer and researcher Klara Kofen and composer, and performer James Oldham. Their work explores ecological, musical, historical, financial and cosmic temporalities through experiments in form, dramaturgy and multimodal worldbuilding.

Readings from a selection of Fictional Gardens

“In 2020 I was commissioned to design and develop a garden for Bootle Library. How to conceptually connect this communal green space to a library? My bridge was fictional gardens in literature. I wrote to librarians across the borough asking them to share their stand-out gardens in novels, poetry and so on. I circulated this request among friends to gradually build an expanding database.  To date authors of the excerpts include Mena Kasmiri Abdullah, Isabella Allende, Italo Calvino and Raafat Majzoub. The titles of texts and page references will label a series of purposely designed planters for the library’s garden. The intention being to grow the plants referenced in a given excerpt in a specific planter. For Radio Arts Catalyst I paired friends with passages from my database of fictional gardens,  to take the listener through virtual geographies. These recordings have been complemented with different sonic inflections from Nastassja Simensky, who takes her cues from references in the specific texts.”  - Harun Morrison In 2021 - 2022 Harun Morrison worked on Mind Garden [https://artscatalyst.org/whats-on/mind-garden/], an ongoing project at Sheffield Mind in Sharrow, commissioned by Arts Catalyst. Harun worked with local people to repair, re-design and replant the garden at Sheffield Mind with combinations of herbs and flowers that function as natural medicine and notes in perfumes. Sheffield Mind [https://www.sheffieldmind.co.uk/] is a Mental Health Charity providing emotional and practical support to people in Sheffield.  Readers: Connor Butler, Isabella Carreras, Umama Hamido, Mandus Ridefelt, Noemi Gunea, Anahi Saravia Herrera, Gaia Tedone, Wilf Speller, Harun Morrison, Aziza Harmel, Angela YT Chan, Teigist Taye, Liz Howell.  Sound Production - Nastassja Simensky Harun Morrison [http://harunmorrison.net] is an artist and writer whose work often employs collaborative processes. His practice spans spatial design, text, video and sound. He is currently  an associate artist with Greenpeace UK and Designer and Researcher in Residence at V&A Dundee, Scotland. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works in 2024.  Since 2006, Harun has collaborated with Helen Walker as part of the collective practice They Are Here. Harun has recently contributed to the group exhibition Chronic Hunger, Chronic Desire in Timișoara, Romania, as part of the European Capital of Culture 2023 programme. Solo exhibitions in the last few years include, Dolphin Head Mountain at the Horniman Museum, London (2022 -23), Mark The Spark at Nieuwe Vide project space in Haarlem, Netherlands (2022) and Experiments with Everyday Objects, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, (2021). Harun continues to develop and repair a garden for Mind Sheffield, a mental health support service, as part of the Arts Catalyst research project, Emergent Ecologies, and is producing an evolving publication, Environmental Justice Questions commissioned by Mossutställningar, which he continues to circulate.

S1 Ep5: Changing Currents Episode 5: The Spaces We Care for

In this episode we consider care, community and alternative futures.  Changing Currents is a new podcast series exploring climate perspectives and possible futures featuring the voices of artists, growers, activists, local community groups, heritage workers and researchers across South Yorkshire.  In this episode you will hear campaigner and WOC Azadi Collective member Ishah Jawaid and nature guide, writer and community gardener Maymana Arefin. This conversation included exploring a ‘secret garden’ in Rotherham, foraging elderflower and making tea.  This recording took place at Ishah’s parents’ garden in Rotherham.  Sound Design by Ashley Holmes Produced by Kitty Turner Commissioned by Arts Catalyst with funding from the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority. Contributors Ishah Jawaid  - Member of WOC Azadi collective, a grassroots project rooted in Black, Indigenous and global feminisms, that is led by and for Women of Colour.  Maymana Arefin - Nature guide, writer, community gardener and founder of Fungi Futures, a space to map radical alternative futures.